Isaca CISA Practice Test 78
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 This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A bank's compliance register still lists a superseded regulatory reporting deadline after a rule change.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.
Question 771
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A service provider requests full identity documents when a masked identifier would satisfy a support task. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Assess the processor's actual need, contractual safeguards and available masking methods.
- Inspect exception age, business justification, compensating controls and renewal approval.
- Review data maps, request handling records, search completeness and response time obligations.
- Trace project approvals to business strategies, benefit owners and funding criteria.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Assess the processor's actual need, contractual safeguards and available masking methods. The governing principle is: Privacy controls should minimize personal data shared with processors.
Incorrect Answers
B:Inspect exception age, business justification, compensating controls and renewal approval. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A vendor incident triggers a temporary exception but the residual risk is never reconsidered after six months. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Assess the processor's actual need, contractual safeguards and available masking methods. The governing distinction is: Privacy controls should minimize personal data shared with processors.
C:Review data maps, request handling records, search completeness and response time obligations. 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 audit step is: Assess the processor's actual need, contractual safeguards and available masking methods. The governing distinction is: Privacy controls should minimize personal data shared with processors.
D:Trace project approvals to business strategies, benefit owners and funding criteria. 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 audit step is: Assess the processor's actual need, contractual safeguards and available masking methods. The governing distinction is: Privacy controls should minimize personal data shared with processors.
Question 772
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A company implements a network intrusion detector but does not assign anyone to triage severe alerts. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Detection requires an accountable response workflow to reduce business impact.
- Forensic evidence requires documented custody and integrity from acquisition through analysis.
- Role-specific training and technical controls should address actual high-risk behaviors.
- Policy order and scope determine the effective network control, not the existence of later rules.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Detection requires an accountable response workflow to reduce business impact. The corresponding audit procedure is: Review detection events, escalation thresholds, staffing and resolution histories.
Incorrect Answers
B:Forensic evidence requires documented custody and integrity from acquisition through analysis. 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 principle is: Detection requires an accountable response workflow to reduce business impact. The governing distinction is: Detection requires an accountable response workflow to reduce business impact.
C:Role-specific training and technical controls should address actual high-risk behaviors. 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 principle is: Detection requires an accountable response workflow to reduce business impact. The governing distinction is: Detection requires an accountable response workflow to reduce business impact.
D:Policy order and scope determine the effective network control, not the existence of later rules. 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 principle is: Detection requires an accountable response workflow to reduce business impact. The governing distinction is: Detection requires an accountable response workflow to reduce business impact.
Question 773
An IS auditor is preparing recommendations after reviewing this situation: A database is replicated across two racks but both racks depend on the same cooling circuit. Which recommendation would BEST address the identified weakness?
- Recommend tracked handoff and approved sanitization verification before disposal.
- Recommend representative scenario tests including concurrent demand and decision roles.
- Recommend independent failure domains or formally accepted residual exposure.
- Recommend resilient name resolution and failure testing for critical client access.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Recommend independent failure domains or formally accepted residual exposure. The relevant control principle is: Resilience requires identifying physical common-cause failures beyond logical redundancy. A meaningful follow-up should establish: Loss of one cooling component does not violate approved service continuity requirements.
Incorrect Answers
A:Recommend tracked handoff and approved sanitization verification before disposal. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A retail chain replaces laptops but leaves decommissioned drives untracked with a disposal contractor. In the present case, the most directly relevant recommendation is: Recommend independent failure domains or formally accepted residual exposure. The governing distinction is: Resilience requires identifying physical common-cause failures beyond logical redundancy.
B:Recommend representative scenario tests including concurrent demand and decision roles. 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 recommendation is: Recommend independent failure domains or formally accepted residual exposure. The governing distinction is: Resilience requires identifying physical common-cause failures beyond logical redundancy.
D:Recommend resilient name resolution and failure testing for critical client access. 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 recommendation is: Recommend independent failure domains or formally accepted residual exposure. The governing distinction is: Resilience requires identifying physical common-cause failures beyond logical redundancy.
Question 774
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: Fieldwork expands to a new subsidiary without updating the approved engagement scope or communicating budget impact. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Inspect model inputs, thresholds, precision results and representative flagged cases.
- Review required technical tests, skill inventory, schedules and critical-path tasks.
- Compare approved charter, new testing requests, risk justification and effort forecast.
