AICPA CPA-Auditing Exam Prep
CPA Auditing and Attestation (AUD) (Page 17 )

• Correct exam answer: A — HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• The relevant location is associated with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM.
• The SAM does not store passwords in plain text; it stores password hashes.

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER contains settings for the currently logged-in user, not the account-password database.
• HKEY_USERS contains user profiles and settings loaded for users.
• HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIGURATION contains hardware/profile configuration information.

• Approve major information security policies
• Allocate funding and resources
• Set the organization’s risk appetite
• Ensure security supports business objectives

• Evaluating vendors is generally handled by security, procurement, or technical teams.
• Assessing risks is typically performed by security and risk-management professionals, with management accepting or prioritizing the risks.
• Monitoring regulatory adherence is usually handled by compliance, audit, or security functions.

• File hashes
• Strings and metadata
• Binary or code structure
• Known malicious patterns
• Embedded indicators or signatures

• Sandbox: Executes the file in an isolated environment; useful for observing behavior, but usually slower.
• Network traffic analysis: Examines communications generated by a system or application, not the file itself.
• Package monitoring: Tracks software packages or installations and is not the primary method for examining malware signatures.

• Maintain head office control: Transfer pricing generally supports decentralisation rather than direct head-office control.
• Establish centralised decision making: This conflicts with divisional autonomy.
• Develop a top-down culture: Transfer pricing is intended to support empowered divisions and goal congruence, not impose purely top-down management.

• contoso.onmicrosoft.com
• contoso1.onmicrosoft.com

• onmicrosoft.com domains: Maximum of five per tenant.
• Custom domains: Domains that your organization owns and verifies in Microsoft 365.

• Disable default accounts: Default or unused accounts may have known usernames or predictable settings, making them targets. They should be disabled, removed, or securely configured.
• Remove unnecessary services: Every running service creates potential vulnerabilities. Removing services the server does not need reduces exploitable entry points.

• Add the server to the asset inventory: Important for asset management, but not a hardening step.
• Document default passwords: Default passwords should be changed or eliminated—not documented for continued use.
• Send server logs to the SIEM: Valuable for monitoring and detection, but generally performed as part of logging/monitoring configuration.
• Join the server to the corporate domain: May be necessary operationally, but does not itself harden the server.

• C — Custom buttons display at the top and bottom of a page: Correct. In Salesforce Classic, buttons can appear in the page’s button areas, including the top and bottom of record pages.
• D — Custom buttons are available for Person Accounts: Correct. Person Accounts use the Account object, so Account custom buttons can be available on Person Account layouts.
• E — Custom buttons can reference an external app: Correct. A URL custom button can launch or navigate to an external application or website.

• A: JavaScript custom buttons are a Salesforce Classic feature and are not supported in Lightning Experience. They do not enhance Lightning Experience.
• B: The User object does not generally support custom buttons in the same way standard business objects do.

• C — Before update
• D — Before insert

apex 
trigger AccountTrigger on Account (before insert, before update) { 
    for (Account acct : Trigger.new) { 
        acct.Description = 'Updated automatically'; 
    } 
}

• In after insert and after update, Trigger.new records are read-only.
• Use after triggers when you need the record’s final database Id or want to create/update related records.
• Attempting to change a field directly in an after trigger causes a read-only error.

• B — Sales staff will tender for riskier contracts:

• C — Sales staff will encroach on other territories:

• D — Sales staff will look for new jobs:

1. Wireless AP

1. Router

1. Firewall

1. Device placement

• Accept terms of use
• Enter a temporary code or credentials
• Provide basic registration information

• Enterprise authentication — Authenticates organizational users, often with centralized identity services; it is not specifically designed for temporary guest access.
• Ad hoc network — A temporary device-to-device network, not an authentication process.
• WPA3 — A wireless security standard. It protects Wi-Fi access but does not provide the web-based temporary access workflow described here.

• Advanced Persistent Threat (APT): A sustained, targeted attack campaign or attacker group—not a vulnerability.
• Trojan: Malware disguised as legitimate software.
• Stealthware: A general term for malware designed to avoid detection; it does not specifically mean an unknown vulnerability.

• Liability accounts (2000–2999) would incorrectly require dimensions, although they should have none.
• Expense accounts (6000–6998) would incorrectly require Customer, which should be optional.
• Account 6999 needs a separate rule because it requires all four dimensions, including Customer.

