ISC Risk Management Practice Question
You are assessing a system that uses 'Homomorphic Encryption' for data processing. What is the primary operational trade-off the system designer must consider?
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
✓
Significant computational overhead and latency.
Homomorphic encryption allows computation on encrypted data, but it is extremely resource-intensive, resulting in significant latency and performance overhead compared to processing unencrypted data.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increased security of data at rest.
Why it's wrong here
Homomorphic encryption is for data in use, not for storage at rest.
- ✓
Significant computational overhead and latency.
Why this is correct
This is the primary known limitation of currently available homomorphic encryption schemes.
- ✗
Incompatibility with standard database engines.
Why it's wrong here
While this is a challenge, it is a secondary issue to the primary performance impact.
- ✗
Complexity of key management.
Why it's wrong here
While true, this is not as significant as the performance impact.
About these practice questions
This ISC question is part of Courseiva's 209-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official (ISC)² exam blueprint
This ISC practice question is part of Courseiva's free (ISC)² 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 ISC exam.