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CRISC Practice Question: During a risk assessment, a risk practitioner…
During a risk assessment, a risk practitioner identifies that a legacy application uses a deprecated encryption protocol. The application is critical for business operations and cannot be patched. Which of the following is the BEST approach to assess the risk?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse risk assessment with risk treatment, mistakenly selecting Option A (replacement) or Option D (escalation) as the 'best approach' when the question specifically asks for the assessment step, not the remediation step.
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
✓
Analyze the threat landscape and existing compensating controls to determine residual risk
The best approach to assess risk for a legacy application using a deprecated encryption protocol (e.g., SSL 3.0 or TLS 1.0) is to analyze the threat landscape and existing compensating controls. This allows the risk practitioner to determine the residual risk by considering factors such as whether the application is only accessible on an isolated network segment, whether network-level encryption (e.g., IPsec or a VPN tunnel) is in place, and whether the protocol is vulnerable to specific attacks like POODLE or BEAST. Simply assigning a high inherent risk score without further analysis (Option C) ignores compensating controls, while immediate escalation (Option D) or replacement (Option A) are risk treatment decisions, not risk assessment activities.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Replace the application with a modern alternative
Why it's wrong here
Not part of risk assessment; it's a risk treatment decision after assessment.
- ✓
Analyze the threat landscape and existing compensating controls to determine residual risk
Why this is correct
Proper assessment involves analyzing threats and compensating controls to estimate residual risk.
- ✗
Assign a high inherent risk score without further analysis
Why it's wrong here
Inherent risk should be assessed based on likelihood and impact, but residual risk requires control evaluation.
- ✗
Immediately escalate to senior management for an exception
Why it's wrong here
Escalation should follow documented risk acceptance process after assessment.
Quick reference
VPN Protocol Comparison
| Protocol | Port | Encryption | Authentication | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IKEv2 / IPsec | UDP 500 / 4500 | AES-256 | Certificates / PSK | Site-to-site & remote access |
| SSL / TLS VPN | TCP 443 | TLS 1.3 | Certificates / MFA | Clientless remote access |
| L2TP / IPsec | UDP 1701 | AES (IPsec) | PSK / Certificates | Legacy remote access |
| WireGuard | UDP 51820 | ChaCha20 | Public keys | Modern high-performance VPN |
| PPTP | TCP 1723 | MPPE (weak) | MS-CHAPv2 | Legacy — avoid in production |
PPTP is considered insecure. IKEv2/IPsec and SSL VPN are the current recommended options.
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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.