ISACA 901-1000 Flashcards
Assignment of process ownership is essential in system development projects because it:
A. enables the tracking of the development completion percentage.
B. optimizes the design cost of user acceptance test (UAT) cases.
C. minimizes the gaps between requirements and functionalities.
D. ensures that system design is based on business needs.
D. ensures that system design is based on business needs.
A batch transaction job failed in production; however, the same job returned no issues during user acceptance testing (UAT). Analysis of the production batch job indicates that it was altered after UAT. Which of the following ways would be the BEST to mitigate this risk in the future?
A. Improve regression test cases.
B. Activate audit trails for a limited period after release.
C. Conduct an application user access review.
D. Ensure that developers do not have access to code after testing.
D. Ensure that developers do not have access to code after testing.
A business unit has selected a new accounting application and did not consult with IT early in the selection process. The PRIMARY risk is that:
A. the security controls of the application may not meet requirements.
B. the application may not meet the requirements of the business users.
C. the application technology may be inconsistent with the enterprise architecture (EA).
D. the application may create unanticipated support issues for IT.
C. the application technology may be inconsistent with the enterprise architecture (EA).
A centralized antivirus system determines whether each personal computer has the latest signature files and installs the latest signature files before allowing a PC to connect to the network. This is an example of a:
A. directive control.
B. corrective control.
C. compensating control.
D. detective control.
B. corrective control.
Code erroneously excluded from a production release was subsequently moved into the production environment, bypassing normal change procedures. Which of the following choices is of MOST concern to the IS auditor performing a postimplementation review?
A. The code was missed during the initial implementation.
B. The change did not have management approval.
C. The error was discovered during the postimplementation review.
D. The release team used the same change order number.
B. The change did not have management approval.
A company determined that its web site was compromised and a rootkit was installed on the server hosting the application. Which of the following choices would have MOST likely prevented the incident?
A. A host-based intrusion prevention system (IPS)
B. A network-based intrusion detection system (IDS)
C. A firewall
D. Operating system (OS) patching
A. A host-based intrusion prevention system (IPS)
A company is planning to install a network-based intrusion detection system (IDS) to protect the web site that it hosts. Where should the device be installed?
A. On the local network
B. Outside the firewall
C. In the demilitarized zone (DMZ)
D. On the server that hosts the web site
C. In the demilitarized zone (DMZ)
A company with a limited budget has a recovery time objective (RTO) of 72 hours and a recovery point objective (RPO) of 24 hours. Which of the following would BEST meet the requirements of the business?
A. A hot site
B. A cold site
C. A mirrored site
D. A warm site
D. A warm site
Company XYZ has outsourced production support to service provider ABC located in another country. The ABC service provider personnel remotely connect to the corporate network of the XYZ outsourcing entity over the Internet. Which of the following would BEST provide assurance that transmission of information is secure while the production support team at ABC is providing support to XYZ?
A. Secret key encryption
B. Dynamic Internet protocol (IP) address and port
C. Hash functions
D. Virtual private network (VPN) tunnel
D. Virtual private network (VPN) tunnel
Company XYZ has outsourced production support to service provider ABC located in another country. The ABC service provider personnel remotely connect to the corporate network of the XYZ outsourcing entity over the Internet. Which of the following would provide the BEST assurance that only authorized users of ABC connect over the Internet for production support to XYZ?
A. Single sign-on authentication
B. Password complexity requirements
C. Two-factor authentication
D. Internet protocol (IP) address restrictions
C. Two-factor authentication
Due to resource constraints, a developer requires full access to production data to support certain problems reported by production users. Which of the following choices would be a good compensating control for controlling unauthorized changes in production?
A. Provide and monitor separate login IDs that the developer will use for programming and for production support.
B. Capture activities of the developer in the production environment by enabling audit trails.
C. Back up all affected records before allowing the developer to make production changes.
D. Ensure that all changes are approved by the change manager.
A. Provide and monitor separate login IDs that the developer will use for programming and for production support.
Due to resource constraints of the IS audit team, the audit plan as originally approved cannot be completed. Assuming that the situation is communicated in the audit report, which course of action is MOST acceptable?
A. Test the adequacy of the control design.
B. Test the operational effectiveness of controls.
C. Focus on auditing high-risk areas.
D. Rely on management testing of controls.
C. Focus on auditing high-risk areas.
During an assessment of software development practices, an IS auditor finds that open source software components were used in an application designed for a client. What is the GREATEST concern the auditor would have about the use of open source software?
