Isaca CISA Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 62

The auditor's best course of action after discovering instances where employees shared license keys to critical pieces of business software is to verify whether the licensing agreement allows shared use. A licensing agreement is a contract between the software provider and the user that defines the terms and conditions of using the software, including the number, type, and scope of licenses granted. Some licensing agreements may allow shared use of license keys among multiple users or devices, while others may prohibit or restrict such use. By verifying the licensing agreement, the auditor can determine whether the employees violated the contract or not, and whether there are any legal or financial risks or implications for the organization.

The other options are not as appropriate as option D, as they may not address the root cause of the issue or provide a comprehensive solution. Recommending the utilization of software licensing monitoring tools may help prevent or detect future instances of license key sharing, but it does not resolve the current situation or ensure compliance with the licensing agreement. Recommending the purchase of additional software license keys may be unnecessary or wasteful if the licensing agreement already allows shared use or if there are unused licenses available. Validating user need for shared software licenses may help identify the reasons or motivations behind license key sharing, but it does not justify or excuse such behavior if it violates the licensing agreement.

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The internal audit manager should have a reporting line to the audit committee, which is an independent body that oversees the internal audit function and ensures its objectivity and accountability. Reporting functionally to a senior management official may compromise the independence and clarity of the internal audit reporting process, as senior management may have a vested interest in the audit results or influence the audit scope and priorities.*Reference: According to the ISACA IT Audit and Assurance Standards, Guidelines and Tools and Techniques for IS Audit and Assurance Professionals, section 1002 Independence, ''The chief audit executive (CAE) should report functionally to the board or its equivalent (e.g., audit committee) and administratively to executive management.''1

The most important outcome of an information security program is to improve the organizational awareness of security responsibilities, as this will foster a culture of security and ensure that all stakeholders are aware of their roles and obligations in protecting the information assets of the organization. An information security program should also aim to achieve other outcomes, such as identifying operating system weaknesses, understanding and accepting emerging security technologies, and reducing the cost to mitigate information security risk, but these are not as important as improving the awareness of security responsibilities, which is the foundation of any effective information security program.*Reference: According to the ISACA IT Audit and Assurance Standards, Guidelines and Tools and Techniques for IS Audit and Assurance Professionals, section 2402 Planning, ''The IS audit and assurance professional should identify and assess risk relevant to the area under review.''1One of the risk factors to consider is ''the level of awareness of management and staff regarding IT risk management''1.According to the ISACA IT Audit and Assurance Guideline G13 Information Security Management, ''The objective of an information security management audit/assurance review is to provide management with an independent assessment relating to the effectiveness of information security management within the enterprise.'' The guideline also states that ''the audit/assurance professional should evaluate whether there is an appropriate level of awareness throughout the enterprise regarding information security policies, standards, procedures and guidelines.'' According to a web search result from Microsoft Security, ''Information security programs need to: ... Support the execution of decisions.''2One of the ways to support the execution of decisions is to ensure that everyone in the organization understands their security responsibilities and follows the security policies and procedures.

Substantive testing is the most important type of testing during software license audits, as it provides evidence of the accuracy and completeness of the software inventory and licensing records. Substantive testing involves examining transactions, balances, and other data to verify their validity, existence, accuracy, and valuation. Compliance testing, on the other hand, is more focused on assessing the adequacy and effectiveness of internal controls over software licensing, such as policies, procedures, and monitoring mechanisms. Compliance testing alone cannot provide sufficient assurance that the software license audit objectives are met, as it does not verify the actual software usage and compliance status. Judgmental sampling and stop-or-go sampling are methods of selecting samples for testing, not types of testing themselves.*Reference: According to the ISACA IT Audit and Assurance Standards, Guidelines and Tools and Techniques for IS Audit and Assurance Professionals, section 1206 Testing, ''The IS audit and assurance professional should perform sufficient testing to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence to support conclusions reached.''1The section also defines substantive testing as ''testing performed to obtain audit evidence to detect material misstatements in transactions or balances'' and compliance testing as ''testing performed to obtain audit evidence on the operating effectiveness of controls.''1According to the ISACA IT Audit and Assurance Guideline G15 Software License Management, ''The objective of a software license audit is to provide management with an independent assessment relating to compliance with software license agreements.''2The guideline also states that ''substantive tests should be performed on a sample basis to verify that all software installed on devices within scope has been appropriately licensed.''2

