CRISC Risk Response and Reporting Practice Question
A Key Control Indicator (KCI) for a critical firewall rule set shows an exception rate of 12% over the past month, exceeding the acceptable threshold of 5%. The control owner is responsible for remediation. Which action should the risk practitioner recommend FIRST?
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
✓
Conduct a root cause analysis of the exceptions
The first step in addressing an elevated KCI is to investigate the root cause of the exceptions to determine if they are due to rule misconfigurations, policy violations, or other issues before taking corrective action.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Temporarily disable the firewall rules causing exceptions
Why it's wrong here
Disabling rules could expose the organization to risk without understanding the impact.
- ✗
Implement an automated rule change management process
Why it's wrong here
This may be a long-term solution but should come after understanding the root cause.
- ✗
Update the KCI threshold to 12%
Why it's wrong here
Updating the threshold would not address the underlying issue and is not a proper risk response.
- ✓
Conduct a root cause analysis of the exceptions
Why this is correct
Root cause analysis is essential to identify why exceptions are occurring and to determine appropriate remediation.
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JA
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.