This CCSP practice question tests your understanding of legal, risk and compliance. 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 healthcare company uses a cloud-based patient management system. The cloud provider experiences a security incident that may have exposed protected health information (PHI). The provider notifies the company within 72 hours, as required by the service agreement. The company's internal breach response policy requires a legal review of the incident before notifying affected individuals. The legal review typically takes 48 hours. However, the company is required to notify patients within 60 days under HIPAA. With the 72-hour notification from the provider, the company has 60 days to notify patients. What is the most effective approach to meet the 60-day notification requirement while ensuring compliance with internal policy?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Begin the legal review immediately and prepare patient notification in parallel.
Option D is correct because it allows the company to satisfy both the HIPAA 60-day notification requirement and its internal legal review policy by running the legal review and patient notification preparation concurrently. This parallel approach minimizes delay while ensuring that the notification content is legally vetted before release, which is critical for PHI incidents under HIPAA's Breach Notification Rule (45 CFR § 164.404).
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.
✗
Notify patients immediately and then perform the legal review.
Why it's wrong here
Notifying before legal review could result in needing to correct or retract statements.
✗
Wait for the legal review to complete before notifying patients.
Why it's wrong here
If legal review takes 48 hours, there is still plenty of time, but this is less efficient and may delay other steps.
✗
Notify patients immediately based on the provider's notification.
Why it's wrong here
Skipping legal review may lead to premature or inaccurate notifications.
✓
Begin the legal review immediately and prepare patient notification in parallel.
Why this is correct
Parallel processing allows timely notification while ensuring legal input is incorporated.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
ISC2 often tests the misconception that you must choose between compliance and internal policy, when in fact parallel processing of legal review and notification preparation is the correct approach to meet both requirements without violating the 60-day HIPAA deadline.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
HIPAA's Breach Notification Rule requires covered entities to notify affected individuals 'without unreasonable delay' and no later than 60 days from discovery of the breach, where discovery is presumed when the entity receives notification from a business associate (e.g., the cloud provider). The 72-hour provider notification is a contractual SLA, not a regulatory trigger; the 60-day clock starts from the provider's notification to the company. Running the legal review and notification preparation in parallel leverages project management best practices (e.g., critical path analysis) to compress the timeline while maintaining compliance with both internal policy and regulatory deadlines.
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 SOC analyst notices unusual lateral movement in the network at 2 AM. The IR playbook dictates: identify and contain (isolate the affected machine), then eradicate (remove the malware), then recover (restore from backup), then document. Skipping containment before eradication risks the attacker regaining access. Questions like this test the sequence and rationale of incident response phases.
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: Begin the legal review immediately and prepare patient notification in parallel. — Option D is correct because it allows the company to satisfy both the HIPAA 60-day notification requirement and its internal legal review policy by running the legal review and patient notification preparation concurrently. This parallel approach minimizes delay while ensuring that the notification content is legally vetted before release, which is critical for PHI incidents under HIPAA's Breach Notification Rule (45 CFR § 164.404).
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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