Isaca CISA Practice Test 74
Question 730
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: A financial transfer job can be rerun after timeout and processes the same payment twice. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- The configuration database identifies the actual application host and dependencies.
- Representative warehouse transactions continue correctly after the planned router change.
- Replayed requests create one authorized business transaction with consistent audit logs.
- Unauthorized script edits are denied and authorized revisions are traceable.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Replayed requests create one authorized business transaction with consistent audit logs. It addresses job scheduling and production process automation. Underlying audit concern: Automated restart must avoid duplicate or incomplete business transactions.
Incorrect Answers
A:The configuration database identifies the actual application host and dependencies. 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 verification is: Replayed requests create one authorized business transaction with consistent audit logs. The governing distinction is: Automated restart must avoid duplicate or incomplete business transactions.
B:Representative warehouse transactions continue correctly after the planned router change. 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 verification is: Replayed requests create one authorized business transaction with consistent audit logs. The governing distinction is: Automated restart must avoid duplicate or incomplete business transactions.
D: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: Replayed requests create one authorized business transaction with consistent audit logs. The governing distinction is: Automated restart must avoid duplicate or incomplete business transactions.
Question 731
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A hospital chooses a cloud imaging service without confirming network reliability or clinical response needs. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Inspect threat model, data contracts, validation placement and rejected-case handling.
- Inspect freeze windows, message queues, processing switches and reconciliation logs.
- Obtain required image volume, response targets, connectivity limits and data obligations.
- Compare actual legacy schema, data quality, integration needs and demonstration assumptions.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Obtain required image volume, response targets, connectivity limits and data obligations. The governing principle is: Feasibility studies should test technical, operational and compliance constraints before selection.
Incorrect Answers
A:Inspect threat model, data contracts, validation placement and rejected-case handling. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A payment API relies on user-supplied transaction values without server-side validation. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Obtain required image volume, response targets, connectivity limits and data obligations. The governing distinction is: Feasibility studies should test technical, operational and compliance constraints before selection.
B:Inspect freeze windows, message queues, processing switches and reconciliation logs. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An ERP cutover leaves the old interface running and duplicates orders in both systems. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Obtain required image volume, response targets, connectivity limits and data obligations. The governing distinction is: Feasibility studies should test technical, operational and compliance constraints before selection.
D:Compare actual legacy schema, data quality, integration needs and demonstration assumptions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A vendor's product demonstration uses sanitized sample data while the production workload needs complex legacy mappings. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Obtain required image volume, response targets, connectivity limits and data obligations. The governing distinction is: Feasibility studies should test technical, operational and compliance constraints before selection.
Question 732
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A cloud analytics environment retains raw regulated data after the approved business retention period. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Data governance requires clear ownership, quality rules and authorized source definitions.
- Compliance obligations vary by location, data activity, contract and regulatory scope.
- Data lifecycle governance must extend to replicas, backups and derived datasets.
- License governance should reconcile entitlement, actual use and lifecycle changes.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Data lifecycle governance must extend to replicas, backups and derived datasets. The corresponding audit procedure is: Map processing copies, retention rules, purge jobs and legal hold exceptions.
Incorrect Answers
A:Data governance requires clear ownership, quality rules and authorized source definitions. 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 principle is: Data lifecycle governance must extend to replicas, backups and derived datasets. The governing distinction is: Data lifecycle governance must extend to replicas, backups and derived datasets.
B:Compliance obligations vary by location, data activity, contract and regulatory scope. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A multinational cloud project assumes a control compliant in one country automatically satisfies every jurisdiction in which data is processed. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Data lifecycle governance must extend to replicas, backups and derived datasets. The governing distinction is: Data lifecycle governance must extend to replicas, backups and derived datasets.
D:License governance should reconcile entitlement, actual use and lifecycle changes. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Software licenses are renewed using last year's device counts despite major decommissioning. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Data lifecycle governance must extend to replicas, backups and derived datasets. The governing distinction is: Data lifecycle governance must extend to replicas, backups and derived datasets.
Question 733
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A new acquisition builds duplicate identity and messaging platforms without considering existing enterprise capabilities. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Privacy response effectiveness depends on a reliable data inventory and ownership.
- Third-party governance must extend material controls and data obligations to subcontractors.
- Enterprise architecture must account for interoperability, information definitions and data flow consistency.
- Enterprise architecture should document target capabilities and integration or rationalization decisions.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Enterprise architecture should document target capabilities and integration or rationalization decisions. The corresponding audit procedure is: Compare current capability maps, technical dependencies and operating costs.
Incorrect Answers
A:Privacy response effectiveness depends on a reliable data inventory and ownership. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An organization receives data subject requests but cannot locate personal records spread across cloud and on-premise systems. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Enterprise architecture should document target capabilities and integration or rationalization decisions. The governing distinction is: Enterprise architecture should document target capabilities and integration or rationalization decisions.
