Isaca Updated CRISC Exam Questions and Answers by olaf

The most significant risk to an organization when updating the incident response plan is the undefined assignment of responsibility. An incident response plan is a document that defines the roles, responsibilities, procedures, and resources for responding to an incident that could disrupt the normal operations of the organization, or compromise its assets, reputation, or compliance. An incident response plan should clearly assign the responsibility for each task and activity involved in the incident response process, such as detection, containment, analysis, eradication, recovery, and reporting. Undefined assignment of responsibility could lead to confusion, duplication, conflict, or omission among the stakeholders, and impair the effectiveness and efficiency of the incident response process. Undefined assignment of responsibility could also increase the risk of escalation, recurrence, or impact of the incident, and affect the accountability and performance of the organization. Obsolete response documentation, increased stakeholder turnover, and failure to audit third-party providers are also risks, but they are not as significant as undefined assignment of responsibility, as they do not directly affect the execution and outcome of the incident response process. References = CRISC Review Manual, 6th Edition, ISACA, 2015, page 130.

New regulatory requirements impacting IT are those that impose new obligations, restrictions, or standards on how an organization uses, manages, or secures its IT systems, data, or services1. Examples of such regulations include the GDPR, the CCPA, the HIPAA, or the PCI-DSS2. New regulatory requirements impacting IT can pose significant challenges and risks for an organization, such as:

Compliance costs and efforts, such as updating policies, procedures, and systems, training staff, or hiring experts

Noncompliance penalties and consequences, such as fines, lawsuits, sanctions, or reputational damages

Operational disruptions or inefficiencies, such as system changes, data migrations, or service interruptions

Competitive disadvantages or opportunities, such as losing or gaining customers, partners, or markets3

The first step that should be done when a company is made aware of new regulatory requirements impacting IT is to review the risk tolerance and appetite. Risk tolerance is the acceptable level of variation that an organization is willing to accept around its risk appetite. Risk appetite is the amount and type of risk that an organization is willing to take in order to meet its strategic objectives. By reviewing the risk tolerance and appetite, the company can:

Establish a clear and consistent understanding of the organization’s goals, values, and expectations regarding the new regulatory requirements impacting IT

Assess the current and potential impacts of the new regulatory requirements impacting IT on the organization’s performance, operations, or assets

Determine the level of risk exposure and acceptance that the organization is comfortable with, and identify the risk thresholds or limits that should not be exceeded

Align the risk management strategies and actions with the organization’s risk tolerance and appetite, and prioritize the most critical and urgent risks to be addressed

Communicate and report the risk tolerance and appetite to the stakeholders and regulators, and ensure transparency and accountability

References = Regulating emerging technology | Deloitte Insights, Ten Key Regulatory Challenges of 2024 - kpmg.com, The Risks of Non-Compliance with Data Protection Laws, [Risk Tolerance - COSO], [Risk Appetite - COSO], [Risk Appetite and Tolerance - IRM]

The primary reason for prioritizing risk scenarios is to facilitate risk response decisions. Risk scenarios are hypothetical situations that describe the possible causes, events, and consequences of a risk. Prioritizing risk scenarios is the process of ranking the risk scenarios according to their level of importance, urgency, or impact. Prioritizing risk scenarios helps to facilitate risk response decisions, which are the choices made to address the risks, such as avoiding, transferring, mitigating, or accepting the risks. Prioritizing risk scenarios helps to allocate the resources and efforts to the most significant or critical risk scenarios, and to select the most appropriate and effective risk responses. Prioritizing risk scenarios also helps to communicate and justify the risk response decisions to the stakeholders, and to monitor and report the risk status and performance. Providing an enterprise-wide view of risk, supporting risk response tracking, and assigning risk ownership are not the primary reasons for prioritizing risk scenarios, as they are either the inputs or the outputs of the risk prioritization process, and they do not address the primary need of responding to the risks. References = CRISC Review Manual, 6th Edition, ISACA, 2015, page 50.

The most helpful way to mitigate the risk associated with an application under development not meeting business objectives is to include key stakeholders in the review of user requirements, because this ensures that the application is designed and developed according to the needs and expectations of the end users and the business owners. Including key stakeholders in the review of user requirements also helps to avoid scope creep, requirement changes, or miscommunication that may affect the quality, functionality, or usability of the application. The other options are not the most helpful ways to mitigate the risk, although they may also be useful in reducing the likelihood or impact of the risk. Identifying threats that may compromise enterprise architecture (EA), including diverse business scenarios in user acceptance testing (UAT), and performing risk assessments during the business case development stage are examples of preventive or detective controls that aim to identify and address the potential issues or problems that may arise during the application development process, but they do not address the alignment of the application with the business objectives. References = CRISC: Certified in Risk & Information Systems Control Sample Questions