Isaca CISA Practice Test 65
Question 640
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A nightly settlement batch fails halfway but the scheduler marks the entire chain successful. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Inspect job exit codes, dependency configuration, completion records and reconciliation totals.
- Review retry logic, transaction identifiers, recovery points and duplicate detection.
- Inspect connector permissions, transferred fields, approval records and process ownership.
- Review approved retention rules, system purge settings, storage capacity and sampled history.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Inspect job exit codes, dependency configuration, completion records and reconciliation totals. The governing principle is: Automated jobs require dependency, exception and completion controls for reliable processing.
Incorrect Answers
B:Review retry logic, transaction identifiers, recovery points and duplicate detection. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A financial transfer job can be rerun after timeout and processes the same payment twice. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Inspect job exit codes, dependency configuration, completion records and reconciliation totals. The governing distinction is: Automated jobs require dependency, exception and completion controls for reliable processing.
C:Inspect connector permissions, transferred fields, approval records and process ownership. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A department builds a low-code workflow that sends customer data to an unknown external connector. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Inspect job exit codes, dependency configuration, completion records and reconciliation totals. The governing distinction is: Automated jobs require dependency, exception and completion controls for reliable processing.
D:Review approved retention rules, system purge settings, storage capacity and sampled history. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A financial application retains operational logs for only a week although investigation rules require six months. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Inspect job exit codes, dependency configuration, completion records and reconciliation totals. The governing distinction is: Automated jobs require dependency, exception and completion controls for reliable processing.
Question 641
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A multinational cloud project assumes a control compliant in one country automatically satisfies every jurisdiction in which data is processed. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend reassessing impact and escalating acceptance above delegated limits.
- Recommend assigned regulatory monitoring and change approval for affected compliance procedures.
- Recommend correcting its label and enforcing corresponding access and handling requirements.
- Recommend a jurisdiction-specific obligation register and tested control mapping for the service.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Recommend a jurisdiction-specific obligation register and tested control mapping for the service. The relevant control principle is: Compliance obligations vary by location, data activity, contract and regulatory scope. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Each data flow and regulated activity maps to approved obligations and demonstrated controls.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend reassessing impact and escalating acceptance above delegated limits. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A department labels a customer outage risk acceptable because its probability is low without evaluating financial impact. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend a jurisdiction-specific obligation register and tested control mapping for the service. The governing distinction is: Compliance obligations vary by location, data activity, contract and regulatory scope.
B:Recommend assigned regulatory monitoring and change approval for affected compliance procedures. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A bank's compliance register still lists a superseded regulatory reporting deadline after a rule change. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend a jurisdiction-specific obligation register and tested control mapping for the service. The governing distinction is: Compliance obligations vary by location, data activity, contract and regulatory scope.
C:Recommend correcting its label and enforcing corresponding access and handling requirements. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A finance spreadsheet contains confidential salary data but is labeled public in the enterprise catalog. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend a jurisdiction-specific obligation register and tested control mapping for the service. The governing distinction is: Compliance obligations vary by location, data activity, contract and regulatory scope.
Question 642
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A critical provider exits the market and the customer has no usable data export or transition rights. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend risk-weighted supplier evaluation with documented approval of material exceptions.
- Report missing management ownership and recommend formal risk treatment assignment.
- Recommend an executable exit strategy with contractual assistance and tested exports.
- Recommend correcting its label and enforcing corresponding access and handling requirements.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Recommend an executable exit strategy with contractual assistance and tested exports. The relevant control principle is: Vendor exit planning is necessary to manage concentration and operational continuity risk. A meaningful follow-up should establish: A rehearsal demonstrates recoverable data and an operationally feasible provider transition.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend risk-weighted supplier evaluation with documented approval of material exceptions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Procurement selects the lowest-cost cloud vendor while ignoring prior security incidents and regulatory audit rights. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an executable exit strategy with contractual assistance and tested exports. The governing distinction is: Vendor exit planning is necessary to manage concentration and operational continuity risk.
B:Report missing management ownership and recommend formal risk treatment assignment. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A risk register identifies unpatched critical servers but assigns the mitigation decision to the auditor. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an executable exit strategy with contractual assistance and tested exports. The governing distinction is: Vendor exit planning is necessary to manage concentration and operational continuity risk.
D:Recommend correcting its label and enforcing corresponding access and handling requirements. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A finance spreadsheet contains confidential salary data but is labeled public in the enterprise catalog. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an executable exit strategy with contractual assistance and tested exports. The governing distinction is: Vendor exit planning is necessary to manage concentration and operational continuity risk.
Question 643
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: An organization receives data subject requests but cannot locate personal records spread across cloud and on-premise systems. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Review data maps, request handling records, search completeness and response time obligations.
- Inspect portability clauses, data format, transition timing and alternative service readiness.
- Assess the processor's actual need, contractual safeguards and available masking methods.
- Inspect category methodologies, thresholds and reporting assumptions.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Review data maps, request handling records, search completeness and response time obligations. The governing principle is: Privacy response effectiveness depends on a reliable data inventory and ownership.