• 2000–2999: no dimensions
• 4000–4999: Department and Division required; Project and Customer optional
• 6000–6998: Department, Division, and Project required; Customer optional
• 6999: Department, Division, Project, and Customer required

• CCTV system — Detective control: Cameras monitor and record activity, helping identify or investigate security incidents after—or while—they occur.
• Signs about being filmed — Deterrent control: The signs discourage people from attempting unauthorized or criminal activity because they know surveillance is present.

• Preventive: Stops an incident from occurring, such as a lock or access-control system.
• Corrective: Restores systems after an incident.
• Directive: Instructs people to behave in a certain way, such as a security policy.
• Compensating: Provides an alternative control when the preferred control cannot be implemented.

• Reconnaissance: Gathering information about the target.
• Weaponization: Creating or combining a malicious payload with a delivery method.
• Delivery: Sending the payload, such as through phishing.
• Exploitation: Triggering a vulnerability or weakness to gain execution or access.

• Reduce the training data: Usually makes overfitting worse.
• Add hyperparameters: Hyperparameters already control training; simply adding them does not solve the problem. Proper tuning could help, but that is not what the option states.
• Increase training time: More training can worsen overfitting if the model is already memorizing the training data.

• Disable high concurrency: This changes session-sharing behavior but does not provide dedicated compute or true workload separation.
• Modify the number of executors: Adjusts resources within a Spark job; it does not isolate bronze and silver processes.
• Set the default environment: Controls libraries and runtime configuration, not compute isolation.

• User1 (user1@contoso.com) — This is an external guest in the Fabrikam tenant. Assuming the guest uses email one-time passcode authentication, Azure AD emails a passcode to user1@contoso.com.
• User2 (user2@outlook.com) — An Outlook.com address can authenticate with a Microsoft account, so Azure AD uses that account’s authentication rather than sending an email OTP. The fact that User2 has never accessed Fabrikam resources does not by itself trigger OTP.
• User3 (user3@fabrikam.com) — This is an internal Fabrikam user, so the user signs in with the organization’s normal credentials and does not receive a guest OTP.

• Internal hostnames and subdomains
• Network structure and naming conventions
• Servers and services
• Relationships between systems

• Determining ISP-assigned address space: Usually involves external registration and DNS information, not internal host discovery.
• Bypassing DNS sinkholing: Would require evidence that malicious DNS requests avoided redirection.
• Initial access: DNS queries alone do not show that the attacker gained access.
• Exfiltrating data: DNS tunneling can do this, but the snippet would typically show encoded or unusually long DNS queries.

• Sustainability
• Performance efficiency
• Reliability

• Storage usage of files stored in Microsoft Teams: SharePoint site usage report

• Number of active users per team: Microsoft Teams usage report

1. SharePoint site usage report
2. Microsoft Teams usage report

• Controlar o fluxo de dados entre S3 e SageMaker;
• Aplicar regras de segurança por meio da VPC;
• Reduzir a exposição dos dados;
• Permitir acesso privado ao bucket do S3.

• Amazon Inspector: avalia vulnerabilidades, mas não gerencia o fluxo de dados.
• Amazon Macie: ajuda a descobrir e proteger dados sensíveis no S3, mas não cria a conexão com o SageMaker.
• S3 Glacier Deep Archive: é uma classe de armazenamento para arquivamento, não uma solução de conectividade.

• Portfolio definition cycle — establishes and maintains the portfolio strategy, objectives, and management framework.
• Portfolio delivery cycle — coordinates and monitors the delivery of change initiatives, ensuring the portfolio remains aligned with strategic objectives and delivers value.

• Practice — a structured area of portfolio management activity, such as risk management or resource management.
• Technique — a method used to perform an activity; it is not the term for portfolio delivery itself.
• Principle — a guiding rule for effective portfolio management.

1. Find the subnet-mask increment in the octet where the prefix ends.
2. Identify the network address by finding the subnet boundary at or below the given IP.
3. The first usable address is network address + 1.
4. The broadcast address is one address before the next subnet.
5. The last usable address is broadcast - 1.

• 172.28.228.144/18

• 172.28.228.144/23

• True positive: The scan reports a vulnerability that really exists.
• False positive: The scan reports a vulnerability that does not exist.
• True negative: The scan correctly reports no vulnerability.
• False negative: The scan fails to detect a vulnerability that is actually present.

