CCSP Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security Practice Question
This CCSP practice question tests your understanding of cloud platform and infrastructure security. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 public IaaS provider to host its customer-facing applications. They have strict compliance requirements (e.g., PCI DSS) mandating that all customer data be encrypted at rest and in transit. The cloud provider recently performed a scheduled hypervisor update that required live migration of all customer VMs to different physical hosts to apply security patches. After the migration, the company's security team discovers that temporary files from one of their VMs remained on the original host's local storage and were accessible by another customer's VM that was subsequently provisioned on that host. Although the files did not contain actual customer data because the VM had encrypted its volumes, the security team is concerned about potential data remanence. Which of the following actions would BEST prevent such data remanence in future hypervisor migrations?
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
✓
Enable full-disk encryption on all VMs.
Option B is correct because full-disk encryption ensures that any residual data left on the original host's local storage after live migration is unreadable without the encryption key. Even if temporary files remain, encryption at rest renders the data inaccessible, directly addressing data remanence concerns without relying on the cloud provider's cleanup processes.
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.
✗
Request dedicated (single-tenant) hosts for all VMs.
Why it's wrong here
Dedicated hosts prevent co-tenancy but do not address data remanence on the host after VM migration.
✓
Enable full-disk encryption on all VMs.
Why this is correct
Full-disk encryption protects data at rest, making residual data unreadable even if not securely erased.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Perform a secure wipe of the original host after each migration.
Why it's wrong here
Customers cannot typically wipe shared hosts, and this responsibility lies with the provider.
✗
Use encrypted live migration for all VM moves.
Why it's wrong here
Encrypted migration secures data in transit, not residual data left on the source host storage.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
ISC2 often tests the distinction between data remanence prevention (encryption at rest) and data-in-transit protection (encrypted migration), leading candidates to mistakenly choose encrypted live migration when the real issue is residual data left on the source host.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Live migration (e.g., using QEMU/KVM or VMware vMotion) typically transfers memory and disk state to the destination host, but temporary files such as swap files, VM templates, or hypervisor caches may remain on the source host's local storage if not explicitly cleaned. Full-disk encryption at the OS or volume level (e.g., BitLocker, LUKS) ensures that even if these residual blocks are recovered, they are ciphertext without the key, which is never stored on the host. In real-world scenarios, compliance frameworks like PCI DSS require encryption of cardholder data at rest (Requirement 3.4), and full-disk encryption is a common compensating control for data remanence risks.
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 developer is choosing between AES-256 (symmetric) and RSA-2048 (asymmetric) for encrypting a large file that will be sent to a partner. Symmetric encryption is fast but requires key exchange; asymmetric is slower but solves the key distribution problem. A hybrid approach — encrypt the file with AES, encrypt the AES key with RSA — is standard. Questions like this test whether you understand when each approach applies.
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 Platform and Infrastructure Security — This question tests Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable full-disk encryption on all VMs. — Option B is correct because full-disk encryption ensures that any residual data left on the original host's local storage after live migration is unreadable without the encryption key. Even if temporary files remain, encryption at rest renders the data inaccessible, directly addressing data remanence concerns without relying on the cloud provider's cleanup processes.
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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