A. The client did not pay for the open source software components.
B. The organization and client must comply with open source software license terms.
C. Open source software has security vulnerabilities.
D. Open source software is unreliable for commercial use.
B. The organization and client must comply with open source software license terms.
During an implementation review of a recent application deployment, it was determined that several incidents were assigned incorrect priorities and, because of this, failed to meet the business service level agreement (SLA). What is the GREATEST concern?
A. The support model was not approved by senior management.
B. The incident resolution time specified in the SLA is not realistic.
C. There are inadequate resources to support the applications.
D. The support model was not properly developed and implemented.
D. The support model was not properly developed and implemented.
During an IS audit, which is the BEST method for an IS auditor to evaluate the implementation of segregation of duties within an IT department?
A. Discuss it with the IT managers.
B. Review the job descriptions of the IT functions.
C. Research past IS audit reports.
D. Evaluate the organizational structure.
A. Discuss it with the IT managers.
During the course of an application software review, an IS auditor identified minor weaknesses in a relevant database environment that is out of scope for the audit. The BEST option is to:
A. include a review of the database controls in the scope.
B. document for future review.
C. work with database administrators to correct the issue.
D. report the weaknesses as observed.
D. report the weaknesses as observed.
During the course of an audit, the IS auditor discovers that the human resources (HR) department uses a cloud-based application to manage employee records. The HR department engaged in a contract outside of the normal vendor management process and manages the application on its own. Which of the following choices is of MOST concern?
A. Maximum acceptable downtime metrics have not been defined in the contract.
B. The IT department does not manage the relationship with the cloud vendor.
C. The help desk call center is in a different country, with different privacy requirements.
D. Company-defined security policies are not applied to the cloud application.
D. Company-defined security policies are not applied to the cloud application.
During the requirements definition stage of a proposed enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, the project sponsor requests that the procurement and accounts payable modules be linked. Which of the following test methods would be the BEST to perform?
A. Unit testing
B. Integration testing
C. Sociability testing
D. Quality assurance (QA) testing
B. Integration testing
A financial institution with multiple branch offices has an automated control that requires the branch manager to approve transactions more than a certain amount. What type of audit control is this?
A.Detective
B. Preventive
C. Corrective
D. Directive
B. Preventive
From an IT governance perspective, what is the PRIMARY responsibility of the board of directors? To ensure that the IT strategy:
A. is cost-effective.
B. is future thinking and innovative.
C. is aligned with the business strategy.
D. has the appropriate priority level assigned.
C. is aligned with the business strategy.
The GREATEST benefit of having well- defined data classification policies and procedures is:
A. a more accurate inventory of information assets.
B. a decreased cost of controls.
C. a reduced risk of inappropriate system access.
D. an improved regulatory compliance.
C. a reduced risk of inappropriate system access.
In a risk-based IS audit, where both inherent and control risk have been assessed as high, an IS auditor would MOST likely compensate for this scenario by performing additional:
A. stop-or-go sampling.
B. substantive testing.
C. compliance testing.
D. discovery sampling.
B. substantive testing.
An internal audit function is reviewing an internally developed common gateway interface (CGI) script for a web application. The IS auditor discovers that the script was not reviewed and tested by the quality control function. Which of the following types of risk is of GREATEST concern?
A. System unavailability
B. Exposure to malware
C. Unauthorized access
D. System integrity
C. Unauthorized access
An IS auditor discovers that several IT-based projects were implemented that were not approved by the steering committee. What is the GREATEST concern for the IS auditor?
A. IT projects will not be adequately funded.
B. IT projects are not following the system development life cycle (SDLC) process.
C. IT projects are not consistently formally approved.
D. The IT department may not be working toward a common goal.
D. The IT department may not be working toward a common goal.
An IS auditor discovers that the disaster recovery plan (DRP) for a company does not include a critical application that is hosted in the cloud. Management’s response states that the cloud vendor is responsible for disaster recovery (DR) and DR-related testing. What is the NEXT course of action for the IS auditor to pursue?
A. Plan an audit of the cloud vendor.
B. Review the vendor contract to determine its DR capabilities.
C. Review an independent auditor’s report of the cloud vendor.
D. Request a copy of the DRP from the cloud vendor.
B. Review the vendor contract to determine its DR capabilities.
An IS auditor finds that database administrators (DBAs) have access to the log location on the database server and the ability to purge logs from the system. What is the BEST audit recommendation to ensure that DBA activity is effectively monitored?
A. Change permissions to prevent DBAs from purging logs.
B. Forward database logs to a centralized log server.
C. Require that critical changes to the database are formally approved.
D. Back up database logs to tape.
B. Forward database logs to a centralized log server.
An IS auditor has been asked to review a contract for a vendor being considered to provide data center services. Which is the BEST way to determine whether the terms of the contract are adhered to after the contract is signed?
