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CRISC Practice Question: During a risk assessment of a legacy system, the…
During a risk assessment of a legacy system, the assessor finds that no control is currently in place. The inherent risk level is 'critical'. The residual risk will be:
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often assume residual risk is always lower than inherent risk, forgetting that without any controls, residual risk equals inherent risk by definition.
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
Residual risk is the level of risk remaining after controls are applied. Since the scenario explicitly states that no control is currently in place, the residual risk remains identical to the inherent risk level, which is 'critical'. Therefore, the residual risk is also critical.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Medium
Why it's wrong here
Medium would require some controls.
- ✓
Critical
Why this is correct
No controls mean residual risk remains critical.
- ✗
High
Why it's wrong here
Inherent risk is critical, not high.
- ✗
Low
Why it's wrong here
Low would require strong controls.
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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.