B:Third-party governance must extend material controls and data obligations to subcontractors. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A subcontractor stores confidential records in a region excluded by the prime provider's contract. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Enterprise architecture should document target capabilities and integration or rationalization decisions. The governing distinction is: Enterprise architecture should document target capabilities and integration or rationalization decisions.
C:Enterprise architecture must account for interoperability, information definitions and data flow consistency. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Different departments adopt incompatible master-data formats for the same customer identifier. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Enterprise architecture should document target capabilities and integration or rationalization decisions. The governing distinction is: Enterprise architecture should document target capabilities and integration or rationalization decisions.
Question 734
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A cloud platform is declared ready despite failed high-load tests and no capacity remediation plan. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Project change governance should assess baseline implications before approving scope changes.
- Readiness gates should include measured nonfunctional acceptance under representative demand.
- Post-implementation assurance should confirm transition controls and residual exposures are closed.
- Production readiness needs business acceptance and control testing beyond unit coverage.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Readiness gates should include measured nonfunctional acceptance under representative demand. The corresponding audit procedure is: Compare throughput thresholds, test environment parity and unresolved bottlenecks.
Incorrect Answers
A:Project change governance should assess baseline implications before approving scope changes. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A new enterprise resource planning program frequently expands requirements without cost, risk or schedule review. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Readiness gates should include measured nonfunctional acceptance under representative demand. The governing distinction is: Readiness gates should include measured nonfunctional acceptance under representative demand.
C:Post-implementation assurance should confirm transition controls and residual exposures are closed. 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 principle is: Readiness gates should include measured nonfunctional acceptance under representative demand. The governing distinction is: Readiness gates should include measured nonfunctional acceptance under representative demand.
D:Production readiness needs business acceptance and control testing beyond unit coverage. 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 principle is: Readiness gates should include measured nonfunctional acceptance under representative demand. The governing distinction is: Readiness gates should include measured nonfunctional acceptance under representative demand.
Question 735
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A shared IT helpdesk closes incidents quickly by marking unresolved requests as user error. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Sample closed tickets, reopened cases, user confirmations and resolver notes.
- Review dataset content, applicable classification rules and access decisions.
- Review capacity utilization, workload isolation requirements and asset ownership.
- Compare escaped defects, acceptance tests, release evidence and root-cause trends.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Sample closed tickets, reopened cases, user confirmations and resolver notes. It is more reliable than assuming the claimed control state from discussion alone. The governing principle is: Quality measures can be gamed if closure accuracy and user outcomes are not assessed.
Incorrect Answers
B:Review dataset content, applicable classification rules and access decisions. 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 audit step is: Sample closed tickets, reopened cases, user confirmations and resolver notes. The governing distinction is: Quality measures can be gamed if closure accuracy and user outcomes are not assessed.
C:Review capacity utilization, workload isolation requirements and asset ownership. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An infrastructure team buys additional servers while idle compatible capacity remains unallocated in another business unit. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Sample closed tickets, reopened cases, user confirmations and resolver notes. The governing distinction is: Quality measures can be gamed if closure accuracy and user outcomes are not assessed.
D:Compare escaped defects, acceptance tests, release evidence and root-cause trends. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A software delivery group claims quality because unit tests pass, but repeated severe production incidents persist. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Sample closed tickets, reopened cases, user confirmations and resolver notes. The governing distinction is: Quality measures can be gamed if closure accuracy and user outcomes are not assessed.
Question 736
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A remote-access gateway accepts a password alone for high-impact production administrators. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend promptly preserving appropriately scoped logs and cloud snapshots with custody records.
- Recommend risk-appropriate multifactor authentication with secure recovery methods.
- Recommend restricted emergency access with independent after-use review and periodic exercises.
- Recommend prioritized alert ownership, response playbooks and independent oversight.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Recommend risk-appropriate multifactor authentication with secure recovery methods. The relevant control principle is: Strong authentication should match privileged remote access risk and enterprise policy. A meaningful follow-up should establish: An unauthorized password-only login to privileged remote access is rejected.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend promptly preserving appropriately scoped logs and cloud snapshots with custody records. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A cloud incident investigator exports only the latest activity logs, omitting records from the suspected initial compromise. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend risk-appropriate multifactor authentication with secure recovery methods. The governing distinction is: Strong authentication should match privileged remote access risk and enterprise policy.
C: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 risk-appropriate multifactor authentication with secure recovery methods. The governing distinction is: Strong authentication should match privileged remote access risk and enterprise policy.
D:Recommend prioritized alert ownership, response playbooks and independent oversight. 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 recommendation is: Recommend risk-appropriate multifactor authentication with secure recovery methods. The governing distinction is: Strong authentication should match privileged remote access risk and enterprise policy.
Question 737
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A remote-access gateway accepts a password alone for high-impact production administrators. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Review endpoint process lineage, hash reputation, network flows and host impact.
- Inspect actual rule-hit logs, order, matching conditions and business justifications.
- Review access paths, authentication factors, bypass methods and login activity.
- Examine emergency account custody, activation records, monitoring and reset procedures.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Review access paths, authentication factors, bypass methods and login activity. The governing principle is: Strong authentication should match privileged remote access risk and enterprise policy.
