The net effect, positive or negative, on the achievement of business objectives, is called which term?

• A. Frequency analysis
• B. Business impact
• C. Compensating control
• D. Corrective control

Answer: (B)

Impact on business objectives captures the net effect that an event, condition, or decision has on an organization’s ability to achieve its goals, whether positive or negative. It combines how severe the effect is with how likely it is to occur, translating threats and opportunities into a single measure of how objectives—such as revenue, operations, compliance, and strategy—are affected. This makes it the best term because it directly reflects the overall consequence on what the business aims to achieve, guiding where to focus risk responses and resources. For example, adopting a new process might reduce costs (positive impact) but introduce privacy risks (negative impact); the combined result is the business impact, which informs prioritization and planning. The other terms describe different concepts and do not capture this overall effect on objectives: frequency analysis looks at how often events happen, compensating control is a mitigation chosen to offset risk, and corrective control is intended to remediate after a breach.