Isaca CISA Practice Test 10
Question 90
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A chief technology officer both accepts enterprise cyber risk and certifies the independence of the risk oversight function. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend clear separation of risk acceptance from independent oversight and assurance.
- Recommend an accountable data steward and controlled master-data quality process.
- Recommend an accountable portfolio review that documents strategic rationale and benefit measures.
- Recommend lifecycle deletion and exception enforcement across all controlled storage locations.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Recommend clear separation of risk acceptance from independent oversight and assurance. The relevant control principle is: Governance should define risk ownership and objective challenge across accountable roles. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Approvals show authorized risk owners and recorded independent challenge for material exposures.
Incorrect Answers
B:Recommend an accountable data steward and controlled master-data quality process. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Multiple business units publish different values for the same customer account status without a nominated data steward. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend clear separation of risk acceptance from independent oversight and assurance. The governing distinction is: Governance should define risk ownership and objective challenge across accountable roles.
C:Recommend an accountable portfolio review that documents strategic rationale and benefit measures. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A technology steering group approves projects without showing how they support the organization's strategic priorities. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend clear separation of risk acceptance from independent oversight and assurance. The governing distinction is: Governance should define risk ownership and objective challenge across accountable roles.
D:Recommend lifecycle deletion and exception enforcement across all controlled storage locations. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A cloud analytics environment retains raw regulated data after the approved business retention period. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend clear separation of risk acceptance from independent oversight and assurance. The governing distinction is: Governance should define risk ownership and objective challenge across accountable roles.
Question 91
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A financial reporting controls audit tests only the cloud provider's availability status but ignores the customer's application controls. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Audit evidence reliability depends on source, integrity, relevance and timing.
- An audit must cover the controls relevant to the stated reporting objective across service-provider boundaries.
- A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure.
- Advisory assessments and assurance engagements have different scopes, evidence needs and reporting obligations.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:An audit must cover the controls relevant to the stated reporting objective across service-provider boundaries. The corresponding audit procedure is: Map financial assertions, provider responsibilities and customer-controlled configuration or access processes.
Incorrect Answers
A:Audit evidence reliability depends on source, integrity, relevance and timing. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A system owner provides a screenshot of an access list without a timestamp or source-system identification. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: An audit must cover the controls relevant to the stated reporting objective across service-provider boundaries. The governing distinction is: An audit must cover the controls relevant to the stated reporting objective across service-provider boundaries.
C:A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A monitoring alert is generated for suspicious transfers, but no owner is assigned to investigate or close it. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: An audit must cover the controls relevant to the stated reporting objective across service-provider boundaries. The governing distinction is: An audit must cover the controls relevant to the stated reporting objective across service-provider boundaries.
D:Advisory assessments and assurance engagements have different scopes, evidence needs and reporting obligations. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Management calls a readiness workshop a completed audit even though no testing or assurance opinion was planned. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: An audit must cover the controls relevant to the stated reporting objective across service-provider boundaries. The governing distinction is: An audit must cover the controls relevant to the stated reporting objective across service-provider boundaries.
Question 92
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: Management calls a readiness workshop a completed audit even though no testing or assurance opinion was planned. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- Workpapers trace each material reporting risk to an appropriate control and test result.
- The final communication accurately distinguishes advice from an independently supported assurance opinion.
- Known test events appear and processing totals reconcile after ingestion recovery.
- A test change cannot bypass approval, and independent exception review still operates.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:The final communication accurately distinguishes advice from an independently supported assurance opinion. It addresses types of audits, assessments, and reviews. Underlying audit concern: Advisory assessments and assurance engagements have different scopes, evidence needs and reporting obligations.
Incorrect Answers
A:Workpapers trace each material reporting risk to an appropriate control and test result. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A financial reporting controls audit tests only the cloud provider's availability status but ignores the customer's application controls. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: The final communication accurately distinguishes advice from an independently supported assurance opinion. The governing distinction is: Advisory assessments and assurance engagements have different scopes, evidence needs and reporting obligations.