A feasibility study is an assessment that determines the likelihood of a proposed project being successful, such as a new system development1.A feasibility study typically covers various aspects of the project, such as technical, economic, operational and legal feasibility2.The IS auditor's role is to audit the feasibility study and ensure that it is objective, realistic and reliable3.

One of the most important aspects of a feasibility study is the economic feasibility, which analyzes the costs and benefits of the proposed system and compares them with alternative solutions2.The economic feasibility study should include a detailed breakdown of the development, implementation and operational costs, as well as the expected revenues, savings and intangible benefits of the system3.The IS auditor should review the cost-benefit documentation for reasonableness and accuracy, and verify that the assumptions and calculations are valid and supported by evidence3.

The other options are not directly related to auditing the feasibility study of a system development project. Reviewing qualifications of key members of the project team (option A) is more relevant to auditing the project management and human resources aspects of the project. Reviewing the request for proposal (RFP) to ensure that it covers the scope of work (option B) is more relevant to auditing the procurement and vendor selection process of the project. Ensuring that vendor contracts are reviewed by legal counsel (option D) is more relevant to auditing the legal and contractual aspects of the project.

The best way to prevent the misconfiguration from recurring is to grant user access using a role-based model.A role-based access control (RBAC) model is an access control method that assigns permissions to end-users based on their role within the organization1.RBAC provides fine-grained control, offering a simple, manageable approach to access management that is less error-prone than individually assigning permissions1.RBAC also enforces the principle of least privilege, which means that users only have the minimum access required to perform their tasks2.

A role-based model can help prevent segregation of duties (SoD) issues in an ERP system by restricting user access to conflicting activities within the application.SoD is a central issue for enterprises to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, and to reduce the risk of fraud and unauthorized transactions3.SoD requires that no single individual or group of individuals should have control over two or more parts of a process or an asset3. For example, a user who can create and approve purchase orders should not be able to process payments or modify vendor records.

By using a role-based model, user access provisioning is based on the needs of a group (e.g., accounting department) based on common responsibilities and needs1. This means each role has a given set of permissions, and individuals can be assigned to one or more roles. For example, you may designate a user as an accounts payable clerk, an accounts receivable clerk, or a financial manager, and limit access to specific resources or tasks.The user-role and role-permissions relationships make it easy to perform role assignment because individual users no longer have unique access rights, rather they have privileges that conform to the permissions assigned to their specific role or job function1.

The other options are not the best way to prevent the misconfiguration from recurring. Monitoring access rights on a regular basis (option A) is a detective control that can help identify SoD issues after they occur, but it does not prevent them from happening in the first place. Referencing a standard user-access matrix (option B) is a tool that can help document and analyze user access rights, but it does not ensure that the user access rights are configured correctly or consistently. Correcting the segregation of duties conflicts (option D) is a corrective action that can resolve SoD issues once they are detected, but it does not prevent them from happening again.

A web proxy server for corporate connections to external resources reduces organizational risk by anonymizing users through changed IP addresses.A web proxy server is an intermediary between the web and client devices, that can provide proxy services to a client or a group of clients1.One of the main benefits of using a web proxy server is that it allows users to change their IP address and location, circumventing geoblocking and hiding their identity from the target website2.

Anonymizing internal IP addresses is important for online security, as it helps protect the organization from several threats. If an attacker controls a server that employees connect to, the outgoing IP address of the organization's router is logged on the server.This IP address can be used by the attacker to launch a denial-of-service (DoS) attack or to create more targeted attacks such as phishing2.With a web proxy server, the IP shown in web logs is the web proxy's, which means an attacker would not have access to the organization's router outgoing IP address2.

