hardMultiple Choice
ISC2 CC Practice Question: A company's security policy requires that all…
A company's security policy requires that all incident response activities be logged and that evidence be preserved for potential legal action. During an incident, a responder mistakenly uses a personal USB drive to copy log files. Which principle of forensic evidence handling has been violated?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the distinction between chain of custody and integrity by presenting a scenario where evidence is copied to an unauthorized device, leading candidates to mistakenly choose 'Integrity' because they focus on potential data alteration rather than the lack of documented control over the evidence.
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
✓
Chain of custody
The chain of custody is a documented record that tracks the seizure, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of evidence. By using a personal USB drive to copy log files, the responder introduces an unverified and uncontrolled storage medium, breaking the documented chain and making it impossible to prove that the evidence was not tampered with or contaminated. This directly violates the requirement to preserve evidence for potential legal action.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Integrity
Why it's wrong here
Integrity concerns whether evidence remains unaltered and provably unchanged; copying logs to a personal USB drive breaks the documented chain of custody rather than proving modification. It is tempting because uncontrolled media raise tampering concerns, and would be correct if the copied data had been edited or corrupted.
- ✓
Chain of custody
Why this is correct
Copying evidence to an unlogged personal USB drive breaks the documented, unbroken record of who handled the evidence, when and how. Chain of custody demands every transfer and access be recorded; this undocumented handling makes the logs inadmissible, failing the policy's legal-preservation requirement.
- ✗
Availability
Why it's wrong here
Availability concerns whether evidence remains accessible to authorised parties, not the chain-of-custody and admissibility requirements breached by copying logs onto an uncontrolled personal device. It is tempting because the drive could be lost or damaged, and would be correct if evidence had been rendered inaccessible to investigators.
- ✗
Confidentiality
Why it's wrong here
Confidentiality concerns unauthorised disclosure of data, whereas the violation here is the unverified, undocumented copy that breaks chain of custody and evidentiary admissibility. It is tempting because a personal drive is uncontrolled, and would be correct if the logs had actually been exposed to parties lacking authorisation.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Access Control Fundamentals
Key term
Security policy
A security policy is a formal set of rules and guidelines that an organization establishes to protect its information assets and technology resources.
Key term
Evidence handling
Evidence handling is the process of properly collecting, preserving, documenting, and storing digital evidence to maintain its integrity and admissibility in legal or administrative proceedings.
About these practice questions
One of 989 original CC practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.