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Free CCISO Practice Questions

10 free, exam-style EC-Council Certified Chief Information Security Officer (CCISO) (CCISO) practice questions with answers and explanations. No signup required. Work through them below, then take the full free CCISO practice test to study every exam domain.

The CCISO exam has 150 questions and runs 2 hours 30 minutes.

These 10 free CCISO questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the EC-Council Certified Chief Information Security Officer (CCISO) blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.

Domain 1: Governance, Risk, Compliance, and Audit Management 21% of exam

Question 1

A CISO calculates that a data-center flood would destroy 40% of a $2,000,000 asset, and historical data shows such a flood occurs roughly once every 25 years. A proposed mitigation costs $20,000 annually and would eliminate the exposure entirely. What is the annualized value of implementing this safeguard?

  1. $12,000
  2. $32,000
  3. $800,000
  4. The safeguard should be rejected because it costs more than the annual loss
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - $12,000

Question 2

The board asks the CISO to quantify cyber risk in financial terms so it can be compared directly against other enterprise risks on the corporate risk register. Which risk methodology is BEST suited to this request?

  1. OCTAVE, because it is driven by organizational asset owners
  2. NIST RMF, because it is mandated for federal systems
  3. FAIR, because it expresses risk as a probable financial loss distribution
  4. A qualitative high/medium/low heat map, because the board prefers simplicity
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: C - FAIR, because it expresses risk as a probable financial loss distribution

Question 3

A US-based retailer stores cardholder data, processes EU customer orders, and is publicly traded. During a single audit cycle, which combination of obligations MUST the CISO simultaneously satisfy?

  1. PCI-DSS for cardholder data, GDPR for EU personal data, and SOX for financial-reporting controls
  2. HIPAA for the customer health records, GLBA for the stored payment data, and FISMA for the public financial reporting obligations
  3. PCI-DSS only, because as a payment-card standard it supersedes the other frameworks for any organization that handles transactions
  4. GDPR only, because it is the strictest regulation and a strict framework is understood to satisfy all lesser requirements automatically
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - PCI-DSS for cardholder data, GDPR for EU personal data, and SOX for financial-reporting controls

Question 4

An IT audit identifies a control that exists on paper but has never operated effectively. The control owner argues that no incident has ever resulted from the gap and asks the CISO to accept it as-is. What is the CISO's MOST appropriate response?

  1. Formally accept the risk on the basis that a sustained absence of incidents is sufficient evidence the control is genuinely unnecessary
  2. Remove the control from the register to avoid a repeat audit finding
  3. Escalate immediately to the board, as any ineffective control constitutes a material weakness
  4. Assess the exposure created by the ineffective control and drive risk-based remediation with a tracked deadline
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D - Assess the exposure created by the ineffective control and drive risk-based remediation with a tracked deadline

Domain 2: Organizational Executive Leadership 21% of exam

Question 5

A CISO must persuade a skeptical board to approve a multi-year security investment. The CFO views security purely as a cost center. Which approach is MOST likely to secure funding?

  1. Present a detailed technical threat briefing to demonstrate the depth of the danger
  2. Frame the investment in terms of risk reduction, regulatory exposure, and business enablement, with quantified ROI
  3. Warn the board that a serious breach is ultimately inevitable and that its members may be held personally liable if they choose to deny the funding
  4. Benchmark spend against competitors and request parity with the industry average
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B - Frame the investment in terms of risk reduction, regulatory exposure, and business enablement, with quantified ROI

Question 6

During a severe, active ransomware incident, two senior managers begin publicly blaming each other in the war room, disrupting the response. What should the CISO do FIRST?

  1. Refocus the team on containment and recovery, and defer the accountability discussion to the post-incident review
  2. Work to determine which of the two managers is actually at fault so that the correct person can be placed in charge of remediation
  3. Remove both managers from the incident to eliminate the conflict
  4. Pause the response until the disagreement is resolved to prevent mistakes
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - Refocus the team on containment and recovery, and defer the accountability discussion to the post-incident review

Question 7

A newly hired CISO inherits a talented but demoralized security team with high turnover. Exit interviews reveal staff feel their work is invisible to the rest of the business. Which leadership action addresses the ROOT cause MOST directly?

  1. Increase compensation across the team to improve retention
  2. Introduce stricter performance metrics to raise individual accountability and make underperformance more visible
  3. Reduce the team's workload by outsourcing a large share of its operational tasks to an external managed provider
  4. Build the team's internal brand and visibility so its contributions are recognized across the organization
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D - Build the team's internal brand and visibility so its contributions are recognized across the organization

Question 8

In a heated steering-committee meeting, a business unit head aggressively challenges the CISO's risk assessment in front of peers. Which response BEST demonstrates the emotional intelligence expected of a security executive?

  1. Match the intensity to signal conviction and avoid appearing weak
  2. Defer the discussion entirely and move on quickly to avoid escalating the confrontation any further in front of peers
  3. Cite authority and remind the group that security decisions are the CISO's mandate
  4. Acknowledge the concern calmly, ask clarifying questions, and steer toward shared objectives
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D - Acknowledge the concern calmly, ask clarifying questions, and steer toward shared objectives

Domain 3: Information Security Controls, Security Program Management & Operations 20% of exam

Question 9

An organization migrates a customer database to a SaaS platform. During a risk review, a manager assumes the vendor is now responsible for classifying and controlling access to the data. Under the cloud shared responsibility model, who is actually accountable for data classification and access?

  1. The customer organization always retains responsibility for data classification and access control
  2. The SaaS provider, because it owns and operates the entire platform stack
  3. Responsibility is split evenly, with the provider owning classification and the customer owning access
  4. Whichever party is named in the SLA, with no default assignment
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: A - The customer organization always retains responsibility for data classification and access control

Question 10

A team is ready to deploy a newly designed security control directly into the production environment to close a risk gap quickly. What should the CISO require BEFORE deployment?

  1. Board sign-off, since all new controls require executive authorization
  2. That the control be tested for effectiveness and validated against the risk it is meant to mitigate
  3. A full penetration test of the entire production environment before the single control can be deployed
  4. Vendor certification that the control meets ISO 27001 requirements
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B - That the control be tested for effectiveness and validated against the risk it is meant to mitigate

The rest of the CCISO blueprint

The CCISO exam also covers these domains. Drill them in the full free practice test:

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