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CISA Practice Question: A company's security policy requires that all…
A company's security policy requires that all laptops have full-disk encryption. During an audit, 10% of laptops are found without encryption. Which of the following is the MOST effective corrective action?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates choose security awareness training (Option C) as a 'best practice' for policy compliance, but the CISA exam emphasizes that technical controls (enforcement via endpoint management) are more effective than administrative controls for ensuring consistent security configuration.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Deploy centralized endpoint management to enforce encryption
Centralized endpoint management (e.g., Microsoft Intune, SCCM, or a third-party MDM) allows administrators to enforce full-disk encryption (such as BitLocker or FileVault) via policy, automatically encrypting non-compliant laptops and preventing users from disabling encryption. This is the most effective corrective action because it addresses the root cause—lack of enforcement—rather than relying on user action or manual processes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Require users to manually enable encryption
Why it's wrong here
Manual enablement relies on users acting, so the unencrypted laptops may remain unencrypted and the audit finding recurs. It is tempting because it is user-driven and low-cost, but it would be correct only where centralised enforcement were technically impossible.
- ✗
Distribute encryption keys to users
Why it's wrong here
Distributing keys presumes encryption is already deployed, so it cannot remediate the 10% of unencrypted laptops the audit found. Key distribution belongs to an existing full-disk encryption rollout, where users need recovery keys to unlock their own encrypted drives.
- ✗
Conduct security awareness training on encryption
Why it's wrong here
Training addresses user behaviour but leaves the ten per cent of laptops still unencrypted, so the policy gap persists. Awareness is tempting because it targets the users involved, yet it would be correct where the cause were ignorance rather than missing enforcement.
- ✓
Deploy centralized endpoint management to enforce encryption
Why this is correct
Centralised endpoint management enforces encryption through policy rather than relying on manual compliance, directly closing the 10% gap and preventing recurrence. This addresses the root cause—lack of enforcement—making it the most effective corrective action for the policy violation.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISACA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CISA exam.