CCSP Legal, Risk, and Compliance Practice Question
A company is migrating to a public cloud and must ensure compliance with PCI DSS. Which responsibility does the cloud customer retain under the shared responsibility model?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that the cloud provider's PCI DSS compliance covers the customer's own configurations; the customer must still secure its own environment.
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
✓
Configuring security groups and access controls for its workloads
In the shared responsibility model, the cloud customer is responsible for security 'in' the cloud, which includes configuring security groups, identity and access management, and application-level controls. The provider is responsible for security 'of' the cloud, such as physical security, hypervisor patching, and network infrastructure. For PCI DSS, the customer must ensure its configurations meet the standard's requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Patching the hypervisor and underlying host operating systems
Why it's wrong here
Patching the hypervisor and host OS is typically the responsibility of the cloud provider in IaaS and PaaS models. The customer does not have access to the physical hosts or hypervisor. Therefore, this is not a customer responsibility under the shared responsibility model.
- ✓
Configuring security groups and access controls for its workloads
Why this is correct
Under the shared responsibility model, the cloud customer is always responsible for securing its own data, applications, and configurations, including security groups and access controls. The provider secures the infrastructure, but the customer must manage logical access to its instances and data. This is a fundamental tenet of cloud security and PCI DSS compliance.
- ✗
Managing physical security of the data center
Why it's wrong here
Physical security of data centers is solely the responsibility of the cloud provider. Customers have no control over or access to these facilities. Thus, it is not a customer responsibility, and PCI DSS compliance for physical security is inherited from the provider.
- ✗
Ensuring the cloud provider's network is segmented from other tenants
Why it's wrong here
Network segmentation at the infrastructure level is managed by the provider. While customers may implement segmentation within their virtual private cloud, the provider is responsible for isolating tenants at the physical and hypervisor layers. Therefore, this is not a customer responsibility.
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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.