Which three principles best describe data collected during a strategic risk assessment of the Storage environment (including impacts on RTO/RPO)?

A strategic risk assessment is a systematic process to understand potential threats to a storage environment and their business implications. The core data collected during this assessment includes:

1. Identification of loss scenarios (A): This involves identifying potential threats, vulnerabilities, and events (e.g., hardware failure, cyber-attack, natural disaster) that could lead to data loss or service disruption.

2. Probability an incident will occur (B): This is the analysis phase, where the likelihood of each identified loss scenario is estimated.

3. Documenting acceptable loss levels (E): This involves determining the business impact of each scenario, often quantified by metrics like Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO), which define the business's tolerance for downtime and data loss.

These three elements—threat identification, probability analysis, and impact assessment—are the fundamental components of a risk assessment.

C. Procedures to reduce possibility of error or failure: This describes risk mitigation or treatment, which is an action taken after the risk assessment is completed, not a principle of data collection during the assessment.

D. Fault tolerant and resilient IT systems and networks: This describes a desired architectural state or a control measure designed to mitigate risk, rather than a principle of the assessment process itself.

1. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-30, Revision 1, "Guide for Conducting Risk Assessments": This foundational guide outlines the risk assessment process.

Section 2.2.1, Page 13, "Threat Event Identification": "The objective of this step is to identify threat events that could potentially impact the organization and its mission/business functions." (Supports option A)

Section 2.2.3, Page 21, "Likelihood of Occurrence": "The objective of this step is to determine the overall likelihood that a threat event will occur." (Supports option B)

Section 2.2.4, Page 25, "Impact": "The objective of this step is to determine the adverse impact resulting from a threat event... This includes the magnitude of harm to... organizational assets [and] individuals." (Supports option E)

2. SNIA Dictionary: The official Storage Networking Industry Association definitions align with these principles.

"Risk Assessment": Defined as "The process of identifying, analyzing, and evaluating risk." This definition encompasses the activities described in options A, B, and E. The process of creating procedures (C) or implementing systems (D) is considered risk treatment, a separate step.

3. Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute, "OCTAVE Allegro: Information Security Risk Assessment" (CMU/SEI-2007-TR-012): This methodology for risk assessment emphasizes similar principles.

Step 4, Page 23, "Identify Areas of Concern": "An area of concern is a statement describing a condition that can threaten an information asset." (Supports option A)

Step 5, Page 25, "Identify Threat Scenarios": This step involves evaluating the probability and outcome of threats. (Supports options B and E)