- A
Accept the risk because the cloud provider's SLA covers 99.9% uptime.
Why wrong: The SLA does not address the recovery capability gap, and the impact of downtime is substantial.
- B
Continue with informal acceptance since the risk owner has already accepted it.
Why wrong: Informal acceptance lacks proper documentation and oversight, which is not appropriate for high-impact risks.
- C
Reduce the RTO to 2 hours to align with industry best practices.
Why wrong: Reducing the RTO without improving actual recovery capability would widen the gap and increase risk.
- D
Document the risk gap (actual recovery of 6 hours vs. RTO of 4 hours) and present it to the risk committee for formal risk acceptance or remediation.
Formal documentation and escalation ensure the risk is properly managed and decisions are recorded.
Quick Answer
The correct answer is to document the risk gap and present it to the risk committee for formal acceptance or remediation. This is correct because the actual recovery capability of 6 hours exceeds the 4-hour RTO, creating a $1 million exposure per incident, and informal acceptance by a risk owner lacks the governance rigor required for high-value financial transactions. On the CRISC exam, this scenario tests your understanding of risk gap documentation and escalation—specifically that risk acceptance must be formally documented and approved by the appropriate authority, not merely acknowledged by a risk owner. A common trap is choosing to accept the informal acceptance or to immediately remediate without committee input; the correct path is to escalate the documented gap for formal decision-making. Remember the CRISC mantra: “Informal is not formal—document and escalate to the committee.”
CRISC IT Risk Assessment Practice Question
This CRISC practice question tests your understanding of it risk assessment. Compare every option against the stated constraints before choosing — the best answer satisfies all requirements, not just the most obvious one. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
You are the IT risk manager for a financial institution that processes high-value transactions. The organization uses a cloud-based core banking system and on-premises servers for backup. During a recent risk assessment, you identified that the cloud provider's service-level agreement (SLA) guarantees 99.9% uptime, but the organization's business impact analysis (BIA) indicates that every hour of downtime costs $500,000. The current recovery time objective (RTO) for the core banking system is 4 hours, but the actual recovery capability is 6 hours due to manual steps in failover. The risk owner has accepted this risk informally. You are asked to recommend a course of action to the risk committee. Which of the following is the most appropriate recommendation?
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
Document the risk gap (actual recovery of 6 hours vs. RTO of 4 hours) and present it to the risk committee for formal risk acceptance or remediation.
The correct answer is D because the organization has a critical risk gap: the actual recovery capability (6 hours) exceeds the stated RTO (4 hours), meaning the business would incur $1M in losses (2 hours × $500K) before recovery completes. The risk owner's informal acceptance is insufficient for a financial institution processing high-value transactions; formal documentation and risk committee approval are required for governance and regulatory compliance. Presenting the gap enables informed decision-making on whether to accept the risk formally or invest in remediation (e.g., automating failover to meet the 4-hour RTO).
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Accept the risk because the cloud provider's SLA covers 99.9% uptime.
Why it's wrong here
The SLA does not address the recovery capability gap, and the impact of downtime is substantial.
- ✗
Continue with informal acceptance since the risk owner has already accepted it.
Why it's wrong here
Informal acceptance lacks proper documentation and oversight, which is not appropriate for high-impact risks.
- ✗
Reduce the RTO to 2 hours to align with industry best practices.
Why it's wrong here
Reducing the RTO without improving actual recovery capability would widen the gap and increase risk.
- ✓
Document the risk gap (actual recovery of 6 hours vs. RTO of 4 hours) and present it to the risk committee for formal risk acceptance or remediation.
Why this is correct
Formal documentation and escalation ensure the risk is properly managed and decisions are recorded.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse the cloud provider's SLA with the organization's RTO/RTA gap, or assume informal risk acceptance is sufficient, when CRISC emphasizes formal documentation and committee-level decision-making for risks exceeding thresholds.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The RTO defines the maximum acceptable downtime for a business process, while actual recovery capability is measured through recovery time actual (RTA). In this scenario, the 2-hour gap between RTO (4 hours) and RTA (6 hours) represents a risk exposure of $1M per incident. The cloud SLA (99.9%) is irrelevant to this gap because it measures provider uptime, not the organization's failover process, which involves manual steps like DNS propagation, database consistency checks, and application startup sequences that introduce latency. Formal risk acceptance requires documented acknowledgment from the risk committee, including a cost-benefit analysis of remediation vs. acceptance, to satisfy audit and compliance requirements.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A practitioner preparing for the CRISC exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CRISC question test?
IT Risk Assessment — This question tests IT Risk Assessment — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Document the risk gap (actual recovery of 6 hours vs. RTO of 4 hours) and present it to the risk committee for formal risk acceptance or remediation. — The correct answer is D because the organization has a critical risk gap: the actual recovery capability (6 hours) exceeds the stated RTO (4 hours), meaning the business would incur $1M in losses (2 hours × $500K) before recovery completes. The risk owner's informal acceptance is insufficient for a financial institution processing high-value transactions; formal documentation and risk committee approval are required for governance and regulatory compliance. Presenting the gap enables informed decision-making on whether to accept the risk formally or invest in remediation (e.g., automating failover to meet the 4-hour RTO).
What should I do if I get this CRISC question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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