ISC2 CC Security Operations Practice Question
An organization implements a security baseline using CIS Benchmarks for all new servers. After a routine scan, a server is found to have a configuration that deviates from the baseline. The deviation was introduced by a system administrator to resolve a performance issue. What is the best course of action?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is the temptation to treat a 'valid reason' as sufficient justification to either ignore the deviation or update the baseline, when the exam expects recognition that any deviation must go through formal change control.
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
✓
Document the change and submit it through the change control process
When a deviation from a security baseline is introduced for a legitimate operational reason, the proper governance response is to document the change and route it through the change control process. This preserves the integrity of the baseline while allowing a formally reviewed and approved exception, ensuring the deviation is tracked, justified, and periodically reassessed rather than silently accepted or blindly reverted.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ignore the deviation since it was done for a valid reason
Why it's wrong here
Ignoring the deviation leaves the server permanently outside the approved baseline, so the compensating performance fix is never reviewed or risk-assessed. It is tempting because the change had a valid operational motive, but the correct path is documenting and formally approving an exception, or remediating another way.
- ✗
Revert the change immediately without discussion
Why it's wrong here
Reverting blindly ignores the performance issue the administrator was solving, which may recur or cause an outage. The deviation needs review through change management to confirm whether it weakens a CIS control, then either an approved exception or a compensating control is applied. Immediate reversion without discussion is not the best action.
- ✗
Update the baseline to match the new configuration
Why it's wrong here
Baselines exist to enforce a known-good security posture; a performance workaround does not justify weakening it. Amending the benchmark to match one server's ad-hoc change removes the control for every host and hides the risk. Baseline updates belong to a formal change process, not scan remediation.
- ✓
Document the change and submit it through the change control process
Why this is correct
The deviation was a deliberate, justified performance fix, so reverting it blindly risks reintroducing the issue. Documenting the change and routing it through change control preserves the audit trail while allowing the baseline exception to be formally reviewed and approved.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Incident Response and Management
Key term
Integrity
Integrity is the assurance that data has not been altered or tampered with in an unauthorized way, preserving its accuracy and consistency from source to destination.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every CC question from scratch — 989 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or 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 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.