Incorrect Answers
B:Inspect portability clauses, data format, transition timing and alternative service readiness. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A critical provider exits the market and the customer has no usable data export or transition rights. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Review data maps, request handling records, search completeness and response time obligations. The governing distinction is: Privacy response effectiveness depends on a reliable data inventory and ownership.
C:Assess the processor's actual need, contractual safeguards and available masking methods. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A service provider requests full identity documents when a masked identifier would satisfy a support task. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Review data maps, request handling records, search completeness and response time obligations. The governing distinction is: Privacy response effectiveness depends on a reliable data inventory and ownership.
D:Inspect category methodologies, thresholds and reporting assumptions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An enterprise applies one numeric risk score to cyber, safety and privacy exposures despite different materiality definitions. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Review data maps, request handling records, search completeness and response time obligations. The governing distinction is: Privacy response effectiveness depends on a reliable data inventory and ownership.
Question 644
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: Emergency administrator accounts are exempt from monitoring and are never tested until an outage. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Conflicting business permissions create opportunities for unauthorized transactions.
- Key management separation is essential to preserve confidentiality and recovery security.
- Cloud shared responsibility includes customer configuration and continuous misconfiguration detection.
- Break-glass access must be controlled, logged, tested and periodically reauthorized.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Break-glass access must be controlled, logged, tested and periodically reauthorized. The corresponding audit procedure is: Examine emergency account custody, activation records, monitoring and reset procedures.
Incorrect Answers
A:Conflicting business permissions create opportunities for unauthorized transactions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An accounts-payable supervisor can both create vendors and approve their first payments. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Break-glass access must be controlled, logged, tested and periodically reauthorized. The governing distinction is: Break-glass access must be controlled, logged, tested and periodically reauthorized.
B:Key management separation is essential to preserve confidentiality and recovery security. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A team stores database encryption keys in the same unrestricted repository as encrypted backups. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Break-glass access must be controlled, logged, tested and periodically reauthorized. The governing distinction is: Break-glass access must be controlled, logged, tested and periodically reauthorized.
C:Cloud shared responsibility includes customer configuration and continuous misconfiguration detection. 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 principle is: Break-glass access must be controlled, logged, tested and periodically reauthorized. The governing distinction is: Break-glass access must be controlled, logged, tested and periodically reauthorized.
Question 645
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: Two systems independently update the same customer address, producing unpredictable last-write results. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend an authoritative owner and controlled update conflict handling.
- Recommend input validation, exception handling and end-to-end reconciliation.
- Recommend documented alternates and tested activation decision protocols.
- Recommend restricted log changes and independent alerts on collection interruption.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Recommend an authoritative owner and controlled update conflict handling. The relevant control principle is: Interfaces need defined data ownership and conflict-resolution rules. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Conflicting updates resolve consistently with an auditable business rule.
Incorrect Answers
B:Recommend input validation, exception handling and end-to-end reconciliation. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An inventory API responds successfully while silently truncating long product descriptions during integration. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an authoritative owner and controlled update conflict handling. The governing distinction is: Interfaces need defined data ownership and conflict-resolution rules.
C:Recommend documented alternates and tested activation decision protocols. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A continuity plan lists the chief executive as the only emergency decision authority with no alternate. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an authoritative owner and controlled update conflict handling. The governing distinction is: Interfaces need defined data ownership and conflict-resolution rules.
D:Recommend restricted log changes and independent alerts on collection interruption. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Security logs are forwarded to a central platform but administrators can disable forwarding without generating an alert. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend an authoritative owner and controlled update conflict handling. The governing distinction is: Interfaces need defined data ownership and conflict-resolution rules.
Question 646
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: Post-audit follow-up marks a critical password weakness closed solely because management sent a completion email. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Follow-up must evaluate whether remediation controls are effectively implemented, not just promised.
- Remediation after the audit period does not retroactively prove the control operated during that period.
- Actionable audit findings link condition, criteria, cause, effect and corrective ownership.
- Audit quality programs should evaluate consistency, methodology and continuous improvement.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Follow-up must evaluate whether remediation controls are effectively implemented, not just promised. The corresponding audit procedure is: Inspect the new configuration, deployment scope and operational evidence across affected systems.
Incorrect Answers
B:Remediation after the audit period does not retroactively prove the control operated during that period. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An auditee disputes an audit exception by supplying a later control fix, then asks to erase the historical finding. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Follow-up must evaluate whether remediation controls are effectively implemented, not just promised. The governing distinction is: Follow-up must evaluate whether remediation controls are effectively implemented, not just promised.
C:Actionable audit findings link condition, criteria, cause, effect and corrective ownership. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A report calls a firewall exception critical but provides no business impact, cause or responsible owner. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Follow-up must evaluate whether remediation controls are effectively implemented, not just promised. The governing distinction is: Follow-up must evaluate whether remediation controls are effectively implemented, not just promised.
