AICPA CPA-Auditing Exam Actual Questions
CPA Auditing and Attestation (AUD) (Page 61 )

• UPS (uninterruptible power supply) provides battery backup (time to save work and shut down).
• Surge protector only blocks surges; it does not provide backup power.
• To maximize uptime for essential tasks, put the devices that must stay powered during an outage on the UPS. Put less-critical devices on the surge protector or a wall outlet.

• Put on the UPS: the desktop computer, monitor, network gear (router/modem), and any external drives or essential peripherals you need to keep running to save to the cloud.
• Put on the surge protector (or wall outlet): nonessential devices like printers, scanners, speakers, or lamps.

• Correct answer: C) After installing ES on the search head(s) and running the distributed configuration management tool.

• ES requires the Splunk_TA_ForIndexes.spl add-on on indexers to apply index-time configurations. It should be deployed via the distributed configuration management (DCM) flow after ES is installed on the search heads, so the indexers receive the proper configuration in a controlled, versioned bundle.

• A) Deploying when adding apps to the deployment server isn’t the ES-specific order; it bypasses the ES-instantiated workflow.
• B) Installing Splunk_TA_ForIndexes.spl first isn’t the recommended order; ES needs to be installed on the search heads first.
• D) It isn’t limited to indexer cluster sites or cluster master commands; the standard flow uses DCM to push the TA to indexers in general.

• Correct answer: A) Hashing

• Why: Hashing produces a fixed-size digest of the software. If the final build is altered in any way, the hash will change, enabling you to detect tampering by comparing the stored digest with a freshly computed one.

• Why not the others:

• Recovery procedures actually work
• Recovery time and recovery point objectives can be met
• Staff understand their responsibilities
• Contact details, dependencies, and technical configurations are accurate
• Gaps or conflicts exist in the plan

• Not version-controlled: Creates a risk of using an outdated copy, but the plan might still be effective.
• Contact information needs updating: This is a specific weakness that can be corrected, often identified during testing.
• Not approved by senior management: Approval is important for authority and resource commitment, but an untested plan presents the most direct risk that recovery will fail when needed.

• Two instances: Free/Shared do not provide the production-level multi-instance hosting you need. Basic/Standard support more than one instance, with Standard specifically meeting the scale requirement.
• SSL support: SSL (custom domain TLS) isn’t available on the Free tier and isn’t a driver for cost on paid tiers—but you’ll need a paid tier to map a custom domain (miami.weyland.com) and use SSL.
• Storage: Your site needs 12 GB. Free/Shared have very limited storage; Basic tier storage is typically smaller than what you need, while Standard provides substantially more storage capacity.
• Cost: Among the tiers that meet all requirements (two instances, SSL, sufficient storage), Standard is the lowest-cost option that satisfies them.

• Correct answer: D — use the same hashing algorithm as the sender's to create a numerical representation of the file.

• Integrity is verified by recomputing the hash on the received data and comparing it to the sender’s hash. This must use the same hash function; if you use a different algorithm, the digests won’t match even if the data is intact.
• The hash output is a fixed-length digest (a numerical representation). Whether you call it a “binary image” or a “numerical representation,” the key is that you generate the same type of digest with the same algorithm and compare them.

• A: same algorithm but the result is described as a binary image instead of a digest; you still compare the digest, but the phrasing is less precise.
• B/C: using a different algorithm would produce a different digest, causing false mismatch or failure to verify integrity.

• Answer: D) Out-of-band management

• Why this is correct:

• Why the other options aren’t suitable here:

• The correct answer: B) Synthetic identity theft.

• Synthetic identity theft involves creating a new, forged identity by combining information from multiple real people (e.g., names, dates of birth, SSNs) to commit fraud.
• In the scenario, Adam “created a new identity by obtaining information from different victims,” which matches the idea of synthesizing data to form a fake person.

• Medical identity theft: using someone’s medical information to obtain care or services.
• Tax identity theft: using someone’s personal info to file fraudulent tax returns.
• Social identity theft: impersonating someone to deceive others socially or publicly.

• Look for phrases like “create a new identity” or “combine information from multiple people” to identify synthetic identity theft.

• Correct answer: A — a clear business case has been established.