C:Known test events appear and processing totals reconcile after ingestion recovery. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A continuous monitoring dashboard reports zero failed access attempts because its collection job stopped three days ago. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: The final communication accurately distinguishes advice from an independently supported assurance opinion. The governing distinction is: Advisory assessments and assurance engagements have different scopes, evidence needs and reporting obligations.
D:A test change cannot bypass approval, and independent exception review still operates. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A payroll system uses post-payment anomaly reports but has no approval requirement for changing bank accounts. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: The final communication accurately distinguishes advice from an independently supported assurance opinion. The governing distinction is: Advisory assessments and assurance engagements have different scopes, evidence needs and reporting obligations.
Question 93
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: A sales system's backup schedule is chosen before the business determines acceptable data loss. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- A recovery rehearsal restores the complete service within the approved RTO.
- Restoration passes transactional integrity and reconciliation tests.
- A restore exercise measures actual data currency against the approved loss limit.
- An anticipated high-load period does not exhaust storage and restore capability remains intact.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:A restore exercise measures actual data currency against the approved loss limit. It addresses business impact analysis. Underlying audit concern: RPO should be derived from business impact and transactional tolerance, not backup convenience.
Incorrect Answers
A:A recovery rehearsal restores the complete service within the approved RTO. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A business owner specifies a one-hour RTO but has never identified which external dependencies must also be restored. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: A restore exercise measures actual data currency against the approved loss limit. The governing distinction is: RPO should be derived from business impact and transactional tolerance, not backup convenience.
B:Restoration passes transactional integrity and reconciliation tests. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A company copies database files nightly while transactions remain active, producing inconsistent backups. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: A restore exercise measures actual data currency against the approved loss limit. The governing distinction is: RPO should be derived from business impact and transactional tolerance, not backup convenience.
D:An anticipated high-load period does not exhaust storage and restore capability remains intact. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Database transaction logs fill the only disk volume and cause a payment service outage. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: A restore exercise measures actual data currency against the approved loss limit. The governing distinction is: RPO should be derived from business impact and transactional tolerance, not backup convenience.
Question 94
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: A nightly settlement batch fails halfway but the scheduler marks the entire chain successful. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- Unauthorized script edits are denied and authorized revisions are traceable.
- Each retired device reconciles to approved erasure or destruction evidence and authorized release.
- An injected failure prevents false success and all unsettled transactions are accounted for.
- A recovery test completes reconciled business transactions within required limits.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:An injected failure prevents false success and all unsettled transactions are accounted for. It addresses job scheduling and production process automation. Underlying audit concern: Automated jobs require dependency, exception and completion controls for reliable processing.
Incorrect Answers
A:Unauthorized script edits are denied and authorized revisions are traceable. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An operator can edit scheduled payroll scripts directly in production without independent approval. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: An injected failure prevents false success and all unsettled transactions are accounted for. The governing distinction is: Automated jobs require dependency, exception and completion controls for reliable processing.
B:Each retired device reconciles to approved erasure or destruction evidence and authorized release. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A retail chain replaces laptops but leaves decommissioned drives untracked with a disposal contractor. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: An injected failure prevents false success and all unsettled transactions are accounted for. The governing distinction is: Automated jobs require dependency, exception and completion controls for reliable processing.
D:A recovery test completes reconciled business transactions within required limits. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A disaster recovery runbook lists server boot order but omits database integrity and application acceptance tests. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: An injected failure prevents false success and all unsettled transactions are accounted for. The governing distinction is: Automated jobs require dependency, exception and completion controls for reliable processing.
Question 95
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A payment service uses a load balancer, two application servers and one database but its diagram lists only the web servers as critical. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend recalculating service availability using approved business-relevant exclusions.
- Recommend dependency-aware recovery requirements and feasible coordinated timelines.
- Recommend an accurate component dependency inventory and risk review of single points of failure.
