hardMultiple Choice
CISM Practice Question: During a merger, the acquiring company's board…
During a merger, the acquiring company's board insists on integrating the target company's information security governance into its own within 90 days. However, the target has a significantly different risk culture and lacks documented policies. What is the most critical governance risk in this scenario?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse operational or cultural challenges (like training capacity or employee resistance) with governance-level risks, but the CISM exam emphasizes that governance is about the board's duty to ensure risk visibility and informed decision-making, not execution details.
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
✓
The acquiring company may inadvertently accept unknown high-risk exposures.
The most critical governance risk is that the acquiring company may inadvertently inherit unknown high-risk exposures from the target company. Without documented policies and a compatible risk culture, the target's security posture is opaque, meaning the acquirer cannot assess or control inherited vulnerabilities, compliance gaps, or threat vectors. This violates the core governance principle of risk visibility and could lead to material breaches or regulatory penalties post-merger.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The acquiring company's security team may lack the capacity to train the target's staff.
Why it's wrong here
Training-capacity shortfalls are a resourcing issue, not the governance risk; undocumented policies mean the acquirer cannot verify whether the target's controls meet its risk appetite. It tempts because training staff is a plausible merger task, and it would be correct if the target's governance were documented and only awareness needed building.
- ✗
The target's employees may resist the new security culture.
Why it's wrong here
Employee resistance is a change-management and cultural adoption concern, not the governance risk itself; the absence of documented policies means the acquirer cannot enforce or evidence control. It tempts because culture clashes are visible during mergers, and it would be correct if the target already had mature, documented governance that staff simply disliked.
- ✓
The acquiring company may inadvertently accept unknown high-risk exposures.
Why this is correct
Undocumented policies and a divergent risk culture mean the acquirer cannot reliably assess what exposures it is inheriting. Rapid integration without due diligence effectively transfers unknown high-risk exposures onto the acquiring company's balance sheet and governance accountability.
- ✗
There will be insufficient time to develop new security policies for the combined entity.
Why it's wrong here
Insufficient time to draft policies describes a scheduling constraint, whereas the critical governance risk is that undocumented controls cannot be assessed, mapped or integrated, leaving unknown exposure. It tempts because the 90-day deadline dominates the scenario, and it would be correct if the target's existing policies merely needed updating rather than creating.
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One of 924 original CISM practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISM 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 CISM exam.