thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Governance, Risk, Audit & Privacy · Intermediate

Total Risk

The amount of risk an organization faces before safeguards: threats x vulnerabilities x asset value.

Definition

Total risk is a conceptual formula from CISSP materials representing exposure without countermeasures. Residual risk is total risk minus the controls gap, expressed as total risk - countermeasures or total risk x controls gap. These formulas are conceptual rather than literal arithmetic.

Example

An unprotected file server facing active threats with valuable data has high total risk.

Exam tip

Expect conceptual formulas: total risk = threats x vulnerabilities x asset value; residual = total risk x controls gap.

Related terms