This CCSP practice question tests your understanding of legal, risk and compliance. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 financial services company uses a cloud-based logging service for audit trails. A regulatory investigation is initiated, and the company is required to preserve all logs from the past 18 months. The cloud provider's default retention policy is 12 months, and logs older than that are automatically deleted. The company did not configure custom retention. What is the most appropriate action to ensure compliance?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Request that the provider place a legal hold on all logs and verify implementation.
Option C is correct because a legal hold (or litigation hold) is a cloud provider feature that overrides the default retention policy to preserve data indefinitely or for a specified period, preventing automated deletion. This ensures compliance with regulatory requirements without relying on manual exports or backups, and the company must verify implementation through provider tools or APIs to confirm the hold is active.
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.
✗
Accept the data loss and explain to regulators that the provider has a limited retention policy.
Why it's wrong here
Accepting data loss violates the legal preservation requirement and could lead to penalties.
✗
Export all available logs and store them locally immediately.
Why it's wrong here
This only captures current logs; older logs may already be deleted and cannot be recovered.
✓
Request that the provider place a legal hold on all logs and verify implementation.
Why this is correct
A legal hold overrides retention policies and ensures preservation; verification confirms compliance.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Rely on the provider's backup policy, which may retain data for up to 24 months.
Why it's wrong here
Backup retention is not guaranteed and may not cover all logs; reliance on it is risky.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
ISC2 often tests the misconception that exporting logs locally is sufficient for compliance, but the trap is that this fails to preserve logs already deleted and does not meet the requirement for ongoing preservation, whereas a legal hold is the designed mechanism for regulatory holds.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Legal holds in cloud logging services (e.g., AWS CloudTrail, Azure Monitor, or Google Cloud Logging) typically use immutable storage or retention lock features that prevent deletion even by administrators, often enforced via object lock or bucket policies. Under the hood, these holds modify metadata flags (e.g., 'retain until date' or 'legal hold') that the garbage collection process checks before deletion, ensuring logs remain accessible for audit trails. In a real-world scenario, a company might use AWS S3 Object Lock with a legal hold to preserve logs across multiple accounts, but must verify via the 'get-object-legal-hold' API to ensure the hold is applied to all relevant objects.
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.
Legal, Risk and Compliance — This question tests Legal, Risk and Compliance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Request that the provider place a legal hold on all logs and verify implementation. — Option C is correct because a legal hold (or litigation hold) is a cloud provider feature that overrides the default retention policy to preserve data indefinitely or for a specified period, preventing automated deletion. This ensures compliance with regulatory requirements without relying on manual exports or backups, and the company must verify implementation through provider tools or APIs to confirm the hold is active.
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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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.
Question Discussion
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