This CCSP practice question tests your understanding of legal, risk and compliance. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
An organization experiences a data breach in the cloud. The CSP claims they are not liable because the breach was due to customer misconfiguration. The customer disagrees. What document should be reviewed to determine liability?
The CSP's privacy policy
Why wrong: Privacy policies are not typically used for liability determination.
The SOC 2 Type II report from the CSP
Why wrong: SOC 2 describes controls but does not assign liability.
The incident response plan
Why wrong: The IR plan defines response steps, not liability.
The shared responsibility matrix in the service contract
This matrix explicitly defines responsibilities for security controls.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
The shared responsibility matrix in the service contract
The shared responsibility matrix (SRM) is the definitive contractual document that delineates which security controls are managed by the cloud service provider (CSP) and which are the customer's obligation. In a breach caused by misconfiguration, the SRM specifies whether the configuration of the affected resource (e.g., an S3 bucket ACL or a security group rule) falls under the customer's responsibility. Without reviewing the SRM, liability cannot be determined because the matrix explicitly maps each control layer (e.g., network, compute, data) to the responsible party.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
The CSP's privacy policy
Why it's wrong here
Privacy policies are not typically used for liability determination.
The SOC 2 Type II report from the CSP
Why it's wrong here
SOC 2 describes controls but does not assign liability.
The incident response plan
Why it's wrong here
The IR plan defines response steps, not liability.
The shared responsibility matrix in the service contract
Why this is correct
This matrix explicitly defines responsibilities for security controls.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
ISC2 often tests the misconception that a SOC report or privacy policy defines liability, when in fact only the contractual shared responsibility matrix legally allocates responsibility for specific security controls.
Detailed technical explanation
The shared responsibility matrix is often embedded within the Cloud Service Agreement (CSA) or Master Service Agreement (MSA) and references specific control domains from the CSA STAR or NIST SP 800-53 frameworks. For example, in IaaS, the customer is responsible for configuring guest OS firewalls (e.g., iptables rules) and identity policies (e.g., IAM roles), while the CSP secures the hypervisor and physical network. A real-world scenario is the 2019 Capital One breach, where a misconfigured WAF rule (customer responsibility per the AWS SRM) led to data exfiltration, and the SRM was central to determining liability.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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FAQ
Legal, Risk and Compliance — This question tests Legal, Risk and Compliance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: The shared responsibility matrix in the service contract — The shared responsibility matrix (SRM) is the definitive contractual document that delineates which security controls are managed by the cloud service provider (CSP) and which are the customer's obligation. In a breach caused by misconfiguration, the SRM specifies whether the configuration of the affected resource (e.g., an S3 bucket ACL or a security group rule) falls under the customer's responsibility. Without reviewing the SRM, liability cannot be determined because the matrix explicitly maps each control layer (e.g., network, compute, data) to the responsible party.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 30, 2026
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.
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