Isaca CISA Practice Test 14
Question 130
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: A mobile-banking project reaches launch without an accountable sponsor for unresolved regulatory requirements. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- Production permissions match reviewed baselines and exceptions have documented approval.
- The steering committee sees verified readiness, risk and dependency status before decisions.
- Representative payroll runs calculate and post deductions correctly before deployment.
- Launch authorization shows accountable acceptance of all material residual issues.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Launch authorization shows accountable acceptance of all material residual issues. It addresses project governance and management. Underlying audit concern: Project governance requires clear business ownership and formal acceptance of material risk.
Incorrect Answers
A:Production permissions match reviewed baselines and exceptions have documented approval. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A production release changes database permissions manually after the reviewed deployment package was approved. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Launch authorization shows accountable acceptance of all material residual issues. The governing distinction is: Project governance requires clear business ownership and formal acceptance of material risk.
B:The steering committee sees verified readiness, risk and dependency status before decisions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A program steering committee receives status reports from one vendor but has no visibility into independent testing delays. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Launch authorization shows accountable acceptance of all material residual issues. The governing distinction is: Project governance requires clear business ownership and formal acceptance of material risk.
C:Representative payroll runs calculate and post deductions correctly before deployment. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A payroll release passes developer unit tests but has never completed end-to-end statutory deduction testing. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Launch authorization shows accountable acceptance of all material residual issues. The governing distinction is: Project governance requires clear business ownership and formal acceptance of material risk.
Question 131
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A company rehearses DR annually on a clean weekend but its live recovery window overlaps payroll peaks and storage contention. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend dependency monitoring and feasible identity-service continuity controls.
- Recommend integrated DR connectivity testing and remediation of broken dependencies.
- Recommend representative scenario tests including concurrent demand and decision roles.
- Recommend monitored time synchronization and documented analysis normalization.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Recommend representative scenario tests including concurrent demand and decision roles. The relevant control principle is: DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints. A meaningful follow-up should establish: A measured peak-like exercise meets agreed recovery times and identifies capacity shortfalls.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend dependency monitoring and feasible identity-service continuity controls. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A cloud-hosted application has healthy virtual machines but customer logins fail when its external identity service is unavailable. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend representative scenario tests including concurrent demand and decision roles. The governing distinction is: DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints.
B:Recommend integrated DR connectivity testing and remediation of broken dependencies. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A recovery site has servers but no validated link to the payment network after a facility loss. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend representative scenario tests including concurrent demand and decision roles. The governing distinction is: DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints.
D:Recommend monitored time synchronization and documented analysis normalization. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Multiple servers use unsynchronized clocks so a transaction appears to complete before it begins. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend representative scenario tests including concurrent demand and decision roles. The governing distinction is: DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints.
Question 132
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A ransomware incident plan focuses on restoring files but omits containment of compromised privileged identities. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Incident response must coordinate containment, eradication, restoration and business decision-making.
- Provider assurances do not automatically cover customer-operated security responsibilities.
- Containment decisions must consider urgency, safety, business impact and authorized coordination.
- Attack analysis should connect execution, persistence and communications evidence.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Incident response must coordinate containment, eradication, restoration and business decision-making. The corresponding audit procedure is: Inspect incident timeline, affected identities, lateral movement and backup integrity.
Incorrect Answers
B:Provider assurances do not automatically cover customer-operated security responsibilities. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A cloud provider's assurance report covers physical facilities but the customer's tenant encryption and IAM are untested. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Incident response must coordinate containment, eradication, restoration and business decision-making. The governing distinction is: Incident response must coordinate containment, eradication, restoration and business decision-making.
C:Containment decisions must consider urgency, safety, business impact and authorized coordination. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A security team isolates a suspicious server without informing its critical care business owner, interrupting clinical operations. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Incident response must coordinate containment, eradication, restoration and business decision-making. The governing distinction is: Incident response must coordinate containment, eradication, restoration and business decision-making.
D:Attack analysis should connect execution, persistence and communications evidence. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A malicious attachment launches a child process and connects to an unfamiliar command server. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Incident response must coordinate containment, eradication, restoration and business decision-making. The governing distinction is: Incident response must coordinate containment, eradication, restoration and business decision-making.
Question 133
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A production network permits unrestricted traffic from user workstations to a sensitive payment database. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Inspect incident timeline, affected identities, lateral movement and backup integrity.
- Review detection events, escalation thresholds, staffing and resolution histories.
- Inspect failure patterns, compromised-account indicators, bot signals and MFA coverage.
- Trace approved application flows, firewall rules and actual connection logs.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Trace approved application flows, firewall rules and actual connection logs. The governing principle is: Network segmentation should enforce justified traffic paths and reduce lateral movement.
Incorrect Answers
A:Inspect incident timeline, affected identities, lateral movement and backup integrity. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A ransomware incident plan focuses on restoring files but omits containment of compromised privileged identities. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Trace approved application flows, firewall rules and actual connection logs. The governing distinction is: Network segmentation should enforce justified traffic paths and reduce lateral movement.