Incorrect Answers
A:Review endpoint process lineage, hash reputation, network flows and host impact. 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 audit step is: Review access paths, authentication factors, bypass methods and login activity. The governing distinction is: Strong authentication should match privileged remote access risk and enterprise policy.
B:Inspect actual rule-hit logs, order, matching conditions and business justifications. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A firewall has a broad any-to-any allow rule placed ahead of new restrictions for a regulated application. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Review access paths, authentication factors, bypass methods and login activity. The governing distinction is: Strong authentication should match privileged remote access risk and enterprise policy.
D:Examine emergency account custody, activation records, monitoring and reset procedures. 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 audit step is: Review access paths, authentication factors, bypass methods and login activity. The governing distinction is: Strong authentication should match privileged remote access risk and enterprise policy.
Question 738
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A continuous monitoring dashboard reports zero failed access attempts because its collection job stopped three days ago. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Analytics-assisted findings still require understandable criteria and independent validation.
- Audit scope must be based on independent assessment of relevant risk rather than auditee preference.
- A zero-exception result is unreliable if data completeness and pipeline health are unverified.
- Audit resources should be allocated according to assessed risk and organizational priorities.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:A zero-exception result is unreliable if data completeness and pipeline health are unverified. The corresponding audit procedure is: Reconcile event volume, source heartbeat, ingestion timestamps and excluded records.
Incorrect Answers
A:Analytics-assisted findings still require understandable criteria and independent validation. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An anomaly model ranks high-value payments as suspicious but the auditor cannot explain its scoring or false-positive rate. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: A zero-exception result is unreliable if data completeness and pipeline health are unverified. The governing distinction is: A zero-exception result is unreliable if data completeness and pipeline health are unverified.
B:Audit scope must be based on independent assessment of relevant risk rather than auditee preference. 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 principle is: A zero-exception result is unreliable if data completeness and pipeline health are unverified. The governing distinction is: A zero-exception result is unreliable if data completeness and pipeline health are unverified.
D: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 zero-exception result is unreliable if data completeness and pipeline health are unverified. The governing distinction is: A zero-exception result is unreliable if data completeness and pipeline health are unverified.
Question 739
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A business owner specifies a one-hour RTO but has never identified which external dependencies must also be restored. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Map payment partners, identity, network, staff and data needed for the service.
- Analyze repeated breaches, business impact, root causes and contractual remedies.
- Review nonfinancial impacts, dependency chains and stakeholder severity scales.
- Compare SLA definitions, user-impacting incidents and critical application dependencies.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Map payment partners, identity, network, staff and data needed for the service. The governing principle is: Recovery objectives must include process dependencies and end-to-end recovery viability.
Incorrect Answers
B:Analyze repeated breaches, business impact, root causes and contractual remedies. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A data processing vendor consistently misses recovery times but management pays service credits without correcting the cause. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Map payment partners, identity, network, staff and data needed for the service. The governing distinction is: Recovery objectives must include process dependencies and end-to-end recovery viability.
C:Review nonfinancial impacts, dependency chains and stakeholder severity scales. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Continuity leadership bases recovery priorities on annual revenue only and ignores safety-critical low-volume services. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Map payment partners, identity, network, staff and data needed for the service. The governing distinction is: Recovery objectives must include process dependencies and end-to-end recovery viability.
D:Compare SLA definitions, user-impacting incidents and critical application dependencies. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A supplier SLA measures network interface uptime while the business requires successful customer transactions. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Map payment partners, identity, network, staff and data needed for the service. The governing distinction is: Recovery objectives must include process dependencies and end-to-end recovery viability.
Question 740
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: After a malware outbreak is closed, identical infections recur because no root-cause or control improvement work is assigned. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend restoring critical module coverage and validating findings with manual review.
- Recommend a risk-based coordinated containment protocol with defined emergency powers.
- Recommend restricted protected signing operations and independent key management oversight.
- Recommend post-incident root-cause actions with accountable verification deadlines.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Recommend post-incident root-cause actions with accountable verification deadlines. The relevant control principle is: Incident lessons learned should improve preventive, detective and response controls. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Repeat infections decline and validated corrective controls remain effective.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend restoring critical module coverage and validating findings with manual review. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A code review tool shows no vulnerabilities after analysts exclude the main authentication module from scanning. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend post-incident root-cause actions with accountable verification deadlines. The governing distinction is: Incident lessons learned should improve preventive, detective and response controls.
B:Recommend a risk-based coordinated containment protocol with defined emergency powers. 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 recommendation is: Recommend post-incident root-cause actions with accountable verification deadlines. The governing distinction is: Incident lessons learned should improve preventive, detective and response controls.
C:Recommend restricted protected signing operations and independent key management oversight. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A certificate authority's signing key is available to several administrators without dual control. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend post-incident root-cause actions with accountable verification deadlines. The governing distinction is: Incident lessons learned should improve preventive, detective and response controls.