A. Require the vendor to provide monthly status reports.
B. Have periodic meetings with the client IT manager.
C. Conduct periodic audit reviews of the vendor.
D. Require that performance parameters be stated within the contract.
C. Conduct periodic audit reviews of the vendor.
An IS auditor has discovered that a new patch is available for an application, but the IT department has decided that the patch is not needed because other security controls are in place. What should the IS auditor recommend?
A. Apply the patch anyway, after it can be tested.
B. Implement a host-based intrusion detection system (IDS).
C. Implement firewall rules to further protect the application server.
D. Assess the overall risk, then decide whether to deploy the patch.
D. Assess the overall risk, then decide whether to deploy the patch.
An IS auditor has found that employees are emailing sensitive company information to public web-based email domains. Which of the following is the BEST remediation option for the IS auditor to recommend?
A. Encrypted mail accounts
B. Training and awareness
C. Activity monitoring
D. Data loss prevention (DLP)
D. Data loss prevention (DLP)
An IS auditor is assessing a biometric system used to protect physical access to a data center containing regulated data. Which of the following observations is the GREATEST concern to the auditor?
A. Administrative access to the biometric scanners or the access control system is permitted over a virtual private network (VPN).
B. Biometric scanners are not installed in restricted areas.
C. Data transmitted between the biometric scanners and the access control system do not use a securely encrypted tunnel.
D. Biometric system risk analysis was last conducted three years ago.
.
An IS auditor is assisting in the design of the emergency change control procedures for an organization with a limited budget. Which of the following recommendations BEST helps to establish accountability for the system support personnel?
A.Production access is granted to the individual support ID when needed.
B.Developers use a firefighter ID to promote code to production.
C. A dedicated user promotes emergency changes to production.
D. Emergency changes are authorized prior to promotion.
A.Production access is granted to the individual support ID when needed.
An IS auditor is auditing an IT disaster recovery plan (DRP). The IS auditor should PRIMARILY ensure that the plan covers:
A. a resilient IT infrastructure.
B. alternate site information.
C. documented disaster recovery (DR) test results.
D. analysis and prioritization of business functions.
D. analysis and prioritization of business functions.
An IS auditor is conducting a review of the disaster recovery (DR) procedures for a data center. Which of the following indicators is the BEST to show that the procedures meet the requirements?
A. Documented procedures were approved by management.
B. Procedures were reviewed and compared with industry good practices.
C. A tabletop exercise using the procedures was conducted.
D. Recovery teams and their responsibilities are documented.
C. A tabletop exercise using the procedures was conducted.
An IS auditor is evaluating a newly developed IT policy for an organization. Which of the following factors would the IS auditor consider MOST important to facilitate compliance with the policy upon its implementation?
A. Existing IT mechanisms that enable compliance
B. Alignment of the policy to the business strategy
C. Current and future technology initiatives
D. Regulatory compliance objectives that are defined in the policy
A. Existing IT mechanisms that enable compliance
An IS auditor is evaluating network performance for an organization that is considering increasing its Internet bandwidth due to a performance degradation during business hours. Which of the following is MOST likely the cause of the performance degradation?
A. Malware on servers
B. Firewall misconfiguration
C. Increased spam received by the email server
D. Unauthorized network activities
D. Unauthorized network activities
An IS auditor is performing a postimplementation review of an organization’s system and identifies output errors within an accounting application. The IS auditor determined this was caused by input errors. Which of the following controls should the IS auditor recommend to management?
A. Recalculations
B. Limit checks
C. Run-to-run totals
D. Reconciliations
B. Limit checks
An IS auditor is reviewing a manufacturing company and finds that mainframe users at a remote site connect to the mainframe at headquarters over the Internet via Telnet. Which of the following is the BEST recommendation to ensure proper security controls?
A. Use of a point-to-point leased line
B. Use of a firewall rule to allow only the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the remote site
C. Use of two-factor authentication
D. Use of a nonstandard port for Telnet
A. Use of a point-to-point leased line
An IS auditor is reviewing an organization’s network operations center (NOC). Which of the following choices is of the GREATEST concern? The use of:
A. a wet pipe-based fire suppression system.
B. a rented rack space in the NOC.
C. a carbon dioxide-based fire suppression system.
D. an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) with 10 minutes of backup power.
C. a carbon dioxide-based fire suppression system.
An IS auditor is reviewing an organization to ensure that evidence related to a data breach case is preserved. Which of the following choices would be of MOST concern to the IS auditor?
A. End users are not aware of incident reporting procedures.
B. Log servers are not on a separate network.
C. Backups are not performed consistently.
D. There is no chain of custody policy
D. There is no chain of custody policy