This CCSP practice question tests your understanding of cloud security operations. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company uses an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider for critical applications. They need to define a backup retention policy that meets regulatory requirements for keeping financial records for 7 years. Which of the following strategies best meets this requirement while optimizing costs?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Perform daily backups, keep weekly backups for 3 months, monthly for 1 year, and yearly for 7 years in cold storage.
Option B is correct because it implements a tiered backup retention strategy that aligns with the 7-year regulatory requirement while minimizing storage costs. By transitioning weekly backups to cold storage after 3 months, monthly backups after 1 year, and yearly backups for the full 7 years, the company reduces the cost of storing infrequently accessed data. This approach leverages the IaaS provider's lifecycle management policies (e.g., AWS S3 Lifecycle or Azure Blob Storage access tiers) to automatically move backups to lower-cost storage classes like Glacier or Archive, which are optimized for long-term retention.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Perform daily full backups and retain all backups for 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
Retaining daily backups for 7 years is costly and often unnecessary.
✓
Perform daily backups, keep weekly backups for 3 months, monthly for 1 year, and yearly for 7 years in cold storage.
Why this is correct
This tiered retention reduces costs while meeting the 7-year requirement.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Replicate all backups to a secondary region with snapshots kept for 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
Replication is for recovery, not archival; keeping all snapshots for 7 years is also costly.
✗
Use a grandfather-father-son rotation scheme with weekly, monthly, and yearly backups.
Why it's wrong here
Although common, this may not guarantee retention of all records for exactly 7 years without additional planning.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
ISC2 often tests the misconception that a simple rotation scheme (like grandfather-father-son) alone satisfies both retention and cost optimization, but the trap is that rotation schemes define retention cycles without addressing storage tiering or cold storage, which is essential for cost-effective long-term retention in the cloud.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, cloud providers like AWS offer S3 Lifecycle policies that can transition objects from Standard to Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) after 30 days, then to Glacier (for archival) after 90 days, and finally to Glacier Deep Archive for long-term retention at the lowest cost. For a 7-year retention, yearly backups can be moved directly to Glacier Deep Archive, which costs ~$0.00099 per GB/month, compared to ~$0.023 per GB/month for Standard storage. A real-world scenario is a financial institution using AWS Backup with a lifecycle policy that automatically expires daily backups after 7 days, weekly after 3 months, monthly after 1 year, and yearly after 7 years, ensuring compliance with SEC Rule 17a-4 while keeping costs under control.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A security analyst at a medium-sized enterprise encounters this scenario during an investigation or architecture review. The correct answer reflects best practice for the specific threat or control described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Security exam questions test whether you can match controls to threats in context — not just recall definitions.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Cloud Security Operations — This question tests Cloud Security Operations — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Perform daily backups, keep weekly backups for 3 months, monthly for 1 year, and yearly for 7 years in cold storage. — Option B is correct because it implements a tiered backup retention strategy that aligns with the 7-year regulatory requirement while minimizing storage costs. By transitioning weekly backups to cold storage after 3 months, monthly backups after 1 year, and yearly backups for the full 7 years, the company reduces the cost of storing infrequently accessed data. This approach leverages the IaaS provider's lifecycle management policies (e.g., AWS S3 Lifecycle or Azure Blob Storage access tiers) to automatically move backups to lower-cost storage classes like Glacier or Archive, which are optimized for long-term retention.
What should I do if I get this CCSP question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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