The answer is risk reduction by implementing redundant systems. This is the most appropriate strategy because redundant systems directly address the extremely high downtime costs by eliminating single points of failure, thereby reducing both the likelihood and the operational impact of a system outage. On the Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control CRISC exam, this scenario tests your ability to distinguish risk reduction from other responses like risk transfer or avoidance; a common trap is choosing insurance, but insurance only provides financial compensation after the loss and does not prevent the costly downtime itself. Remember the memory tip: when downtime costs are high, you need to keep the system running, not just pay for the break.
CRISC Risk Response and Mitigation Practice Question
This CRISC practice question tests your understanding of risk response and mitigation. Compare every option against the stated constraints before choosing — the best answer satisfies all requirements, not just the most obvious one. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A multinational organization is implementing a risk mitigation strategy for a critical system. The business impact analysis shows that downtime costs are extremely high. Which risk response strategy is MOST appropriate for this scenario?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Risk reduction by implementing redundant systems
Given the extremely high downtime costs, the most appropriate risk response is risk reduction through implementing redundant systems. This directly addresses the critical system's availability requirement by eliminating single points of failure, thereby reducing both the likelihood and impact of downtime. Decommissioning the system (avoidance) would eliminate the business function entirely, which is typically not viable for a critical system, while insurance (transfer) only provides financial compensation after the loss, not preventing the operational impact of downtime.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Risk avoidance by decommissioning the system
Why it's wrong here
Avoidance is too extreme; the system is critical.
✗
Risk transfer through cyber insurance
Why it's wrong here
Insurance covers financial loss but not operational downtime.
✓
Risk reduction by implementing redundant systems
Why this is correct
Redundancy reduces both likelihood and impact of downtime.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Risk acceptance because mitigation is too costly
Why it's wrong here
Acceptance is not appropriate due to high downtime costs.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse risk transfer (insurance) as a primary solution for high downtime costs, overlooking that insurance does not prevent the operational impact and lost revenue during the outage itself, which is the core concern in this scenario.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Implementing redundant systems often involves active-passive or active-active clustering configurations, such as using a load balancer with health checks (e.g., via TCP or HTTP probes) to automatically failover traffic to a standby node. In a real-world scenario, a financial trading platform might deploy a hot standby database with synchronous replication (e.g., using Oracle Data Guard with maximum protection mode) to achieve a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of zero and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of seconds, directly mitigating the high cost of downtime.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A small business has 20 workstations on the 192.168.1.0/24 network and one public IP from its ISP. The router uses PAT (NAT overload) so all 20 devices share one public address using different source ports. NAT questions test whether you understand the four address terms and which direction each translation applies.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Risk Response and Mitigation — This question tests Risk Response and Mitigation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Risk reduction by implementing redundant systems — Given the extremely high downtime costs, the most appropriate risk response is risk reduction through implementing redundant systems. This directly addresses the critical system's availability requirement by eliminating single points of failure, thereby reducing both the likelihood and impact of downtime. Decommissioning the system (avoidance) would eliminate the business function entirely, which is typically not viable for a critical system, while insurance (transfer) only provides financial compensation after the loss, not preventing the operational impact of downtime.
What should I do if I get this CRISC question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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