hardMultiple Choice

CCSP Experiences a data breach in the cloud Practice Question

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?

⚠ Common exam trap

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.

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

✓

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.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

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The CSP's privacy policy
Why it's wrong here
A privacy policy describes how personal data is collected, used and shared; it does not allocate liability for security incidents. Liability for customer misconfiguration is governed by the contractual shared responsibility provisions in the cloud service agreement, not by a unilateral privacy notice published by the CSP.
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The SOC 2 Type II report from the CSP
Why it's wrong here
A SOC 2 Type II report attests to the CSP's internal controls over a period; it does not allocate responsibility between parties. Liability for customer misconfiguration is defined in the shared responsibility model within the cloud service agreement or contract, which the SOC 2 report cannot override or interpret.
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The incident response plan
Why it's wrong here
An incident response plan defines detection, containment and recovery procedures during a breach; it does not assign legal or financial liability between parties. Determining who bears responsibility for customer misconfiguration requires the contractual terms, specifically the shared responsibility clauses in the cloud service agreement.
✓
The shared responsibility matrix in the service contract
Why this is correct
The shared responsibility matrix in the service contract allocates security and compliance duties between provider and customer. Reviewing it establishes which party owned the misconfigured control, providing the contractual basis for determining liability in this dispute.

Visual reference

Quick reference

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

Storage Class	Min Duration	Retrieval	Use Case
S3 Standard	None	Immediate	Frequently accessed data
S3 Standard-IA	30 days	Immediate	Infrequent access, rapid retrieval
S3 One Zone-IA	30 days	Immediate	Non-critical infrequent data
S3 Intelligent-Tiering	None	Immediate–hours	Unknown or changing access patterns
S3 Glacier Instant	90 days	Milliseconds	Archive with instant retrieval
S3 Glacier Flexible	90 days	Minutes–hours	Archive, flexible retrieval
S3 Glacier Deep Archive	180 days	Hours	Long-term compliance archive

Go deeper

CCSP Experiences a data breach in the cloud Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

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