CRISC IT Risk Identification Practice Question
A risk practitioner is connecting a risk scenario to business impact. The scenario involves a ransomware attack that encrypts critical financial systems, resulting in a two-week outage. Which of the following is the MOST appropriate business impact category?
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
✓
Operational disruption
Operational disruption directly affects the organization's ability to conduct business operations, such as system outages. While financial loss may result, the primary impact is operational disruption.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Regulatory penalty
Why it's wrong here
Regulatory penalty would occur if compliance was violated, but not directly from the outage.
- ✗
Reputational damage
Why it's wrong here
Reputational damage may occur, but the most immediate impact is operational.
- ✓
Operational disruption
Why this is correct
System outage directly disrupts operations.
- ✗
Financial loss
Why it's wrong here
Financial loss is a secondary impact; the primary direct impact is operational.
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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.