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CRISC Practice Question: A large e-commerce company is assessing the risk…
A large e-commerce company is assessing the risk of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on its web applications. The company has experienced three DDoS attacks in the past year, each causing significant downtime and revenue loss. The current mitigation strategy relies on an on-premise appliance that can handle up to 10 Gbps of attack traffic. Recent industry reports indicate that DDoS attacks are growing in volume and sophistication, with some exceeding 100 Gbps. The company's risk appetite for availability is moderate. The security team has proposed migrating to a cloud-based DDoS protection service that scales to 200 Gbps, but it will increase annual operational costs by 40%. The business is concerned about the cost increase. Which of the following is the BEST risk treatment decision?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to choose Option D (upgrading to 50 Gbps) because it appears to be a cost-effective risk reduction, but they overlook that it still leaves the organization exposed to attacks exceeding 50 Gbps, which is a common scenario given the trend toward 100+ Gbps attacks, and fails to meet the moderate risk appetite for availability.
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
✓
Reduce the risk by implementing the cloud-based DDoS protection service, accepting the cost increase.
The current on-premise appliance (10 Gbps capacity) is insufficient against modern DDoS attacks that can exceed 100 Gbps, as noted in industry reports. Migrating to a cloud-based DDoS protection service that scales to 200 Gbps directly reduces the risk to a level aligned with the company's moderate risk appetite for availability, despite the 40% cost increase. The business concern about cost is secondary to the necessity of mitigating a risk that could cause catastrophic revenue loss, and the cloud service provides elastic scalability that an on-premise upgrade cannot match.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Transfer the risk by purchasing business interruption insurance that covers revenue loss during outages.
Why it's wrong here
Insurance does not prevent reputational damage.
- ✗
Accept the risk because the company has survived previous attacks and the cost of mitigation is high.
Why it's wrong here
Acceptance ignores increasing threat landscape.
- ✓
Reduce the risk by implementing the cloud-based DDoS protection service, accepting the cost increase.
Why this is correct
Scalable solution matches risk appetite.
- ✗
Reduce the risk by upgrading the on-premise appliance to handle up to 50 Gbps, which is within budget.
Why it's wrong here
50 Gbps may still be insufficient for large attacks.
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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.