- Recommend prechange compatibility validation and a controlled fallback path.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Recommend an accurate component dependency inventory and risk review of single points of failure. The relevant control principle is: End-to-end service availability depends on all critical infrastructure and application components. A meaningful follow-up should establish: An end-to-end fault analysis covers each critical dependency and its recovery plan.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend recalculating service availability using approved business-relevant exclusions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Management reports 99.99% uptime by excluding unscheduled customer-impacting outages from the metric. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an accurate component dependency inventory and risk review of single points of failure. The governing distinction is: End-to-end service availability depends on all critical infrastructure and application components.
B:Recommend dependency-aware recovery requirements and feasible coordinated timelines. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A business owner specifies a one-hour RTO but has never identified which external dependencies must also be restored. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an accurate component dependency inventory and risk review of single points of failure. The governing distinction is: End-to-end service availability depends on all critical infrastructure and application components.
D:Recommend prechange compatibility validation and a controlled fallback path. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A network router is upgraded without identifying the legacy protocol needed by an older warehouse controller. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an accurate component dependency inventory and risk review of single points of failure. The governing distinction is: End-to-end service availability depends on all critical infrastructure and application components.
Question 96
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A continuity plan lists the chief executive as the only emergency decision authority with no alternate. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend recalculating service availability using approved business-relevant exclusions.
- Recommend documented alternates and tested activation decision protocols.
- Recommend independent communications paths or explicit mitigation for shared exposure.
- Recommend an updated stakeholder communication plan and verification schedule.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Recommend documented alternates and tested activation decision protocols. The relevant control principle is: BCP governance requires delegation and clear command arrangements under disruption. A meaningful follow-up should establish: A tabletop with the primary leader absent triggers valid timely BCP activation.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend recalculating service availability using approved business-relevant exclusions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Management reports 99.99% uptime by excluding unscheduled customer-impacting outages from the metric. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend documented alternates and tested activation decision protocols. The governing distinction is: BCP governance requires delegation and clear command arrangements under disruption.
C:Recommend independent communications paths or explicit mitigation for shared exposure. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Two data centers have separate buildings but share one telecom carrier and underground duct. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend documented alternates and tested activation decision protocols. The governing distinction is: BCP governance requires delegation and clear command arrangements under disruption.
D:Recommend an updated stakeholder communication plan and verification schedule. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A regional outage exercise reveals that business partners were never included in the communications tree. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend documented alternates and tested activation decision protocols. The governing distinction is: BCP governance requires delegation and clear command arrangements under disruption.
Question 97
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A monitoring alert is generated for suspicious transfers, but no owner is assigned to investigate or close it. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Detective review does not automatically replace an effective preventive authorization control.
- Audit resources should be allocated according to assessed risk and organizational priorities.
- A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure.
- Audit quality programs should evaluate consistency, methodology and continuous improvement.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure. The corresponding audit procedure is: Sample alert queues, closure timestamps, escalation rules and staff assignments.
Incorrect Answers
A:Detective review does not automatically replace an effective preventive authorization control. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A payroll system uses post-payment anomaly reports but has no approval requirement for changing bank accounts. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure. The governing distinction is: A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure.
B:Audit resources should be allocated according to assessed risk and organizational priorities. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: The annual audit plan gives equal effort to a low-risk intranet and a newly acquired payment processing platform. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure. The governing distinction is: A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure.
D:Audit quality programs should evaluate consistency, methodology and continuous improvement. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An audit team changes sampling procedures each quarter without documenting why results are no longer comparable. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure. The governing distinction is: A detective control must include timely response and accountability to reduce exposure.
Question 98
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: Repeated impossible-travel sign-ins occur before a finance account initiates unusual transfers. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Awareness effectiveness should be measured by behavior and risk reduction, not attendance alone.
- An attack sequence should be assessed using corroborated indicators and business impact.
- Authentication attack risk should be evaluated beyond simple per-address blocking.
- Network segmentation should enforce justified traffic paths and reduce lateral movement.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:An attack sequence should be assessed using corroborated indicators and business impact. The corresponding audit procedure is: Correlate identity, endpoint, transaction logs, device history and session context.
