SSCP Risk Identification, Monitoring, and Analysis Practice Question
A security analyst is reviewing logs and notices multiple failed login attempts for a user account, followed by a successful login from an unfamiliar IP address at 3:00 AM. Which type of risk is most directly indicated by this scenario?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the distinction between 'human intentional' and 'human accidental' by presenting a pattern of failed logins that could be mistaken for a user forgetting their password, but the successful login from an unfamiliar IP at an odd hour confirms malicious intent, not a mistake.
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
✓
Human intentional risk
The scenario describes a successful login after multiple failed attempts from an unfamiliar IP address at an unusual time (3:00 AM). This pattern strongly indicates a deliberate brute-force or credential-stuffing attack, where an attacker intentionally attempts to gain unauthorized access. Therefore, the risk is human intentional, as it involves a malicious actor's purposeful actions.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Environmental risk
Why it's wrong here
Environmental risk covers physical hazards such as flooding, fire or power loss affecting infrastructure, none of which appear in these authentication logs. It is tempting because unfamiliar access can stem from a compromised facility, and environmental risk would be the answer if the stem described damage to a data centre rather than anomalous login activity.
- ✓
Human intentional risk
Why this is correct
Repeated failed logins followed by a successful login from an unfamiliar IP at 3:00 AM indicates deliberate credential attack or account compromise. A person intentionally attempted unauthorised access, which is human intentional risk rather than accidental or environmental risk.
- ✗
Human accidental risk
Why it's wrong here
Repeated failures followed by a success from an unfamiliar IP at 3:00 AM indicates deliberate credential attack, not a user's mistake such as mistyping a password. Accidental risk covers inadvertent actions like misconfiguration or lost devices, which produce no such pattern.
- ✗
Technical risk
Why it's wrong here
Technical risk denotes failures of systems, hardware or software, such as unpatched services or disk faults. This pattern is behavioural: an attacker guessing credentials and succeeding, which is a malicious human threat, not an infrastructure malfunction.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This SSCP question is part of Courseiva's 971-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 by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SSCP 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 SSCP exam.