ISC2 CC Security Principles Practice Question
A company is evaluating a new cloud service provider and performs a thorough investigation of the provider's security practices and compliance with industry standards. This activity is best described as:
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
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Due diligence
Due diligence involves investigating and assessing risks before making decisions, such as vendor selection.
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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Due diligence
Why this is correct
Due diligence is the systematic investigation a company performs before engaging a provider, covering security controls, compliance certifications and risk posture. It directly satisfies the stem's requirement to thoroughly investigate the provider's practices and standards conformance, distinguishing it from ongoing monitoring or contractual assurance obtained after selection.
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Risk transfer
Why it's wrong here
Risk transfer shifts residual financial impact to another party, typically through insurance or contractual indemnities, without reducing the likelihood of an incident. Investigation is tempting here because vendor assessment feels like offloading risk, yet it actually gathers evidence to inform the organisation's own risk treatment decisions.
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Risk avoidance
Why it's wrong here
Risk avoidance means eliminating the activity that creates risk, not assessing a provider's controls. Investigation of security practices and compliance is due diligence, part of risk assessment. Avoidance would be tempting if the company decided not to use cloud services at all because of identified exposure.
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Due care
Why it's wrong here
Due care is the ongoing standard of reasonable protective behaviour, such as implementing controls and monitoring; the stem describes due diligence, the pre-contract investigation of a provider's practices. Due care is tempting because both terms concern responsibility, but due diligence precedes selection while due care governs continuing operation.
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Related to this question
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Security Governance and Compliance
Key term
Compliance
Compliance is the process of ensuring that an organization follows laws, regulations, standards, and internal policies that apply to its operations and data handling.
Key term
Due diligence
Due diligence is the process of systematically reviewing and verifying information, policies, and procedures to identify and manage risks before making a decision or taking an action in an IT or security context.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CC practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CC exam.