B:Review detection events, escalation thresholds, staffing and resolution histories. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A company implements a network intrusion detector but does not assign anyone to triage severe alerts. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Trace approved application flows, firewall rules and actual connection logs. The governing distinction is: Network segmentation should enforce justified traffic paths and reduce lateral movement.
C:Inspect failure patterns, compromised-account indicators, bot signals and MFA coverage. 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 audit step is: Trace approved application flows, firewall rules and actual connection logs. The governing distinction is: Network segmentation should enforce justified traffic paths and reduce lateral movement.
Question 134
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: An attacker encrypts production files and online backups because both use the same compromised admin identity. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- A compromised production identity cannot erase every recovery copy and restore tests pass.
- The integration reads required views but cannot modify protected tables.
- Restored data is complete, usable and recovered within approved objectives.
- Active licenses, contract costs and actual deployments agree within documented exceptions.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:A compromised production identity cannot erase every recovery copy and restore tests pass. It addresses data backup, storage, and restoration. Underlying audit concern: Backup resilience needs separation and protected immutable or offline recovery copies.
Incorrect Answers
B:The integration reads required views but cannot modify protected tables. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A production database account has unrestricted privileges for a read-only reporting integration. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: A compromised production identity cannot erase every recovery copy and restore tests pass. The governing distinction is: Backup resilience needs separation and protected immutable or offline recovery copies.
C:Restored data is complete, usable and recovered within approved objectives. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An enterprise calls backups successful because jobs complete, but no recent restoration test has been performed. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: A compromised production identity cannot erase every recovery copy and restore tests pass. The governing distinction is: Backup resilience needs separation and protected immutable or offline recovery copies.
D:Active licenses, contract costs and actual deployments agree within documented exceptions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A company continues paying software maintenance for applications deleted during a consolidation. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: A compromised production identity cannot erase every recovery copy and restore tests pass. The governing distinction is: Backup resilience needs separation and protected immutable or offline recovery copies.
Question 135
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A technology steering group approves projects without showing how they support the organization's strategic priorities. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend objective-linked strategic goals, budgets and measurable service outcomes.
- Recommend closure quality controls and independent customer outcome metrics.
- Recommend service-level indicators that correlate technical health with business availability.
- Recommend an accountable portfolio review that documents strategic rationale and benefit measures.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Recommend an accountable portfolio review that documents strategic rationale and benefit measures. The relevant control principle is: IT governance should align technology investment decisions with enterprise objectives and expected benefits. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Selected projects link to approved goals and post-investment benefit monitoring.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend objective-linked strategic goals, budgets and measurable service outcomes. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An IT strategy document lists new tools but has no targets for customer availability or service costs. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an accountable portfolio review that documents strategic rationale and benefit measures. The governing distinction is: IT governance should align technology investment decisions with enterprise objectives and expected benefits.
B:Recommend closure quality controls and independent customer outcome metrics. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A shared IT helpdesk closes incidents quickly by marking unresolved requests as user error. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an accountable portfolio review that documents strategic rationale and benefit measures. The governing distinction is: IT governance should align technology investment decisions with enterprise objectives and expected benefits.
C:Recommend service-level indicators that correlate technical health with business availability. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: The IT dashboard shows 100 percent server uptime while customers report failed checkout transactions. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an accountable portfolio review that documents strategic rationale and benefit measures. The governing distinction is: IT governance should align technology investment decisions with enterprise objectives and expected benefits.
Question 136
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: Management offers ten handpicked successful failover demonstrations as evidence that every critical service has tested recovery. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- A revised audit universe and schedule explicitly cover newly material acquisition risks.
- Selected items reconcile to the inventory and any gaps are reflected in the final conclusion.
- An attempted single-user dual approval is blocked and the two identities appear in audit evidence.
- The reporting workpaper transparently reconciles exceptions to the supported conclusion.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Selected items reconcile to the inventory and any gaps are reflected in the final conclusion. It addresses audit testing and sampling methodology. Underlying audit concern: Judgmentally selected favorable examples cannot support a population-wide effectiveness conclusion.
Incorrect Answers
A:A revised audit universe and schedule explicitly cover newly material acquisition risks. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A merger adds a regulated customer database after the audit plan was approved, but the plan is treated as unchangeable. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Selected items reconcile to the inventory and any gaps are reflected in the final conclusion. The governing distinction is: Judgmentally selected favorable examples cannot support a population-wide effectiveness conclusion.
C:An attempted single-user dual approval is blocked and the two identities appear in audit evidence. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A new security control requires two operators to approve destructive data deletion, but both approvals can use one shared account. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Selected items reconcile to the inventory and any gaps are reflected in the final conclusion. The governing distinction is: Judgmentally selected favorable examples cannot support a population-wide effectiveness conclusion.
D:The reporting workpaper transparently reconciles exceptions to the supported conclusion. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A sample of authorized changes contains failures, yet the auditor extrapolates a zero-percent exception rate. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Selected items reconcile to the inventory and any gaps are reflected in the final conclusion. The governing distinction is: Judgmentally selected favorable examples cannot support a population-wide effectiveness conclusion.
