ISC2 CC Security Principles Practice Question
After a security breach, the organization conducts a background check on a new vendor before signing a contract. This practice is known 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
✓
Due diligence
Due diligence involves investigating and verifying before acting.
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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Risk acceptance
Why it's wrong here
Accepting the residual risk means acknowledging it without acting, so no check would occur. It is tempting because acceptance is a valid response once risk falls below tolerance, but here the organisation actively investigates the vendor, which is a control, not acceptance.
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Risk avoidance
Why it's wrong here
Avoidance means eliminating the activity entirely, such as refusing to engage the vendor. Running a background check still proceeds with the contract, so the risk is reduced rather than avoided. Avoidance would be correct if the organisation declined the vendor relationship outright.
- ✓
Due diligence
Why this is correct
Due diligence is the investigation and verification of a vendor's security posture, finances and background before contractual commitment. Performing this check after a breach satisfies the stem's requirement to assess risk prior to signing, distinguishing it from due care, which is ongoing maintenance of that obligation.
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Due care
Why it's wrong here
Due care is the ongoing diligence of protecting assets, not the specific pre-contract screening step. The check is due diligence: investigating a third party before commitment. Due care would describe maintaining controls afterwards, such as periodic reviews of the vendor relationship.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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
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.