CCSP Legal, Risk, and Compliance Practice Question
A cloud customer is concerned about the right to erasure under GDPR because the cloud provider replicates data across multiple regions and keeps backups. What technical challenge does this create for complying with a erasure request?
⚠ Common exam trap
CCSP often tests the technical limitations of erasure in distributed cloud systems, and candidates may incorrectly assume that deletion is instantaneous or that anonymization is always an acceptable substitute, missing the nuance of backup and replication challenges.
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
✓
The cloud provider may not be able to delete data from all replicas and backups within the required time frame.
The right to erasure (Article 17) requires controllers to delete personal data without undue delay. However, in cloud environments, data is often replicated across multiple regions for availability and durability, and backups may be retained for disaster recovery or legal compliance. Ensuring deletion from all replicas and backups within the required timeframe is technically challenging because backups are typically immutable and may not be immediately overwritten.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The data must be anonymized instead of deleted.
Why it's wrong here
Anonymisation is a separate compliance route, not a technical barrier to erasure; if data is truly anonymised, GDPR no longer applies. The actual challenge is propagating deletion through regional replicas and backup generations, where immutable snapshots cannot be edited in place and must instead expire or be rebuilt.
- ✗
The customer must notify all other users who may have accessed the data.
Why it's wrong here
Notifying other users is an organisational step, not the technical obstacle posed by replication. The real difficulty is ensuring deletion reaches every regional replica and backup copy, because immutable or versioned backups cannot be selectively modified and must age out before the data is genuinely gone.
- ✓
The cloud provider may not be able to delete data from all replicas and backups within the required time frame.
Why this is correct
Replication across regions and retained backups mean erasure cannot propagate instantly; the provider must locate and purge every copy, including immutable or archived backups, within GDPR's one-month response window, which is the technical obstacle the stem describes.
- ✗
The cloud provider must retain the data for audit purposes.
Why it's wrong here
Retention for audit is a lawful-basis consideration, not a technical obstacle: GDPR permits retention where a legal obligation exists. The genuine challenge is locating and purging every replica and backup copy across regions, since immutable or versioned backups cannot be selectively rewritten without breaking restore integrity.
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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 CCSP 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 CCSP exam.