CRISC Risk Response and Reporting Practice Question
Which of the following is an example of a leading Key Risk Indicator (KRI) for IT risk?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse leading indicators (which predict risk) with lagging indicators (which measure past events), leading candidates to pick options like the number of security incidents or audit findings resolved, which are reactive rather than predictive.
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
✓
Percentage of systems with missing critical patches
A leading Key Risk Indicator (KRI) predicts future risk events by measuring conditions that precede incidents. Missing critical patches on systems directly indicate a higher likelihood of exploitation, making it a leading indicator. In contrast, lagging KRIs like incident counts or costs measure outcomes after the fact.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Percentage of systems with missing critical patches
Why this is correct
This is a leading indicator of potential future exploits.
- ✗
Number of audit findings resolved
Why it's wrong here
This is a lagging indicator of past remediation.
- ✗
Number of security incidents this quarter
Why it's wrong here
This is a lagging indicator, as it reports past incidents.
- ✗
Total cost of security incidents
Why it's wrong here
This is a lagging indicator.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every CRISC question from scratch — 983 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.