ISC2 CC Security Principles Practice Question
After a data breach, an organization discovers that an attacker exploited a known vulnerability in an outdated web server. The organization had previously identified the vulnerability but decided not to patch it due to potential downtime. Which risk management strategy did the organization employ?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse risk acceptance with risk mitigation, because candidates see that the organization 'identified' the vulnerability and assume any awareness implies action; the key is that no action was taken, which is acceptance.
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
✓
Risk acceptance
Risk acceptance is the strategy of acknowledging a risk and choosing to take no action to prevent it, often because the cost of mitigation outweighs the potential impact. Here, the organization identified the vulnerability but consciously decided not to patch it due to downtime concerns, which is the textbook definition of accepting the risk. The breach that followed is the realized consequence of that accepted risk.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Risk transfer
Why it's wrong here
Risk transfer shifts financial liability to a third party via insurance or outsourcing, but the organisation’s decision to accept the operational downtime risk by not patching is an active retention of the vulnerability’s potential impact, not a contractual transfer of that risk. It is tempting because risk transfer is commonly used for high-cost incidents, such as purchasing cyber insurance to cover breach remediation expenses, which would be correct if the organisation had outsourced server management to a vendor under a liability agreement.
- ✓
Risk acceptance
Why this is correct
Risk acceptance means acknowledging a risk and choosing to bear the potential loss rather than mitigate it. The organisation identified the vulnerability but declined to patch it because of downtime concerns, deliberately retaining the exposure, which matches acceptance rather than avoidance, transference or mitigation.
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Risk avoidance
Why it's wrong here
Avoidance means eliminating the activity or asset that carries the risk entirely, such as decommissioning the web server. Here the organisation kept running the vulnerable server and simply accepted the exposure, which is risk acceptance, not avoidance.
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Risk mitigation
Why it's wrong here
Mitigation means applying controls to reduce likelihood or impact, such as patching or compensating controls. The organisation explicitly declined to patch, leaving the vulnerability exploitable, so no mitigation occurred; this option would fit had they deployed a fix or workaround.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Incident Response and Management
Key term
Organization
An Organization is a top-level container in Google Cloud that represents your company or entities and serves as the root node for all your cloud resources, policies, and access control.
Key term
Vulnerability
A vulnerability is a weakness in a system, network, or software that could be exploited by a threat to cause harm or unauthorized access.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official ISC2 exam blueprint
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.