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CRISC Practice Question: Evaluating control effectiveness for a critical…
A company is evaluating control effectiveness for a critical system. The control fails 10% of the time when tested. The inherent risk level is 'high'. What is the effect on residual risk?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates mistakenly think a control that works 90% of the time is effective enough to reduce residual risk, but for a high inherent risk, even a 10% failure rate leaves the residual risk high because the control is not sufficiently reliable.
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
✓
Residual risk is high
Residual risk is the risk remaining after controls are applied. With a control that fails 10% of the time and an inherent risk level of 'high', the residual risk remains high because the control is not sufficiently effective to reduce the risk to a lower level. In risk assessment, a control with a 10% failure rate is considered ineffective for a high inherent risk, leaving the residual risk unchanged at high.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Residual risk is unchanged
Why it's wrong here
A control, even with failures, changes residual risk.
- ✓
Residual risk is high
Why this is correct
Control failure rate of 10% does not sufficiently reduce inherent risk.
- ✗
Residual risk is low
Why it's wrong here
Low residual risk requires highly effective controls.
- ✗
Residual risk is medium
Why it's wrong here
A more effective control is needed to achieve medium residual risk.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CRISC 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 CRISC exam.