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CRISC Practice Question: During a risk assessment, a financial institution…
During a risk assessment, a financial institution identifies that its online banking application uses an outdated encryption protocol. The likelihood of exploitation is high, and the impact is moderate. What should the risk owner do FIRST?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often jump to selecting a risk treatment option (like implementing a control or transferring risk) without recognizing that the risk owner must first validate the risk rating to ensure the assessment is accurate and actionable.
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
✓
Validate the risk rating with additional data
The risk owner's first responsibility is to ensure the risk assessment is accurate before deciding on a response. Validating the risk rating with additional data (option B) confirms that the high likelihood and moderate impact are correctly assessed, which is a prerequisite for selecting an appropriate treatment. Jumping to implement controls, transfer, or accept the risk without validation could lead to misallocation of resources or inadequate mitigation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Implement a compensating control to mitigate the risk
Why it's wrong here
Should validate first.
- ✓
Validate the risk rating with additional data
Why this is correct
Validation ensures correct prioritization.
- ✗
Transfer the risk via cyber insurance
Why it's wrong here
Transfer is a treatment, not first step.
- ✗
Accept the risk as low priority
Why it's wrong here
Acceptance is a decision after validation.
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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.