• STP elects the switch with the lowest Bridge ID as the root bridge.
• The Bridge ID consists mainly of bridge priority + MAC address.
• If multiple switches have the same priority, the switch with the lower MAC address is preferred.
• STP bridge priority values are configured in increments of 4096, such as 0, 4096, 8192, and so on. 32768 is the standard default value.

• B: Não é preciso implantar o modelo em um endpoint do Amazon SageMaker, pois o Bedrock já oferece a infraestrutura de inferência.
• C: O SageMaker Model Registry é usado para gerenciar modelos no SageMaker, não é requisito para modelos customizados no Bedrock.
• D: Não existe uma etapa geral de “conceder acesso” ao modelo customizado como requisito principal de uso. O ponto essencial é adquirir o Provisioned Throughput.

• Future costs — Only costs occurring in the future can be affected by the investment decision. Past costs are sunk and irrelevant.
• Incremental costs — These are additional costs caused by choosing the investment. They are relevant because they differ between alternatives.
• Cash flows — Capital investment decisions are based on future cash inflows and outflows, usually discounted to present value.

• Committed costs have already been agreed or incurred and generally cannot be changed by the decision.
• Unavoidable costs will arise regardless of which option is selected, so they do not affect the choice.

• Behavioral and anomaly detection
• Threat intelligence integration
• User and entity behavior analytics
• Automated response actions, often through SOAR integration

• Virus signatures: Associated primarily with antivirus or endpoint protection.
• Security agent deployment: Usually an endpoint-management or EDR function.
• Vulnerability scanning: Typically performed by vulnerability-management tools, though a SIEM may integrate their results.

• NAT traversal: Helps WAN Edge, vSmart, and vManage devices discover how to reach one another through NAT.
• Initial orchestration: Authenticates and introduces devices when they first join the SD-WAN fabric.
• Connection brokering: Provides information that allows devices to form their required control connections, after which the vBond is generally not in the data path.

• WAN Edge: Forwards user traffic and forms secure tunnels.
• vSmart: Controls the overlay control plane and distributes routes and policies.
• vManage: Provides centralized management, configuration, and monitoring.

• BCP (Business Continuity Plan): è più ampio e mira a mantenere le funzioni essenziali dell’organizzazione durante un’interruzione. Il DRP è una componente più specifica del BCP.
• Communication plan: stabilisce come comunicare con dipendenti, cittadini e altre parti interessate, ma non ripristina i sistemi.
• IRP (Incident Response Plan): gestisce la risposta iniziale a un incidente di sicurezza, come un attacco informatico, non principalmente il recupero da un disastro fisico.

• A is valid:

apex 
  for (Account theAccount : AccountList) { 
      // process theAccount 
  }

• D is conceptually valid, using an index:

apex 
  for (Integer i = 0; i < AccountList.size(); i++) { 
      Account theAccount = AccountList[i]; 
  }

• B is invalid because for(AccountList) is not valid loop syntax.
• C is invalid because each item is an Account, not a List.

• A. Periodically rotate responsibilities: May reduce some risks, but it does not directly detect unauthorized changes.
• B. Review segregation-of-duties conflicts: Identifies incompatible access combinations, not whether a specific data change was unauthorized.
• C. Log changes in an outside application: Logs provide evidence, but someone must review and analyze them. Logging alone does not detect misuse.
• D. Independent review: Directly detects unauthorized changes and reduces the risk that the person making the change can conceal it.

1. Define – establish the project’s objectives, scope, feasibility and requirements.
2. Design – plan how the project will be carried out, including resources, schedules and controls.
3. Deliver – execute the project and produce the required outputs.
4. Develop – close the project formally and capture learning for future projects.

• Filing documentation and records
• Closing project and accounting systems
• Settling costs
• Handing over the completed work and obtaining sign-off
• Reviewing performance and giving feedback

• Highly polished, organization-wide presentations
• Advanced dashboard design and customization
• Broader business-user distribution and interaction
• Specialized BI governance and modeling features

• AWS Network Firewall can inspect and block traffic across a VPC when traffic is routed through the firewall. A Drop action rule can deny traffic from the suspicious source IP.
• GuardDuty findings are sent to Security Hub.
• A Lambda function can be invoked when Security Hub receives a new GuardDuty finding, extract the source IP, and update the Network Firewall policy with a blocking rule.

• GuardDuty threat lists: Used to identify or increase the severity of findings; they do not directly block VPC traffic.
• AWS WAF: Protects supported web applications, such as CloudFront or Application Load Balancers. It does not provide general VPC-wide traffic blocking.
• GuardDuty suppression rules: Suppress or hide findings. They do not block the suspicious traffic.

