easyMultiple Choice
CRISC Practice Question: Is performing a risk assessment for its new…
An organization is performing a risk assessment for its new customer relationship management (CRM) system. Which of the following is the BEST way to identify threats to the CRM?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISACA often tests the distinction between threat identification (proactive, design-focused) and vulnerability assessment (reactive, implementation-focused), leading candidates to choose a technical test like a penetration test over a collaborative workshop.
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
✓
Conduct a threat modeling workshop with the development team.
Threat modeling is a proactive, structured approach that identifies potential threats by analyzing the CRM's design, data flows, and trust boundaries. Unlike vulnerability scanning or penetration testing, which find existing weaknesses, threat modeling uncovers threats early in the lifecycle, such as SQL injection via customer input fields or privilege escalation in role-based access controls. This aligns with the CRISC focus on risk identification before controls are implemented.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Perform a vulnerability scan on the CRM server.
Why it's wrong here
A vulnerability scan enumerates technical weaknesses on the server, which are vulnerabilities rather than threats, and misses human, supplier and environmental sources. It suits ongoing technical control monitoring; identifying threats to a new CRM requires threat modelling and threat intelligence.
- ✓
Conduct a threat modeling workshop with the development team.
Why this is correct
Threat modelling workshops systematically enumerate threat sources and attack paths against the CRM's architecture, data flows and trust boundaries. This satisfies the stem's need to identify threats, whereas vulnerability scanning or control testing only detects existing weaknesses after threats are already known.
- ✗
Run a penetration test against the CRM application.
Why it's wrong here
A penetration test validates exploitability of known weaknesses in a deployed system, so it confirms rather than identifies the threat landscape. It suits assurance testing after controls exist; threat identification during risk assessment draws on threat modelling and internal and external threat intelligence.
- ✗
Review the business impact analysis for the CRM.
Why it's wrong here
A business impact analysis identifies critical processes and recovery requirements, not threat sources; it is tempting because it feeds risk assessment, but it supplies impact data rather than enumerating threats such as threat actors, vulnerabilities or attack vectors against the CRM.
Quick reference
Access Control Model Comparison
| Model | Acronym | Who Controls Access? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discretionary Access Control | DAC | Resource owner | Small teams, file shares |
| Mandatory Access Control | MAC | System / security labels | Classified govt / military |
| Role-Based Access Control | RBAC | Administrator (via roles) | Enterprise environments |
| Attribute-Based Access Control | ABAC | Policy engine (user + resource attributes) | Fine-grained, dynamic policies |
| Rule-Based Access Control | RuBAC | System rules / ACLs | Firewall rules, network ACLs |
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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.