CRISC IT Risk Identification Practice Question
A risk practitioner is developing risk scenarios for a new cloud service. Which THREE of the following elements should be included in a complete risk scenario?
⚠ Common exam trap
CRISC often tests the boundary between risk identification and risk response — the trap is selecting 'response plan' or 'detection mechanism' because they sound risk-related, when a scenario is strictly about the threat, actor, and consequence.
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
✓
Threat event
A complete risk scenario must describe the threat event (A), i.e., the specific incident or action that could occur (such as data breach, service outage, or misconfiguration), because it defines what risk is being assessed. It must also identify the threat actor (B), the party or source capable of causing the event (e.g., malicious insider, external attacker, or accidental user), since likelihood and motivation depend on who or what triggers it. The consequence (C) is equally essential, as it captures the resulting business impact or harm (e.g., financial loss, regulatory penalty, reputational damage) that the scenario is meant to evaluate. Response plan (D) and detection mechanism (E) are controls or mitigation elements, not core components of the risk scenario itself; they belong to risk treatment and monitoring rather than scenario definition.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Threat event
Why this is correct
A complete risk scenario must identify what could happen; the threat event supplies that initiating occurrence, such as a data breach or service compromise. Without it, the scenario lacks the causal trigger needed to link actor, asset and consequence.
- ✓
Threat actor
Why this is correct
A threat actor identifies who could exploit the vulnerability, satisfying the scenario's need to attribute likelihood to a realistic source. Risk scenarios require this causal agent alongside the asset and the event itself; without naming the actor, the practitioner cannot assess motivation, capability or the probability of the threat materialising against the cloud service.
- ✓
Consequence
Why this is correct
Consequence describes the resulting business impact if the threat event occurs, expressed as financial loss, regulatory penalty or reputational damage. It anchors the scenario to measurable outcomes, satisfying the requirement for a complete risk scenario.
- ✗
Response plan
Why it's wrong here
A response plan is a risk treatment output produced after scenarios are analysed, not a constituent element of the scenario description. It is tempting because every cloud risk eventually needs a documented response, and that is precisely the later stage where a response plan is the correct artefact.
- ✗
Detection mechanism
Why it's wrong here
Detection mechanisms belong to the monitoring and response environment, not to the scenario itself, which pairs a threat with an asset, an event, and its impact. It is tempting because detection genuinely matters when designing controls, but that occurs after scenarios are built, during risk response planning.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This CRISC question is part of Courseiva's 1,062-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official ISACA exam blueprint
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.