hardMultiple Choice
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
Residual risk reflects risk remaining after controls; with no control in place, nothing reduces the critical inherent risk, so it cannot drop to medium. Medium would apply only where existing controls partially mitigate a critical or high inherent exposure.
- ✓
Critical
Why this is correct
Residual risk equals inherent risk when no control exists, because nothing reduces the likelihood or impact. With inherent risk rated critical, the residual risk remains critical, satisfying the stem's condition that no control is currently in place.
- ✗
High
Why it's wrong here
With no control in place, residual risk equals inherent risk, so the rating must remain critical rather than drop to high. High would be tempting where a control exists but only partially mitigates the risk, reducing exposure from critical to high. Here nothing reduces it, so any downgrade misstates the actual exposure.
- ✗
Low
Why it's wrong here
Residual risk cannot fall below inherent risk without controls; with none in place, the critical rating stands unchanged. Low would be correct only where implemented controls had demonstrably reduced a critical inherent risk to that level.
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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.