Information Systems Operations 2

Question 1

How could an IS auditor most effectively detect when a programmer maliciously modified a production program to change the original code?

Answer 1

Reviewing system log files

Why? - Because this is more than likely the only trail that may provide information about the unauthorized activities in the production library

Question 2

What is an effective performance monitoring tool for an IS auditor?

Answer 2

Availability

i.e. the characteristic that is most directly affected by network monitoring is availability

Why? - Because network monitoring tools allow observation of network performance and problems.

Question 3

What method would be most effective for ensuring production source code and object code are synchronized?

Answer 3

Date and time-stamp reviews of source and object code

i.e. This would ensure that source code, which has been compiled, matches the production object code

Question 4

What is the objective of concurrency control in a database system?

Answer 4

To ensure integrity when two processes attempt to update the same data at the same time

Note: Concurrency controls prevent data integrity problems

Question 5

What would the effect of increased denormalization to tables within a system database cause?

Answer 5

Increased redundancy

Note: Normalization is a design or optimization process for a relational database that increases redundancy

Question 6

What would be considered a network diagnostic tool that monitors and records network information?

Answer 6

Protocol analyzer

i.e. This network diagnostic tool monitors and records network information from packets traveling in the link to which the analyzer is attached

Question 7

What measure would help to ensure the portability of an application connected to a database?

Answer 7

Use of Structured Query Language (SQL)

Why? - because it is an industry standard used by many systems.

Question 8

What is a critical component in networking management?

Answer 8

Configuration and change management

Why? - Because on one end, configuration management establishes how the network will function internally and externally; and

• Change management ensures that the setup and management of the network is done properly

Question 9

What audit procedure would help determine if unauthorized changes have been made to production code?

Answer 9

Examining object code to find instances of changes and tracing them back to change control records

i.e. The process begins by examining object code files to establish instances of code changes

Question 10

What is a prevalent risk in the development of end-user computing applications?

Answer 10

Applications may not be subject to testing and IT general controls

Question 11

HOW would an IS auditor determine if unauthorized modifications were made to production programs?

Answer 11

By conducting Compliance testing

i.e. This would require the change management process be reviewed to evaluate the existence of a trail of documentary evidence.

Question 12

What is an IS auditor’s main concern when reviewing a hardware maintenance program

Answer 12

Whether the program has been validated against vendor-provided specifications.

Question 13

What database control would ensure integrity of transactions is maintained in a online transaction processing database?

Answer 13

Commitment and rollback controls

Why? - Because these controls ensure that database operations that form a logical transaction unit will be completed entirely or not at all

Question 14

What should an IS auditor recommend to protect specific sensitive information stored in a data warehouse?

Answer 14

Implement column- and row-level permissions

I.e. Column-level security prevents users from seeing one or more attributes on a table. With row-level security a certain grouping of information on a table is restricted

Question 15

What is an advantage of using unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cable versus other copper-based cables

Answer 15

UTP cable reduces crosstalk between pairs

Question 16

What is the most critical subject an incident response team should address FIRST after a major incident in an information processing facility?

Answer 16

Containment at the facility

i.e. reduction of further damage. The incident team must gain control of the situation.

Question 17

What would assist an IS auditor to best ensure that users have uninterrupted access to a critical, heavily used web-based application?

Answer 17

Load balancing

i.e. This helps ensure consistent response time for web applications

Question 18

What can an IS auditor recommend (as a corrective control) in the event that an application audit results in a corrupt database?

Answer 18

To proceed with restore procedures

WHY? - because this can be used to recover databases to their last-known archived version

Question 19

What would be an effective compensating control when an IS auditor observes that some parameters in the tape management system are set to bypass or ignore tape header records?

Answer 19

Staging and job setup

Otherwise, this could result in the loading the wrong tape and deleting or accessing data on the loaded tape.

Question 20

What should be the IS Auditor’s primary focus when reviewing the process for continuous monitoring of the capacity and performance of IT resources?

Answer 20

Providing accurate feedback on IT resource capacity