Incorrect Answers
A:Awareness effectiveness should be measured by behavior and risk reduction, not attendance alone. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Annual phishing training records show high completion but employees repeatedly submit credentials to simulated malicious sites. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: An attack sequence should be assessed using corroborated indicators and business impact. The governing distinction is: An attack sequence should be assessed using corroborated indicators and business impact.
C:Authentication attack risk should be evaluated beyond simple per-address blocking. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A customer portal suffers repeated credential-stuffing attempts from rotating IP addresses. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: An attack sequence should be assessed using corroborated indicators and business impact. The governing distinction is: An attack sequence should be assessed using corroborated indicators and business impact.
D:Network segmentation should enforce justified traffic paths and reduce lateral movement. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A production network permits unrestricted traffic from user workstations to a sensitive payment database. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: An attack sequence should be assessed using corroborated indicators and business impact. The governing distinction is: An attack sequence should be assessed using corroborated indicators and business impact.
Question 99
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: A customer portal suffers repeated credential-stuffing attempts from rotating IP addresses. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- Investigation records distinguish confirmed compromise from benign travel anomalies.
- DLP alerts retain useful coverage while confirmed legitimate workflows have fewer unjustified blocks.
- Unauthorized public reads fail and approved access remains auditable.
- Simulated distributed login abuse is throttled without blocking legitimate customers excessively.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Simulated distributed login abuse is throttled without blocking legitimate customers excessively. It addresses information system attack methods and techniques. Underlying audit concern: Authentication attack risk should be evaluated beyond simple per-address blocking.
Incorrect Answers
A:Investigation records distinguish confirmed compromise from benign travel anomalies. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Repeated impossible-travel sign-ins occur before a finance account initiates unusual transfers. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Simulated distributed login abuse is throttled without blocking legitimate customers excessively. The governing distinction is: Authentication attack risk should be evaluated beyond simple per-address blocking.
B:DLP alerts retain useful coverage while confirmed legitimate workflows have fewer unjustified blocks. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A research team labels every file confidential, generating excessive DLP false positives and routine overrides. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Simulated distributed login abuse is throttled without blocking legitimate customers excessively. The governing distinction is: Authentication attack risk should be evaluated beyond simple per-address blocking.
C:Unauthorized public reads fail and approved access remains auditable. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A cloud storage bucket used for personnel data becomes publicly readable after a template change. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Simulated distributed login abuse is throttled without blocking legitimate customers excessively. The governing distinction is: Authentication attack risk should be evaluated beyond simple per-address blocking.
Question 100
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: A completed software project is archived without documenting incidents and change causes from the first operating month. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- The project closure record includes validated benefits, outstanding risks and lessons implemented.
- Production access samples match steady-state roles and exception closure is evidenced.
- Released features and controls map to current approved requirements and tests.
- The patch is traceable, interfaces pass smoke tests and rollback can be executed safely.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:The project closure record includes validated benefits, outstanding risks and lessons implemented. It addresses post-implementation review. Underlying audit concern: Lessons learned and operational handoff should feed governance and future improvements.
Incorrect Answers
B:Production access samples match steady-state roles and exception closure is evidenced. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: After a new billing platform launches, unresolved temporary broad administrator permissions are treated as permanent. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: The project closure record includes validated benefits, outstanding risks and lessons implemented. The governing distinction is: Lessons learned and operational handoff should feed governance and future improvements.
C:Released features and controls map to current approved requirements and tests. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A waterfall project signs off design once, then production requirements change without design traceability. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: The project closure record includes validated benefits, outstanding risks and lessons implemented. The governing distinction is: Lessons learned and operational handoff should feed governance and future improvements.
D:The patch is traceable, interfaces pass smoke tests and rollback can be executed safely. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An emergency patch goes live without a rollback plan or verification of required interfaces. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: The project closure record includes validated benefits, outstanding risks and lessons implemented. The governing distinction is: Lessons learned and operational handoff should feed governance and future improvements.