- Inspect the new configuration, deployment scope and operational evidence across affected systems.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Compare approved charter, new testing requests, risk justification and effort forecast. The governing principle is: Material scope changes require controlled approval, resource assessment and stakeholder communication.
Incorrect Answers
A:Inspect model inputs, thresholds, precision results and representative flagged cases. 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 audit step is: Compare approved charter, new testing requests, risk justification and effort forecast. The governing distinction is: Material scope changes require controlled approval, resource assessment and stakeholder communication.
B:Review required technical tests, skill inventory, schedules and critical-path tasks. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A compliance audit is due in four weeks but its only database specialist is assigned to an unrelated engagement. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Compare approved charter, new testing requests, risk justification and effort forecast. The governing distinction is: Material scope changes require controlled approval, resource assessment and stakeholder communication.
D:Inspect the new configuration, deployment scope and operational evidence across affected systems. 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 audit step is: Compare approved charter, new testing requests, risk justification and effort forecast. The governing distinction is: Material scope changes require controlled approval, resource assessment and stakeholder communication.
Question 775
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A regional outage exercise reveals that business partners were never included in the communications tree. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Continuity communication should address external dependencies and affected stakeholders.
- BCP governance requires delegation and clear command arrangements under disruption.
- Recovery objectives must include process dependencies and end-to-end recovery viability.
- Resilience planning must include external and supporting infrastructure dependencies.
Explanation
Correct Answer
A:Continuity communication should address external dependencies and affected stakeholders. The corresponding audit procedure is: Review partner contacts, contract notices, channels and exercise feedback.
Incorrect Answers
B:BCP governance requires delegation and clear command arrangements under disruption. 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 principle is: Continuity communication should address external dependencies and affected stakeholders. The governing distinction is: Continuity communication should address external dependencies and affected stakeholders.
C:Recovery objectives must include process dependencies and end-to-end recovery viability. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A business owner specifies a one-hour RTO but has never identified which external dependencies must also be restored. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Continuity communication should address external dependencies and affected stakeholders. The governing distinction is: Continuity communication should address external dependencies and affected stakeholders.
D:Resilience planning must include external and supporting infrastructure dependencies. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A supplier dependency map omits a critical cloud DNS service used by every customer-facing application. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Continuity communication should address external dependencies and affected stakeholders. The governing distinction is: Continuity communication should address external dependencies and affected stakeholders.
Question 776
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A data center's redundant power feeds terminate at the same upstream distribution panel. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Privileged access should be individually attributable and constrained by least privilege.
- Environmental protection requires functioning detection, alerting and appropriate response.
- Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains.
- Data loss controls should be tied to classification, legitimate purpose and authorized exfiltration paths.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains. The corresponding audit procedure is: Inspect one-line diagrams, panel dependencies, generator capacity and test history.
Incorrect Answers
A:Privileged access should be individually attributable and constrained by least privilege. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Privileged database administrators routinely use shared root credentials without individual attribution. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains. The governing distinction is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains.
B:Environmental protection requires functioning detection, alerting and appropriate response. 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 principle is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains. The governing distinction is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains.
D:Data loss controls should be tied to classification, legitimate purpose and authorized exfiltration paths. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A customer service portal allows employees to export unrestricted copies of all customer identity documents. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains. The governing distinction is: Electrical resilience depends on independence of power paths and verified failure domains.
Question 777
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A disaster recovery runbook lists server boot order but omits database integrity and application acceptance tests. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Compare NTP status, clock drift, timezone settings and source event timestamps.
- Compare severity criteria, initial alerts, notification times and response records.
- Review network routes, partner links, certificates and recovery site failover plans.
- Inspect intertier dependencies, RTO/RPO, test scripts and business sign-off criteria.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Inspect intertier dependencies, RTO/RPO, test scripts and business sign-off criteria. The governing principle is: DR plans must restore usable business capabilities, not merely power on infrastructure.
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: Inspect intertier dependencies, RTO/RPO, test scripts and business sign-off criteria. The governing distinction is: DR plans must restore usable business capabilities, not merely power on infrastructure.
B:Compare severity criteria, initial alerts, notification times and response records. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A major cyber outage is escalated only after normal helpdesk response times expire. In the present case, the most directly relevant audit step is: Inspect intertier dependencies, RTO/RPO, test scripts and business sign-off criteria. The governing distinction is: DR plans must restore usable business capabilities, not merely power on infrastructure.
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: Inspect intertier dependencies, RTO/RPO, test scripts and business sign-off criteria. The governing distinction is: DR plans must restore usable business capabilities, not merely power on infrastructure.
