Isaca CISA Practice Test 77
Question 760
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: A risk register identifies unpatched critical servers but assigns the mitigation decision to the auditor. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- Selected projects link to approved goals and post-investment benefit monitoring.
- The risk record identifies an authorized owner, action, due date and monitored residual risk.
- Risk treatment decisions remain within approved appetite or receive documented authorized escalation.
- IT performance reports demonstrate progress toward business-approved goals.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:The risk record identifies an authorized owner, action, due date and monitored residual risk. It addresses enterprise risk management. Underlying audit concern: Management owns risk treatment; the auditor evaluates its governance and effectiveness.
Incorrect Answers
A:Selected projects link to approved goals and post-investment benefit monitoring. 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 verification is: The risk record identifies an authorized owner, action, due date and monitored residual risk. The governing distinction is: Management owns risk treatment; the auditor evaluates its governance and effectiveness.
C:Risk treatment decisions remain within approved appetite or receive documented authorized escalation. 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 verification is: The risk record identifies an authorized owner, action, due date and monitored residual risk. The governing distinction is: Management owns risk treatment; the auditor evaluates its governance and effectiveness.
D:IT performance reports demonstrate progress toward business-approved goals. 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 verification is: The risk record identifies an authorized owner, action, due date and monitored residual risk. The governing distinction is: Management owns risk treatment; the auditor evaluates its governance and effectiveness.
Question 761
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: Regional IT teams follow conflicting change-control procedures even though one enterprise policy applies. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- IT performance measures must reflect business-service outcomes and relevant dependencies.
- Quality management should evaluate defects, process capability and business outcomes across the lifecycle.
- Standards must be reviewed and changed through formal governance without silently weakening policy.
- Inconsistent procedures can weaken implementation of a common governance control.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Inconsistent procedures can weaken implementation of a common governance control. The corresponding audit procedure is: Compare local workflows, enterprise policy requirements and approved deviations.
Incorrect Answers
A:IT performance measures must reflect business-service outcomes and relevant dependencies. 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 principle is: Inconsistent procedures can weaken implementation of a common governance control. The governing distinction is: Inconsistent procedures can weaken implementation of a common governance control.
B:Quality management should evaluate defects, process capability and business outcomes across the lifecycle. 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 principle is: Inconsistent procedures can weaken implementation of a common governance control. The governing distinction is: Inconsistent procedures can weaken implementation of a common governance control.
C:Standards must be reviewed and changed through formal governance without silently weakening policy. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A legacy security standard remains mandatory even though new approved cloud services cannot technically meet it. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Inconsistent procedures can weaken implementation of a common governance control. The governing distinction is: Inconsistent procedures can weaken implementation of a common governance control.
Question 762
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: Warehouse sensors retain factory passwords and are reachable from the corporate office LAN. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- Former vendor identities cannot reconnect while authorized staff retain service.
- Untrusted office endpoints cannot administer sensors and default passwords no longer work.
- A backup-copy compromise does not grant unauthorized access to the decryption keys.
- Simulated distributed login abuse is throttled without blocking legitimate customers excessively.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Untrusted office endpoints cannot administer sensors and default passwords no longer work. It addresses mobile, wireless, and internet-of-things devices. Underlying audit concern: IoT assets require inventory, secure identity and segmentation proportionate to exposure.
Incorrect Answers
A:Former vendor identities cannot reconnect while authorized staff retain service. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A branch wireless network uses a shared password disclosed to vendors and former employees. In the present case, the most directly relevant verification is: Untrusted office endpoints cannot administer sensors and default passwords no longer work. The governing distinction is: IoT assets require inventory, secure identity and segmentation proportionate to exposure.
C:A backup-copy compromise does not grant unauthorized access to the decryption keys. 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 verification is: Untrusted office endpoints cannot administer sensors and default passwords no longer work. The governing distinction is: IoT assets require inventory, secure identity and segmentation proportionate to exposure.
D:Simulated distributed login abuse is throttled without blocking legitimate customers excessively. 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 verification is: Untrusted office endpoints cannot administer sensors and default passwords no longer work. The governing distinction is: IoT assets require inventory, secure identity and segmentation proportionate to exposure.
Question 763
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A branch wireless network uses a shared password disclosed to vendors and former employees. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend prioritized alert ownership, response playbooks and independent oversight.
- Recommend credential replacement and isolated authorized device communication.
- Recommend individually attributable enterprise authentication and segregated guest access.
- Recommend defined legal and executive notification authority with tested deadlines.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Recommend individually attributable enterprise authentication and segregated guest access. The relevant control principle is: Shared wireless credentials weaken accountability and reliable offboarding. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Former vendor identities cannot reconnect while authorized staff retain service.
Incorrect Answers
A: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 individually attributable enterprise authentication and segregated guest access. The governing distinction is: Shared wireless credentials weaken accountability and reliable offboarding.