• No servers or database infrastructure to provision.
• Uses standard SQL.
• Supports formats such as JSON, CSV, Parquet, and ORC.
• You typically define the table structure with AWS Glue Data Catalog or Athena’s own schema definitions.
• Charges are generally based on the amount of data scanned, so partitioning and columnar formats can reduce cost.
• It does not copy the data into a separate database; it reads the files in S3 when you run a query.

• The identified risk
• Its likelihood and potential impact
• The person or team responsible for handling it
• The response or treatment plan
• Risk thresholds, such as when escalation or action is required
• Current status and review dates

• Risk tolerance: The amount of risk an organization is willing to accept; it is a concept or limit, not usually the primary documentation.
• Risk transfer: Moving the responsibility or financial impact of a risk to another party, such as through insurance.
• Risk analysis: The process of evaluating risk likelihood and impact.

• Distinct values = 69

• Unique values = 4

• File is shared externally ? Access level

• File is labeled “Internal only” ? Sensitivity label

• C: Develop the rule in the Rules Editor, define the events, match, and condition sections, then use the test rule feature. This directly validates the YARA-L rule without enabling it in production.
• A: UDM Search can help investigate data and refine filters, but it does not fully test YARA-L logic—especially complex event joins, match windows, and conditions.

• Customer: Dual
• Date: Dual
• Sales: DirectQuery
• SalesAggregate: Import

• Sales – DirectQuery: Near-real-time data should not rely on an imported cache. DirectQuery sends queries to the source when visuals are loaded, allowing recent sales data to appear.
• SalesAggregate – Import: A weekly refresh is sufficient, and imported data generally gives faster visual performance because it is stored in Power BI’s in-memory cache.
• Customer and Date – Dual: These are dimension tables used with both the DirectQuery Sales table and the imported SalesAggregate table. Dual allows Power BI to use cached data when possible, while still behaving appropriately in queries involving DirectQuery data. This can improve performance and reduce unnecessary limited relationships.

• Planning and designing products and services
• Developing and delivering them
• Managing risks, suppliers, and resources
• Measuring performance
• Continually improving value delivery

• Value stream steps describe activities used to create and deliver value; they do not themselves provide the broader capabilities.
• Vision and operating model provide direction and structure, but they are not the practical management capabilities that enable the work.
• Value chain is the operating model showing how activities combine to create value; it is enabled by practices and resources.

• Firewall
• Intrusion prevention and detection
• Antivirus or antimalware
• Web and email filtering
• Virtual private networking (VPN)
• Sometimes content filtering and centralized reporting

• Warehouse size: Larger warehouses use more credits per unit of time than smaller ones.
• Number of clusters: A multi-cluster warehouse can run multiple clusters, and each active cluster consumes credits. Therefore, increasing the maximum or active cluster count can increase consumption.

• Number of users: More users may cause more workload, but users themselves do not consume credits.
• Amount of data processed: Snowflake warehouses are not charged directly by the amount of data scanned. However, processing more data may cause the warehouse to run longer, indirectly increasing credits.

• Filtering harmful or inappropriate content
• Blocking specified topics
• Detecting and masking sensitive information
• Enforcing content policies suitable for children

• Amazon Rekognition analyzes images and videos; it does not control text generated by a language model.
• Amazon Bedrock playgrounds are for testing models and prompts, not enforcing production safety policies.
• Agents for Amazon Bedrock help models complete tasks and use tools; they do not primarily provide content-safety controls.

• Transport and handling
• Storage and warehousing
• Refrigeration
• Shelf-stacking or replenishment
• Other costs directly attributable to product P

Correct reasoning

• Create storage5 as a General-purpose v2 (StorageV2) account.
• Configure Blob object replication from storage5 to an existing compatible storage account.
• The destination must support object replication—typically another StorageV2 or premium block blob account.
• Blob versioning must be enabled on both accounts.
• Blob change feed must be enabled on the source account.
• The accounts must meet Azure’s object-replication requirements, including being in supported regions and having compatible configuration.

• The listener uses a virtual IP address shared by the availability-group replicas.
• Floating IP, also called Direct Server Return (DSR), allows the SQL Server nodes to respond using the listener’s IP address rather than their individual VM IP addresses.
• This is required for the availability-group listener to function correctly with an Azure internal load balancer.