Which term means responding to risk by not taking a risky action?

• A. Risk reduction
• B. Risk acceptance
• C. Risk avoidance
• D. Risk transference

Answer: (C)

In risk management, choosing not to pursue a risky action is risk avoidance—a decision to eliminate the risk by not taking the action at all. By avoiding the activity, both the chance of the event and its potential impact disappear. This differs from risk reduction, which lowers either the likelihood or the impact while still engaging in the action; risk acceptance, where the risk is tolerated with no controls; and risk transference, where the risk is moved to another party (like through insurance or outsourcing). For example, not deploying a vulnerable component eliminates the associated risk entirely, rather than trying to patch it, accept it, or pass it to someone else.