B:Recommend credential replacement and isolated authorized device communication. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Warehouse sensors retain factory passwords and are reachable from the corporate office LAN. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend individually attributable enterprise authentication and segregated guest access. The governing distinction is: Shared wireless credentials weaken accountability and reliable offboarding.
D:Recommend defined legal and executive notification authority with tested deadlines. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An organization discovers a reportable personal-data breach but no one knows who can authorize external notification. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend individually attributable enterprise authentication and segregated guest access. The governing distinction is: Shared wireless credentials weaken accountability and reliable offboarding.
Question 764
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A red-team exercise reports success based on one simulated phishing click without demonstrating access or business impact. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend an approved localization and compensating-control process with centralized oversight.
- Recommend evidence-based outcome grading and remediation of tested control gaps.
- Recommend approved controlled testing with coordinated incident-response safeguards.
- Recommend complementary least-privilege access, export monitoring and key governance.
Explanation
Correct Answer
B:Recommend evidence-based outcome grading and remediation of tested control gaps. The relevant control principle is: Testing results should distinguish initial indicators from validated compromise outcomes. A meaningful follow-up should establish: The report links each claimed outcome to reproducible evidence and approved scope.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend an approved localization and compensating-control process with centralized oversight. 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 recommendation is: Recommend evidence-based outcome grading and remediation of tested control gaps. The governing distinction is: Testing results should distinguish initial indicators from validated compromise outcomes.
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 evidence-based outcome grading and remediation of tested control gaps. The governing distinction is: Testing results should distinguish initial indicators from validated compromise outcomes.
D:Recommend complementary least-privilege access, export monitoring and key governance. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A database encrypts storage disks but application administrators can export plaintext sensitive records without monitoring. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend evidence-based outcome grading and remediation of tested control gaps. The governing distinction is: Testing results should distinguish initial indicators from validated compromise outcomes.
Question 765
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: Management reports 99.99% uptime by excluding unscheduled customer-impacting outages from the metric. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Availability calculations require consistently defined scope, denominator and exclusions.
- Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute dependencies.
- Availability analysis must include upstream shared dependencies, not just redundant hosts.
- Business impact includes legal, safety, customer and operational harm beyond revenue.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Availability calculations require consistently defined scope, denominator and exclusions. The corresponding audit procedure is: Compare raw downtime events, contract definitions and reporting transformations.
Incorrect Answers
B:Disaster recovery design must cover external connectivity and noncompute 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 principle is: Availability calculations require consistently defined scope, denominator and exclusions. The governing distinction is: Availability calculations require consistently defined scope, denominator and exclusions.
C:Availability analysis must include upstream shared dependencies, not just redundant hosts. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A redundant web cluster shares one DNS resolver and becomes inaccessible when that resolver fails. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Availability calculations require consistently defined scope, denominator and exclusions. The governing distinction is: Availability calculations require consistently defined scope, denominator and exclusions.
D:Business impact includes legal, safety, customer and operational harm beyond revenue. 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 principle is: Availability calculations require consistently defined scope, denominator and exclusions. The governing distinction is: Availability calculations require consistently defined scope, denominator and exclusions.
Question 766
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A compliance audit is due in four weeks but its only database specialist is assigned to an unrelated engagement. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Auditor objectivity is impaired by assessing one's own recent design work.
- Audit resources should be allocated according to assessed risk and organizational priorities.
- Material scope changes require controlled approval, resource assessment and stakeholder communication.
- Audit project plans must match specialist resources to scope, dependencies and deadlines.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Audit project plans must match specialist resources to scope, dependencies and deadlines. The corresponding audit procedure is: Review required technical tests, skill inventory, schedules and critical-path tasks.
Incorrect Answers
A:Auditor objectivity is impaired by assessing one's own recent design work. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An internal auditor helped configure the privileged-access system now scheduled for an assurance review. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Audit project plans must match specialist resources to scope, dependencies and deadlines. The governing distinction is: Audit project plans must match specialist resources to scope, dependencies and deadlines.
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: Audit project plans must match specialist resources to scope, dependencies and deadlines. The governing distinction is: Audit project plans must match specialist resources to scope, dependencies and deadlines.
C:Material scope changes require controlled approval, resource assessment and stakeholder communication. 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 principle is: Audit project plans must match specialist resources to scope, dependencies and deadlines. The governing distinction is: Audit project plans must match specialist resources to scope, dependencies and deadlines.
Question 767
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A threat-intelligence feed generates blocks for obsolete indicators without regular relevance review. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Compare renewed certificate inventory, deployed endpoints, validity dates and chain health.
- Reconcile endpoint inventory, last-seen data, collection errors and alerting thresholds.
- Trace approved application flows, firewall rules and actual connection logs.
