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CISA—Certified Information Systems Auditor - Part 245

Mary Smith

Tue, 21 Apr 2026

CISA—Certified Information Systems Auditor - Part 245

1. To verify that the correct version of a data file was used for a production run, an IS auditor should review:

A) operator problem reports.
B) operator work schedules.
C) system logs.
D) output distribution reports.



2. Which of the following is the BEST type of program for an organization to implement to aggregate, correlate and store different log and event files, and then produce weekly and monthly reports for IS auditors?

A) A security information event management (SIEM) product
B) An open-source correlation engine
C) A log management tool
D) An extract, transform, load (ETL) system



3. Doing which of the following during peak production hours could result in unexpected downtime?

A) Performing data migration or tape backup
B) Performing preventive maintenance on electrical systems
C) Promoting applications from development to the staging environment
D) Replacing a failed power supply in the core router of the data center



4. Which of the following would BEST maintain the integrity of a firewall log?

A) Granting access to log information only to administrators
B) Capturing log events in the operating system layer
C) Writing dual logs onto separate storage media
D) Sending log information to a dedicated third-party log server



5. Which of the following will prevent dangling tuples in a database?

A) Cyclic integrity
B) Domain integrity
C) Relational integrity
D) Referential integrity



1. Right Answer: C
Explanation: System logs are automated reports which identify most of the activities performed on the computer. Programs that analyze the system log have been developed to report on specifically defined items. The auditor can then carry out tests to ensure that the correct file version was used for a production run. Operator problem reports are used by operators to log computer operation problems. Operator work schedules are maintained to assist in human resources planning.Output distribution reports identify all application reports generated and their distribution.

2. Right Answer: C
Explanation: A log management tool is a product designed to aggregate events from many log files (with distinct formats and from different sources), store them and typically correlate them offline to produce many reports (e.g., exception reports showing different statistics including anomalies and suspicious activities), and to answer time-based queries (e.g., how many users have entered the system between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. over the past three weeks?). A SIEM product has some similar features. It correlates events from log files, but does it online and normally is not oriented to storing many weeks of historical information and producing audit reports. A correlation engine is part of a SIEM product. It is oriented to making an online correlation of events. An extract, transform, load (ETL) is part of a business intelligence system, dedicated to extracting operational or production data, transforming that data and loading them to a central repository (data warehouse or data mart); an ETL does not correlate data or produce reports, and normally it does not have extractors to read log file formats.

3. Right Answer: B
Explanation: Choices A and C are processing events which may impact performance, but would not cause downtime. Enterprise-class routers have redundant hot-swappable power supplies, so replacing a failed power supply should not be an issue. Preventive maintenance activities should be scheduled for non-peak times of the day, and preferably during a maintenance window time period. A mishap or incident caused by a maintenance worker could result in unplanned downtime.

4. Right Answer: D
Explanation: Establishing a dedicated third-party log server and logging events in it is the best procedure for maintaining the integrity of a firewall log. When access control to the log server is adequately maintained, the risk of unauthorized log modification will be mitigated, therefore improving the integrity of log information. To enforce segregation of duties, administrators should not have access to log files. This primarily contributes to the assurance of confidentiality rather than integrity. There are many ways to capture log information: through the application layer, network layer, operating systems layer, etc.; however, there is no log integrity advantage in capturing events in the operating systems layer. If it is a highly mission-critical information system, it may be nice to run the system with a dual log mode. Having logs in two different storage devices will primarily contribute to the assurance of the availability of log information, rather than to maintaining its integrity.

5. Right Answer: D
Explanation: Referential integrity ensures that a foreign key in one table will equal null or the value of a primary in the other table. For every tuple in a table having a referenced/ foreign key, there should be a corresponding tuple in another table, i.e., for existence of all foreign keys in the original tables, if this condition is not satisfied, then it results in a dangling tuple. Cyclical checking is the control technique for the regular checking of accumulated data on a file against authorized source documentation. There is no cyclical integrity testing. Domain integrity testing ensures that a data item has a legitimate value in the correct range or set. Relational integrity is performed at the record level and is ensured by calculating and verifying specific fields.

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