ISC Identity And Access Management Architecture Practice Question
You are securing a microservices architecture using mTLS. Which party is responsible for issuing the certificates that identify each service?
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
✓
Internal Certificate Authority (CA)
A Private Certificate Authority (CA) or a Service Mesh (like Istio) acting as a CA is responsible for issuing and rotating certificates for service-to-service authentication.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The API Gateway
Why it's wrong here
The gateway validates incoming requests but is not the issuance authority for all internal service certificates.
- ✗
The Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
The load balancer may terminate TLS, but it is not the CA for internal services.
- ✗
The Identity Provider (IdP)
Why it's wrong here
IdPs manage user identity, not necessarily service identities for mTLS.
- ✓
Internal Certificate Authority (CA)
Why this is correct
A PKI infrastructure is required to manage internal service identities.
About these practice questions
This ISC question is part of Courseiva's 208-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official (ISC)² exam blueprint
This ISC practice question is part of Courseiva's free (ISC)² 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 ISC exam.