Passed Exam Today CISA

 An employee is induced to reveal confidential IP addresses and passwords by answering questions over the phone. This is a social engineering attack method that exploits the trust or curiosity of the employee to obtain sensitive information that can be used to access or compromise the network. According to the web search results, social engineering is a technique that uses psychological manipulationto trick users into making security mistakes or giving away sensitive information1. Phishing, whaling, baiting, and pretexting are some of the common forms of social engineering attacks2. Social engineering attacks are often more effective and profitable than purely technical attacks, as they rely on human error rather than system vulnerabilities

Understanding the business process is the most important factor for an effective control self-assessment (CSA) program. A CSA program is a technique that allows managers and work teams directly involved in business units, functions or processes to participate in assessing the organization’s risk management and control processes1. A CSA program can help identify risks and potential exposures to achieving strategic business objectives, evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness ofcontrols, and implement remediation plans to address any gaps or weaknesses2. To conduct a successful CSA, it is essential to have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the business process under review, including its objectives, inputs, outputs, activities, resources, dependencies, stakeholders, performance indicators, etc. This will help to identify the relevant risks and controls associated with the process, as well as to evaluate their impact and likelihood. Determining the scope of the assessment, performing detailed test procedures, and evaluating changes to the risk environment are also important factors for an effective CSA program, but not as important as understanding the business process. These factors are more related to the execution and monitoring phases of the CSA program, while understanding the business process is related to the planning and preparation phase. Without a solid understanding of the business process, the scope, testing, and evaluation of the CSA may not be accurate or complete. References: ISACA CISA Review Manual 27th Edition, page 310

Business processes should be the primary focus of an IS auditor when developing a risk-based IS audit program, because they represent the core activities and functions of the organization that support its objectives and goals. Business processes also involve the use of IT resources and systems that may pose risks to the organization’s performance and compliance. A risk-based IS audit program should identify and assess the risks associated with the business processes and determine the appropriate audit scope and procedures to provide assurance on their effectiveness and efficiency. Portfolio management, business plans, and IT strategic plans are also relevant factors for developing a risk-based IS audit program, but they are not as important as business processes. References: CISA Review Manual (Digital Version), Chapter 2, Section 2.2.1

 Configuring each authentication server as belonging to a cluster of authentication servers is the best way to minimize performance degradation of servers used to authenticate users of an e-commerce website. A cluster is a group of servers that work together to provide high availability, load balancing, and fault tolerance. If one server fails or becomes overloaded, another server in the cluster can take over its workload without disrupting the service. A single server as a primary authentication server and a second server as a secondary authentication server is not as effective as a cluster, because the secondary server is only used when the primary server fails, which means it is idle most of the time and does not improve performance. Configuring each authentication server and ensuring that each disk of its RAID is attached to the primary controller does not address the issue of performance degradation, but rather the issue of data redundancy and reliability. RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is a technology that combines multiple disks into a logical unit that can tolerate disk failures and improve data access speed. Configuring each authentication server and ensuring that the disks of each server form part of a duplex does not address the issue of performance degradation, but rather the issue of data backup and recovery. A duplex is a pair of disks that store identical copies of data, so that if one disk fails, the other disk can be used to restore the data. References: ISACA CISA Review Manual 27th Edition, page 310