CRISC Risk Response and Reporting Practice Question
Which type of control is designed to stop an undesirable event from occurring?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse preventive controls with detective controls, mistakenly thinking that monitoring or alerting (detective) can stop an event, when in fact prevention requires proactive blocking mechanisms like access control lists (ACLs) or input validation.
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
✓
Preventive control
Preventive control is designed to stop an undesirable event from occurring by enforcing policies or technical barriers before the event happens. For example, a firewall rule that blocks inbound traffic on port 23 (Telnet) prevents unauthorized remote access attempts, directly reducing the likelihood of a security incident.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Corrective control
Why it's wrong here
Corrective controls act after an event has occurred, restoring systems or data, such as backups or patch rollback. Preventive controls stop the undesirable event from happening in the first place. Corrective controls are tempting because they reduce impact, but they do not prevent occurrence.
- ✓
Preventive control
Why this is correct
Preventive controls act before or during an event, blocking it from occurring through mechanisms such as access restrictions, segregation of duties or input validation. Detective controls only identify events after the fact, and corrective controls restore operations afterwards, so prevention uniquely satisfies stopping the undesirable event.
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Directive control
Why it's wrong here
Directive controls establish policy, procedures or mandated behaviour that steer staff toward compliance; they do not themselves block an action. They are tempting because security awareness training, acceptable-use policies and signage genuinely reduce risk, making them correct when the objective is influencing conduct rather than mechanically preventing an event.
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Detective control
Why it's wrong here
Detective controls identify an event after it has occurred, so they cannot stop it happening. They are tempting because logging, IDS alerts and reconciliation reports genuinely reveal intrusions or errors that preventive controls missed, making them the right choice when the requirement is timely discovery rather than blocking.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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