Question 137
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A technology subsidiary adopts a security checklist that cannot be traced to its enterprise risk appetite or legal obligations. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Framework implementation should address local constraints without unreviewed security gaps.
- Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls.
- Overbroad classification can undermine effective enforcement and incident response.
- Containment decisions must consider urgency, safety, business impact and authorized coordination.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls. The corresponding audit procedure is: Map significant threats, governing policy, external requirements and checklist control objectives.
Incorrect Answers
A:Framework implementation should address local constraints without unreviewed security gaps. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A regional business copies a global security baseline but has no documented exceptions for local privacy restrictions. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls. The governing distinction is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls.
C:Overbroad classification can undermine effective enforcement and incident response. 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 principle is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls. The governing distinction is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls.
D:Containment decisions must consider urgency, safety, business impact and authorized coordination. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A security team isolates a suspicious server without informing its critical care business owner, interrupting clinical operations. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls. The governing distinction is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls.
Question 138
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: An audit team changes sampling procedures each quarter without documenting why results are no longer comparable. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- Confirmed duplicates and legitimate reversals are separately documented and reproducible.
- Later engagements show consistent method application and explain justified departures.
- The revised charter, staffing and completion criteria agree with actual work performed.
- Closure is supported by test evidence; failed or partial fixes remain open with escalation.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Later engagements show consistent method application and explain justified departures. It addresses quality assurance and improvement of audit process. Underlying audit concern: Audit quality programs should evaluate consistency, methodology and continuous improvement.
Incorrect Answers
A:Confirmed duplicates and legitimate reversals are separately documented and reproducible. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An auditor flags duplicated supplier invoices by invoice number alone and ignores vendor identifiers and credit notes. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Later engagements show consistent method application and explain justified departures. The governing distinction is: Audit quality programs should evaluate consistency, methodology and continuous improvement.
C:The revised charter, staffing and completion criteria agree with actual work performed. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Fieldwork expands to a new subsidiary without updating the approved engagement scope or communicating budget impact. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Later engagements show consistent method application and explain justified departures. The governing distinction is: Audit quality programs should evaluate consistency, methodology and continuous improvement.
D:Closure is supported by test evidence; failed or partial fixes remain open with escalation. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Post-audit follow-up marks a critical password weakness closed solely because management sent a completion email. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Later engagements show consistent method application and explain justified departures. The governing distinction is: Audit quality programs should evaluate consistency, methodology and continuous improvement.
Question 139
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A data center's redundant power feeds terminate at the same upstream distribution panel. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Trace approved application flows, firewall rules and actual connection logs.
- Inspect one-line diagrams, panel dependencies, generator capacity and test history.
- Review thermal baselines, alarm thresholds, sensor coverage and escalation records.
- Map significant threats, governing policy, external requirements and checklist control objectives.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Inspect one-line diagrams, panel dependencies, generator capacity and test history. The governing principle is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains.
Incorrect Answers
A:Trace approved application flows, firewall rules and actual connection logs. 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 audit step is: Inspect one-line diagrams, panel dependencies, generator capacity and test history. The governing distinction is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains.
C:Review thermal baselines, alarm thresholds, sensor coverage and escalation records. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A fire-suppression system passes annual inspections but a rack's temperature sensors have never alarmed under test. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Inspect one-line diagrams, panel dependencies, generator capacity and test history. The governing distinction is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains.
D:Map significant threats, governing policy, external requirements and checklist control objectives. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A technology subsidiary adopts a security checklist that cannot be traced to its enterprise risk appetite or legal obligations. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Inspect one-line diagrams, panel dependencies, generator capacity and test history. The governing distinction is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains.
Question 140
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A regional business copies a global security baseline but has no documented exceptions for local privacy restrictions. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend a risk-based framework mapping with accountable control owners and periodic review.
- Recommend restricted emergency access with independent after-use review and periodic exercises.
- Recommend approved controlled testing with coordinated incident-response safeguards.
- Recommend an approved localization and compensating-control process with centralized oversight.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Recommend an approved localization and compensating-control process with centralized oversight. The relevant control principle is: Framework implementation should address local constraints without unreviewed security gaps. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Regional implementations satisfy both corporate security intent and applicable legal obligations.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend a risk-based framework mapping with accountable control owners and periodic review. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A technology subsidiary adopts a security checklist that cannot be traced to its enterprise risk appetite or legal obligations. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an approved localization and compensating-control process with centralized oversight. The governing distinction is: Framework implementation should address local constraints without unreviewed security gaps.
B:Recommend restricted emergency access with independent after-use review and periodic exercises. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Emergency administrator accounts are exempt from monitoring and are never tested until an outage. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an approved localization and compensating-control process with centralized oversight. The governing distinction is: Framework implementation should address local constraints without unreviewed security gaps.
C:Recommend approved controlled testing with coordinated incident-response safeguards. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A penetration test exercises production authentication without authorization or a recovery plan. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an approved localization and compensating-control process with centralized oversight. The governing distinction is: Framework implementation should address local constraints without unreviewed security gaps.