Anonymizing outgoing IP addresses is also important when carrying out sensitive actions online, such as law enforcement investigations or competitive intelligence.A web proxy server can help users avoid exposing their internal IP address that leads back to their organization, and instead use a third-party web proxy that provides more anonymity2.

The other options are not directly related to reducing organizational risk by using a web proxy server.Providing multi-factor authentication for additional security (option B) is a benefit of some web proxy servers, but it is not the main purpose of using a web proxy server3.Providing faster response than direct access (option C) is a benefit of some web proxy servers that cache content for better data transfer speeds and less bandwidth usage, but it is not directly related to reducing organizational risk1.Load balancing traffic to optimize data pathways (option D) is a benefit of some web proxy servers that distribute traffic across multiple servers, but it is not directly related to reducing organizational risk4.

The greatest concern to an IS auditor reviewing an organization's method to transport sensitive data between offices is that the method relies exclusively on the use of public key infrastructure (PKI).PKI is a set of tools and procedures that are used to create, manage, and revoke digital certificates and public keys for encryption and authentication1. PKI can provide secure and trustworthy communication over the internet, but it also has some limitations and risks that need to be considered.

One of the main limitations of PKI is that it depends on the trustworthiness and security of the certificate authority (CA), which is the entity that issues and verifies the digital certificates2. If the CA is compromised or malicious, it can issue fake or fraudulent certificates that can be used to impersonate legitimate parties or intercept sensitive data.For example, in 2011, a hacker breached the CA DigiNotar and issued hundreds of rogue certificates for domains such as Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft3.This allowed the hacker to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks and spy on the online activities of users in Iran3.

Another limitation of PKI is that it requires a complex and costly infrastructure to maintain and operate.PKI involves multiple components, such as servers, software, hardware, policies, and procedures, that need to be configured, updated, and monitored regularly1.PKI also requires a high level of technical expertise and coordination among different parties, such as users, administrators, CAs, and registration authorities (RAs)1. PKI can be vulnerable to human errors or negligence that can compromise its security or functionality. For example, in 2018, a software bug in Apple's macOS High Sierra caused the system to accept any certificate as valid without checking its validity period. This could have allowed attackers to use expired or revoked certificates to bypass security checks.

Therefore, an IS auditor should be concerned if an organization relies exclusively on PKI for transporting sensitive data between offices. PKI can provide a high level of security and trust, but it also has some inherent risks and challenges that need to be addressed. An IS auditor should evaluate whether the organization has implemented adequate controls and measures to ensure the reliability and integrity of its PKI system. An IS auditor should also consider whether the organization has alternative or complementary methods for securing its data transmission, such as using symmetric encryption algorithms or digital signatures.Symmetric encryption algorithms use the same key for both encryption and decryption, which can offer faster performance and lower overhead than asymmetric encryption algorithms used by PKI4.Digital signatures use cryptographic techniques to verify the identity and authenticity of the sender and the integrity of the data5.

The best method to delete sensitive information from storage media that will be reused is multiple overwriting. This is because multiple overwriting ensures that the data is practically unrecoverable by any software or hardware means. Multiple overwriting involves writing 0s, 1s, or random patterns onto all sectors of the storage media several times, making the original data unreadable or inaccessible.There are various software programs available that can securely delete files from storage media using multiple overwriting techniques1.

Crypto-shredding is not the best method because it only works for encrypted data. Crypto-shredding involves deleting the encryption key used to encrypt the data, making the data unreadable and unrecoverable.However, if the data is not encrypted, crypto-shredding will not erase it2.

Reformatting and re-partitioning are not the best methods because they do not erase the data completely.Reformatting and re-partitioning only delete the file system structures and pointers that make the data accessible, but the data itself remains on the storage media and can be recovered using data recovery software