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SSCP · Question #1111

Countermeasures have three main objectives, what are they? (Choose all that apply)

The correct answer is A. Prevent B. Recover C. Detect. The three main objectives of security countermeasures are to prevent attacks, detect when they occur, and enable recovery from successful incidents.

Submitted by amina.ke· Apr 18, 2026Risk Identification, Monitoring and Analysis

Question

Countermeasures have three main objectives, what are they? (Choose all that apply)

Options

  • APrevent
  • BRecover
  • CDetect
  • DTrace
  • ERetaliate

How the community answered

(37 responses)
  • A
    86% (32)
  • D
    11% (4)
  • E
    3% (1)

Why each option

The three main objectives of security countermeasures are to prevent attacks, detect when they occur, and enable recovery from successful incidents.

APreventCorrect

Preventative countermeasures aim to stop an attack from happening, such as firewalls or strong access controls.

BRecoverCorrect

Recovery countermeasures focus on restoring systems and data to their normal state after an incident, often through backups and disaster recovery plans.

CDetectCorrect

Detective countermeasures are designed to identify and alert administrators to ongoing or attempted intrusions, such as intrusion detection systems (IDS).

DTrace

While tracing an attacker might be part of incident response, it is a secondary goal or a step within the broader detection/recovery process, not a primary objective of countermeasures themselves.

ERetaliate

Retaliation is an aggressive action and is not considered a legitimate or ethical objective of defensive security countermeasures.

Concept tested: Objectives of security countermeasures

Source: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/CSWP/NIST.CSWP.04162018.pdf

Topics

#Security Controls#Countermeasures#Prevent Detect Recover#Risk Management

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