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CCSP Practice Question: A SaaS provider stores customer data in a…
A SaaS provider stores customer data in a multi-tenant database. A new regulation requires that data of former customers be completely erased within 30 days of account closure. Which process should the provider implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the distinction between logical deletion (soft delete) and cryptographic erasure, trapping candidates who think marking data as deleted or overwriting with zeros is sufficient in a multi-tenant cloud environment, where shared storage and data redundancy make physical overwrite impractical.
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
✓
Encrypt each customer's data with a unique key and delete the key upon account closure.
It implements cryptographic erasure, which renders the data permanently inaccessible by deleting the unique encryption key. This approach satisfies the regulation's requirement for complete erasure within 30 days without physically destroying hardware or risking data remnants, as the encrypted data becomes irrecoverable without the key. In a multi-tenant SaaS environment, this method is efficient, scalable, and avoids service disruption to other tenants sharing the same storage.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Physically destroy the hard drives containing the data.
Why it's wrong here
Physically destroying drives would erase every tenant's data in the multi-tenant database, not just the former customer's records, and cannot be scoped to a 30-day per-account closure. Drive destruction fits end-of-life hardware disposal, where the entire device is being retired.
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Mark the data as deleted and exclude it from query results.
Why it's wrong here
Soft-delete flags leave the underlying records physically present in the multi-tenant database, so the data is not completely erased as the regulation demands. Logical deletion suits hiding records from normal queries, not satisfying a regulatory requirement for irreversible removal within 30 days.
- ✗
Overwrite the data with zeros using a secure delete tool.
Why it's wrong here
Overwriting with zeros targets whole disks or files, not individual tenants' rows inside a shared multi-tenant database, so other customers' data would be destroyed or the records left intact. Secure overwrite suits dedicated storage media being decommissioned, not selective per-customer erasure within a shared schema.
- ✓
Encrypt each customer's data with a unique key and delete the key upon account closure.
Why this is correct
Per-customer encryption keys enable crypto-shredding: deleting the unique key renders that customer's ciphertext unrecoverable, achieving complete erasure within 30 days without deleting shared multi-tenant rows. This satisfies the regulatory erasure requirement in a multi-tenant database.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.