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: Follow-up must evaluate whether remediation controls are effectively implemented, not just promised. The governing distinction is: Follow-up must evaluate whether remediation controls are effectively implemented, not just promised.
Question 647
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: The annual audit plan gives equal effort to a low-risk intranet and a newly acquired payment processing platform. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- Confirmed duplicates and legitimate reversals are separately documented and reproducible.
- The revised charter, staffing and completion criteria agree with actual work performed.
- The approved plan allocates coverage and audit hours in line with documented material risk.
- Engagement scope and limitation disclosures show material risks were not silently omitted.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:The approved plan allocates coverage and audit hours in line with documented material risk. It addresses risk-based audit planning. Underlying audit concern: Audit resources should be allocated according to assessed risk and organizational priorities.
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: The approved plan allocates coverage and audit hours in line with documented material risk. The governing distinction is: Audit resources should be allocated according to assessed risk and organizational priorities.
B: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: The approved plan allocates coverage and audit hours in line with documented material risk. The governing distinction is: Audit resources should be allocated according to assessed risk and organizational priorities.
D:Engagement scope and limitation disclosures show material risks were not silently omitted. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A business unit requests that internal audit review only controls selected by its system owner. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: The approved plan allocates coverage and audit hours in line with documented material risk. The governing distinction is: Audit resources should be allocated according to assessed risk and organizational priorities.
Question 648
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: Different departments adopt incompatible master-data formats for the same customer identifier. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend balanced KPI and KRI reporting with explicit unresolved risk.
- Recommend a governed canonical definition or controlled translation strategy.
- Harmonize procedures or formally approve justified exceptions with assigned owners.
- Recommend evaluating integration alternatives against business and security architecture goals.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Recommend a governed canonical definition or controlled translation strategy. The relevant control principle is: Enterprise architecture must account for interoperability, information definitions and data flow consistency. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Cross-system records reconcile to approved definitions and downstream errors decline.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend balanced KPI and KRI reporting with explicit unresolved risk. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A change program reports all projects green by budget but ignores delayed security deliverables. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend a governed canonical definition or controlled translation strategy. The governing distinction is: Enterprise architecture must account for interoperability, information definitions and data flow consistency.
C:Harmonize procedures or formally approve justified exceptions with assigned owners. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Regional IT teams follow conflicting change-control procedures even though one enterprise policy applies. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend a governed canonical definition or controlled translation strategy. The governing distinction is: Enterprise architecture must account for interoperability, information definitions and data flow consistency.
D:Recommend evaluating integration alternatives against business and security architecture goals. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A new acquisition builds duplicate identity and messaging platforms without considering existing enterprise capabilities. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend a governed canonical definition or controlled translation strategy. The governing distinction is: Enterprise architecture must account for interoperability, information definitions and data flow consistency.
Question 649
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A technology subsidiary adopts a security checklist that cannot be traced to its enterprise risk appetite or legal obligations. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Map significant threats, governing policy, external requirements and checklist control objectives.
- Inspect code scans, leaked-secret events, training scope and remediation quality.
- Review acquisition authorization, image hashes, timestamps and custody transfers.
- Review regulatory differences, baseline requirements, risk assessments and exception approvals.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Map significant threats, governing policy, external requirements and checklist control objectives. The governing principle is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls.
Incorrect Answers
B:Inspect code scans, leaked-secret events, training scope and remediation quality. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Developers complete general security videos but continue committing cloud keys into source repositories. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Map significant threats, governing policy, external requirements and checklist control objectives. The governing distinction is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls.
C:Review acquisition authorization, image hashes, timestamps and custody transfers. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An investigator copies a suspect laptop disk without recording who handled it or whether the image changed. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Map significant threats, governing policy, external requirements and checklist control objectives. The governing distinction is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls.
D:Review regulatory differences, baseline requirements, risk assessments and exception approvals. 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 audit step is: Map significant threats, governing policy, external requirements and checklist control objectives. The governing distinction is: Security governance frameworks should be tailored to organizational risks, obligations and measurable controls.
Question 650
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A recovery site has servers but no validated link to the payment network after a facility loss. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute dependencies.
- Configuration accuracy is necessary for impact analysis and controlled service changes.
- Business impact analysis should prioritize services using documented impact over time.
- DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute dependencies. The corresponding audit procedure is: Review network routes, partner links, certificates and recovery site failover plans.
Incorrect Answers
B:Configuration accuracy is necessary for impact analysis and controlled service changes. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A configuration database lists a retired server as the active owner of a production application. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute dependencies. The governing distinction is: Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute dependencies.
C:Business impact analysis should prioritize services using documented impact over time. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A continuity plan treats a rarely used test portal and a critical emergency dispatch system as equally urgent. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute dependencies. The governing distinction is: Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute dependencies.
D:DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A company rehearses DR annually on a clean weekend but its live recovery window overlaps payroll peaks and storage contention. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute dependencies. The governing distinction is: Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute dependencies.