- Inspect feed timestamps, matched events, expiration rules and legitimate-traffic impact.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Inspect feed timestamps, matched events, expiration rules and legitimate-traffic impact. The governing principle is: Threat monitoring should assess indicator freshness, context and false-positive effects.
Incorrect Answers
A:Compare renewed certificate inventory, deployed endpoints, validity dates and chain health. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An internal portal outage follows certificate expiration despite an automated renewal job that reported success. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Inspect feed timestamps, matched events, expiration rules and legitimate-traffic impact. The governing distinction is: Threat monitoring should assess indicator freshness, context and false-positive effects.
B:Reconcile endpoint inventory, last-seen data, collection errors and alerting thresholds. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An endpoint dashboard displays every system as healthy even though remote devices have stopped forwarding telemetry. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Inspect feed timestamps, matched events, expiration rules and legitimate-traffic impact. The governing distinction is: Threat monitoring should assess indicator freshness, context and false-positive effects.
C: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 feed timestamps, matched events, expiration rules and legitimate-traffic impact. The governing distinction is: Threat monitoring should assess indicator freshness, context and false-positive effects.
Question 768
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A penetration test exercises production authentication without authorization or a recovery plan. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend approved controlled testing with coordinated incident-response safeguards.
- Recommend post-renewal service validation and alerting before expiry thresholds.
- Recommend adaptive authentication, rate controls and account protection monitoring.
- Recommend restoring critical module coverage and validating findings with manual review.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Recommend approved controlled testing with coordinated incident-response safeguards. The relevant control principle is: Security testing must have approved scope, safe methods and accountable rules of engagement. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Test evidence demonstrates authorized scope and no unauthorized production disruption.
Incorrect Answers
B:Recommend post-renewal service validation and alerting before expiry thresholds. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: An internal portal outage follows certificate expiration despite an automated renewal job that reported success. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend approved controlled testing with coordinated incident-response safeguards. The governing distinction is: Security testing must have approved scope, safe methods and accountable rules of engagement.
C:Recommend adaptive authentication, rate controls and account protection monitoring. 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 recommendation is: Recommend approved controlled testing with coordinated incident-response safeguards. The governing distinction is: Security testing must have approved scope, safe methods and accountable rules of engagement.
D: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 approved controlled testing with coordinated incident-response safeguards. The governing distinction is: Security testing must have approved scope, safe methods and accountable rules of engagement.
Question 769
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A company rehearses DR annually on a clean weekend but its live recovery window overlaps payroll peaks and storage contention. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Compare NTP status, clock drift, timezone settings and source event timestamps.
- Group incident trends, known error records and evidence of shared failure conditions.
- Review network routes, partner links, certificates and recovery site failover plans.
- Compare exercise load, peak utilization, business windows and recovery capacity.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Compare exercise load, peak utilization, business windows and recovery capacity. The governing principle is: DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints.
Incorrect Answers
A:Compare NTP status, clock drift, timezone settings and source event timestamps. 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 audit step is: Compare exercise load, peak utilization, business windows and recovery capacity. The governing distinction is: DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints.
B:Group incident trends, known error records and evidence of shared failure conditions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A helpdesk repeatedly reopens application errors but closes each ticket without investigating a shared underlying defect. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Compare exercise load, peak utilization, business windows and recovery capacity. The governing distinction is: DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints.
C:Review network routes, partner links, certificates and recovery site failover plans. 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 audit step is: Compare exercise load, peak utilization, business windows and recovery capacity. The governing distinction is: DR readiness should be tested under credible operational demand and resource constraints.
Question 770
Management reports that this issue has been corrected: A subcontractor stores confidential records in a region excluded by the prime provider's contract. Which result would provide the STRONGEST assurance that the issue is corrected?
- Verified storage locations and downstream contracts align with permitted processing.
- The selected vendor meets mandatory criteria or has approved documented mitigation.
- A new requirement is assessed, implemented and evidenced before its effective date.
- Approved architecture records explain shared or separated platforms and their tradeoffs.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Verified storage locations and downstream contracts align with permitted processing. It addresses it vendor management. Underlying audit concern: Third-party governance must extend material controls and data obligations to subcontractors.
Incorrect Answers
B:The selected vendor meets mandatory criteria or has approved documented mitigation. 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 verification is: Verified storage locations and downstream contracts align with permitted processing. The governing distinction is: Third-party governance must extend material controls and data obligations to subcontractors.
C:A new requirement is assessed, implemented and evidenced before its effective date. 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 verification is: Verified storage locations and downstream contracts align with permitted processing. The governing distinction is: Third-party governance must extend material controls and data obligations to subcontractors.
D:Approved architecture records explain shared or separated platforms and their tradeoffs. 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 verification is: Verified storage locations and downstream contracts align with permitted processing. The governing distinction is: Third-party governance must extend material controls and data obligations to subcontractors.