Question 778
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A departed finance employee's account remains enabled in a payroll application after HR termination. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Forensic evidence requires documented custody and integrity from acquisition through analysis.
- Preserving original evidence is essential for reliable investigation and potential legal use.
- Identity lifecycle controls should promptly revoke access when authorization ends.
- Access reviews require knowledgeable business ownership of authorization decisions.
Explanation
Correct Answer
C:Identity lifecycle controls should promptly revoke access when authorization ends. The corresponding audit procedure is: Reconcile HR termination timestamps, application login records and account disablement.
Incorrect Answers
A:Forensic evidence requires documented custody and integrity from acquisition through analysis. 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 principle is: Identity lifecycle controls should promptly revoke access when authorization ends. The governing distinction is: Identity lifecycle controls should promptly revoke access when authorization ends.
B:Preserving original evidence is essential for reliable investigation and potential legal use. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Security staff begin forensic analysis directly on a live original log file and overwrite timestamps. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Identity lifecycle controls should promptly revoke access when authorization ends. The governing distinction is: Identity lifecycle controls should promptly revoke access when authorization ends.
D:Access reviews require knowledgeable business ownership of authorization decisions. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A quarterly access certification is completed by a system administrator who cannot identify the employees' current business responsibilities. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Identity lifecycle controls should promptly revoke access when authorization ends. The governing distinction is: Identity lifecycle controls should promptly revoke access when authorization ends.
Question 779
Before reaching an audit conclusion, consider: A lost employee phone still accesses confidential mail because device compliance and remote wipe were never enabled. Which evidence should the auditor review FIRST to evaluate this risk?
- Inspect actual rule-hit logs, order, matching conditions and business justifications.
- Inspect wireless authentication settings, credential distribution and access logs.
- Review key boundaries, export permissions, data access logs and classification.
- Review MDM coverage, token expiry, remote-wipe procedures and mailbox sessions.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Review MDM coverage, token expiry, remote-wipe procedures and mailbox sessions. The governing principle is: Mobile management should enforce enrollment, encryption and revocation when devices are lost.
Incorrect Answers
A: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 MDM coverage, token expiry, remote-wipe procedures and mailbox sessions. The governing distinction is: Mobile management should enforce enrollment, encryption and revocation when devices are lost.
B:Inspect wireless authentication settings, credential distribution and access logs. 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 audit step is: Review MDM coverage, token expiry, remote-wipe procedures and mailbox sessions. The governing distinction is: Mobile management should enforce enrollment, encryption and revocation when devices are lost.
C:Review key boundaries, export permissions, data access logs and classification. 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 audit step is: Review MDM coverage, token expiry, remote-wipe procedures and mailbox sessions. The governing distinction is: Mobile management should enforce enrollment, encryption and revocation when devices are lost.
Question 780
An IS auditor evaluates this situation: A spreadsheet with editable formulas calculates regulatory capital but has no validation or change history. Which audit principle MOST directly applies to this situation?
- Database operations require monitored storage, retention and recovery capacity.
- Unsanctioned services can bypass enterprise security, retention and legal controls.
- Operational resilience requires evaluation of common-mode dependencies.
- Critical end-user computing requires integrity, access and change controls proportionate to risk.
Explanation
Correct Answer
D:Critical end-user computing requires integrity, access and change controls proportionate to risk. The corresponding audit procedure is: Review spreadsheet logic, versioning, reconciliations, owners and manual overrides.
Incorrect Answers
A:Database operations require monitored storage, retention and recovery capacity. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Database transaction logs fill the only disk volume and cause a payment service outage. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Critical end-user computing requires integrity, access and change controls proportionate to risk. The governing distinction is: Critical end-user computing requires integrity, access and change controls proportionate to risk.
B:Unsanctioned services can bypass enterprise security, retention and legal controls. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: A sales team stores client contracts in an unapproved personal file-sharing account for convenience. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Critical end-user computing requires integrity, access and change controls proportionate to risk. The governing distinction is: Critical end-user computing requires integrity, access and change controls proportionate to risk.
C:Operational resilience requires evaluation of common-mode dependencies. This would be relevant to a different issue such as: Two data centers have separate buildings but share one telecom carrier and underground duct. In the present case, the most directly relevant principle is: Critical end-user computing requires integrity, access and change controls proportionate to risk. The governing distinction is: Critical end-user computing requires integrity, access and change controls proportionate to risk.