CISA Exam | Complete Practice Questions with Verified Correct
Answers and Detailed Rationales |Latest Update (2026-2027).
1. An IS auditor is planning a risk-based audit for a financial institution that
migrated its core banking system to a third-party cloud. Previous audits noted
unresolved issues with data classification and access controls. Regulatory
compliance with GDPR and PCI-DSS is critical. Which should be the PRIMARY
consideration in developing the audit plan?
A. Testing only the cloud provider’s security configurations
B. Reviewing management’s risk assessment and alignment with business
objectives
C. Performing a full regulatory compliance audit first
D. Relying solely on the provider’s latest SOC 2 report
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Risk-based auditing prioritizes evaluating the organization’s risk
management process and alignment with business goals to ensure the audit is
focused and effective.
2. A manufacturing company is implementing a new IT governance framework
amid digital transformation with IoT and AI. The board is concerned about
accountability, inconsistent policies, and lack of IT performance metrics. What
is the MOST critical element for the IS auditor to evaluate?
A. Technical specifications of new IoT devices
B. Existence of an IT steering committee with clear roles and cross-functional
representation
1
,C. Configuration details of AI algorithms
D. Number of end-user training sessions
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Effective IT governance requires proper structures like a steering
committee to ensure strategic alignment, accountability, and oversight.
3. A healthcare provider stores patient data in a hybrid cloud. A penetration
test revealed hard-coded API keys, lack of MFA for privileged database access,
legacy encryption, and no key rotation. The organization is subject to HIPAA.
What is the GREATEST risk?
A. Higher storage costs from encryption
B. Unauthorized access leading to breaches and regulatory penalties
C. Slower application performance
D. Challenges in auditing distributed logs
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Protection of information assets focuses on preventing
unauthorized access to sensitive data, especially with known vulnerabilities
that could cause major breaches and compliance violations.
4. An organization is implementing a new ERP system using agile
methodology. Business users have limited involvement after requirements,
segregation of duties between developers and testers is weak, and there is no
formal UAT or documented change management. What poses the HIGHEST
risk?
2
,A. Use of agile instead of waterfall
B. Insufficient user involvement, testing, and change controls
C. High licensing costs of the ERP
D. Hardware procurement delays
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Systems development and implementation require strong user
involvement, testing, and change controls to ensure the system meets needs
and maintains integrity.
5. After a ransomware attack, a retail company is updating its BCP and DR
plans. Backups exist but have not been tested for over two years, RTOs/RPOs
are outdated, and there is no alternate site for e-commerce systems. What
should the IS auditor recommend as the PRIMARY improvement?
A. Daily backup frequency
B. Regular testing of BCP/DR and alignment of RTO/RPO with business needs
C. Additional endpoint antivirus
D. Immediate full migration to public cloud
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Business resilience depends on regularly tested plans with
realistic, business-aligned recovery objectives.
6. An IS auditor reviews an IT risk management process where the risk
register is updated quarterly but lacks integration with the enterprise risk
framework. Emerging risks like AI and third-party vendors are not
consistently assessed quantitatively. What should be recommended?
3
, A. Automating risk register updates
B. Integrating IT risks with enterprise risk management and adding
quantitative analysis
C. Outsourcing risk management entirely
D. Limiting assessments to high-value assets only
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Good governance requires linking IT risks to enterprise-wide
processes with balanced qualitative and quantitative methods.
7. During an operations audit, the IS auditor finds shared service accounts
with no password rotation and disabled logging on production servers for
performance reasons. Incident response lacks specific steps for such accounts.
What is the PRIMARY deficiency?
A. Lack of server performance tools
B. Inadequate privileged access management and monitoring
C. Insufficient application data backups
D. No network segmentation
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Strong privileged access controls and logging are essential for
operations security and threat detection.
8. A government agency is developing a custom tax processing application
using DevOps CI/CD. Security reviews occur only at release end, vulnerability
4
Answers and Detailed Rationales |Latest Update (2026-2027).
