CRISC Risk Response and Reporting Practice Question
A vendor risk manager is tiering vendors based on the criticality of services and data access. A vendor that processes sensitive customer data for a core business application should be classified as which tier?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'High' with 'Critical' because both imply significant risk, but CRISC defines Critical as the highest tier reserved for vendors whose failure would cause catastrophic business impact, often involving sensitive data and core processes simultaneously.
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
✓
Critical
A vendor processing sensitive customer data for a core business application poses the highest potential impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This aligns with the definition of a Critical tier, where failure or breach would cause severe business disruption, regulatory penalties, and reputational damage. The classification is driven by the combination of sensitive data access and the application's essential role in business operations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Critical
Why this is correct
Processing sensitive customer data for a core business application combines high data sensitivity with direct operational dependency, the defining criteria for the critical tier. Lower tiers cover vendors with limited data access or non-core services, so this classification satisfies the stem's tiering requirement.
- ✗
Low
Why it's wrong here
Low tiering covers vendors with no sensitive data access and minimal operational dependency, such as suppliers of commodity goods. Sensitive customer data plus a core business application creates significant breach and availability risk, so low classification would leave the vendor subject to inadequate oversight.
- ✗
Medium
Why it's wrong here
Medium tiering applies to vendors with limited data access or supporting roles, where a breach causes contained disruption. Processing sensitive customer data for a core application meets the high-tier criteria, so classifying it as medium understates the impact and would weaken the required due diligence and monitoring.
- ✗
High
Why it's wrong here
High is the correct tier here, so this option fails the question. High tiering is reserved for vendors whose failure or breach would cause severe business disruption or regulatory exposure, which is precisely the situation described.
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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.