CISSP Identity and Access Management Practice Question
In the context of identity management, which TWO of the following are risks associated with orphaned accounts? (Choose two.)
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
✓
Compliance violations
Orphaned accounts can be used by former employees or attackers, and may violate compliance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Compliance violations
Why this is correct
Regulatory frameworks such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and SOX mandate strict access control policies, including the prompt deprovisioning of inactive or terminated user accounts. Failing to identify and disable these orphaned accounts directly violates compliance requirements, potentially resulting in severe financial penalties, failed audits, and legal liabilities for the organization.
- ✗
Reduced system performance
Why it's wrong here
While orphaned accounts occupy negligible storage space within an identity repository or active directory database, they do not consume active CPU, memory, or network resources. Consequently, their existence does not degrade system performance or impact operational throughput, making this an incorrect consequence of poor identity lifecycle management.
- ✓
Unauthorized access by former employees
Why this is correct
When an employee departs an organization, failure to disable their associated accounts leaves a viable entry point into the corporate network. Former employees can exploit these active, unmonitored credentials to exfiltrate proprietary data, disrupt operations, or commit sabotage, bypassing standard perimeter defenses.
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Enhanced audit logging
Why it's wrong here
Orphaned accounts do not improve or enhance audit logging capabilities; instead, they complicate log analysis and incident response. If an attacker compromises an orphaned account, their malicious activities may blend into normal historical traffic, making it significantly harder for security analysts to detect anomalies and trace actions back to a responsible individual.
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Increased help desk calls
Why it's wrong here
Because orphaned accounts are abandoned and no longer associated with an active user, they do not generate user-initiated support requests. The help desk is unlikely to receive password reset requests or troubleshooting inquiries for these dormant profiles, meaning their presence does not correlate with an increase in operational support tickets.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISSP 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 CISSP exam.