1. An IS auditor is planning a risk-based audit for a financial institution that
migrated its core banking system to a third-party cloud. Previous audits noted
unresolved issues with data classification and access controls. Regulatory
compliance with GDPR and PCI-DSS is critical. Which should be the PRIMARY
consideration in developing the audit plan?
A. Testing only the cloud provider’s security configurations
B. Reviewing management’s risk assessment and alignment with business
objectives
C. Performing a full regulatory compliance audit first
D. Relying solely on the provider’s latest SOC 2 report
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Risk-based auditing prioritizes evaluating the organization’s risk
management process and alignment with business goals to ensure the audit is
focused and effective.
2. A manufacturing company is implementing a new IT governance framework
amid digital transformation with IoT and AI. The board is concerned about
accountability, inconsistent policies, and lack of IT performance metrics. What
is the MOST critical element for the IS auditor to evaluate?
A. Technical specifications of new IoT devices
B. Existence of an IT steering committee with clear roles and cross-functional
representation
1
,C. Configuration details of AI algorithms
D. Number of end-user training sessions
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Effective IT governance requires proper structures like a steering
committee to ensure strategic alignment, accountability, and oversight.
3. A healthcare provider stores patient data in a hybrid cloud. A penetration
test revealed hard-coded API keys, lack of MFA for privileged database access,
legacy encryption, and no key rotation. The organization is subject to HIPAA.
What is the GREATEST risk?
A. Higher storage costs from encryption
B. Unauthorized access leading to breaches and regulatory penalties
C. Slower application performance
D. Challenges in auditing distributed logs
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Protection of information assets focuses on preventing
unauthorized access to sensitive data, especially with known vulnerabilities
that could cause major breaches and compliance violations.
4. An organization is implementing a new ERP system using agile
methodology. Business users have limited involvement after requirements,
segregation of duties between developers and testers is weak, and there is no
formal UAT or documented change management. What poses the HIGHEST
risk?
2
,A. Use of agile instead of waterfall
B. Insufficient user involvement, testing, and change controls
C. High licensing costs of the ERP
D. Hardware procurement delays
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Systems development and implementation require strong user
involvement, testing, and change controls to ensure the system meets needs
and maintains integrity.
5. After a ransomware attack, a retail company is updating its BCP and DR
plans. Backups exist but have not been tested for over two years, RTOs/RPOs
are outdated, and there is no alternate site for e-commerce systems. What
should the IS auditor recommend as the PRIMARY improvement?
A. Daily backup frequency
B. Regular testing of BCP/DR and alignment of RTO/RPO with business needs
C. Additional endpoint antivirus
D. Immediate full migration to public cloud
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Business resilience depends on regularly tested plans with
realistic, business-aligned recovery objectives.
6. An IS auditor reviews an IT risk management process where the risk
register is updated quarterly but lacks integration with the enterprise risk
framework. Emerging risks like AI and third-party vendors are not
consistently assessed quantitatively. What should be recommended?
3
, A. Automating risk register updates
B. Integrating IT risks with enterprise risk management and adding
quantitative analysis
C. Outsourcing risk management entirely
D. Limiting assessments to high-value assets only
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Good governance requires linking IT risks to enterprise-wide
processes with balanced qualitative and quantitative methods.
7. During an operations audit, the IS auditor finds shared service accounts
with no password rotation and disabled logging on production servers for
performance reasons. Incident response lacks specific steps for such accounts.
What is the PRIMARY deficiency?
A. Lack of server performance tools
B. Inadequate privileged access management and monitoring
C. Insufficient application data backups
D. No network segmentation
Correct Answer: B
Rationale: Strong privileged access controls and logging are essential for
operations security and threat detection.
8. A government agency is developing a custom tax processing application
using DevOps CI/CD. Security reviews occur only at release end, vulnerability
4