• The audit focus for IT procurement is ensuring there is a solid economic justification for the investment. A clear business case documents the expected benefits, costs, risks, and alignment with strategic objectives, which governs whether the investment is worth pursuing.
• The other options are important controls or project aspects, but they are secondary to ensuring the investment is justified financially and strategically:

• The correct answer is A: CCTV recordings are not regularly reviewed.

• CCTV is a monitoring/control mechanism. If recordings aren’t reviewed, security events (break-ins, policy violations, equipment tampering) can go undetected and unaddressed.
• Regular review is essential for deterrence, incident response, and forensic evidence. Without it, the entire CCTV control provides little value.

• B (records deleted after one year) affects forensic availability, but it’s a data-retention issue rather than the ongoing effectiveness of the surveillance program.
• C (footage not recorded 24x7) creates gaps in coverage, which is a concern, but regular review of available footage still supports detection; 24x7 coverage is a separate policy/perimeter issue.
• D (cameras not in break rooms) is more about privacy and space planning than core data-center security monitoring.

• Why: ADS is designed to collect information about on-premises environments to plan migrations. It inventories details like hostname, IP address, MAC address, OS, hardware, and installed software, plus dependency mappings. This data helps you understand your current environment before moving to AWS.

• How it differs from the other options:

• Practical use: Install the ADS agent on on-prem hosts to collect data, then view the inventory in Migration Hub to inform migration planning and sequencing.

• Goal: serving a static website globally with minimal latency.
• Why C works: CloudFront is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) that caches content at many edge locations around the world. When users request the site, CloudFront serves cached copies from the nearest edge location, greatly reducing latency. It also reduces load on your EC2 origin by handling many requests at the edge.
• Why the other options aren’t as good:

• Increase/decrease the number of epochs: Changes how long training runs, but does not reuse a pre-trained model.
• Unsupervised learning: Trains from unlabeled data and does not specifically address adapting an existing model.

• A) MTU mismatch: OSPF neighbors must exchange Hello packets with a compatible MTU. If MTUs differ, the neighbor conversation fails and the adjacency cannot become Full.

• B) Incorrect subnet mask: Routers must be in the same IP subnet on the connected link to form a neighbor relationship. A subnet mismatch prevents Hello packets from being considered valid on the same network.

• D) Area ID not the same: Neighbors must share the same Area ID. A mismatch stops adjacency from forming beyond the 2-Way state.

• E) Different metric set on each end of the link: Cost differences do not prevent OSPF adjacency; they affect routing decisions, not neighbor formation.
• F) Router ID not defined: OSPF can auto-choose a router ID; an undefined ID is not a prerequisite for adjacency to reach Full.

• The Well-Architected Framework has five pillars: Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, and Cost Optimization.
• Operational Excellence: how you run and improve your systems—monitoring, incident response, and evolving processes.
• Reliability: the ability of a workload to recover from failures, maintain uptime, and scale as demand changes.

• Availability (A) is not a pillar name; it’s an outcome that relates to Reliability.
• Scalability (C) isn’t a pillar name; scalability touches on Performance Efficiency.
• Responsive design (D) is not a pillar in the Well-Architected Framework.

• VMs without NGT: Not clearly a migration blocker on its own; NGT (Nutanix Guest Tools) status isn’t the typical gating factor for live migration during maintenance.
• VMs marked as an Agent: Not a standard, widely-known migration blocker; agents aren’t the typical reason a VM can’t be migrated.
• Memory Overcommitted VMs: While memory pressure can affect placement, memory overcommitment isn’t a fundamental reason a VM would be labeled non-migratable during maintenance.
• VMs with attached Volume Groups: This is the strongest candidate. A Volume Group is a set of volumes bound to a VM; moving the VM would entail relocating and reattaching those volumes, which can complicate or block live migration during maintenance.

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• Prompts and Suggestions: Retained for 28 days
• User Engagement Data: Kept for Two Years

• Side loading means installing software from sources outside official or trusted repositories.
• This process can bring in malicious payloads because the installed software hasn’t been vetted. A rootkit is a type of malware that hides its presence and maintains privileged access, making it a prime risk when using untrusted sources.
• Why not the other options:

• Only install apps from trusted sources; verify signatures.
• Use application whitelisting and security controls to block sideloading.
• Keep systems updated and use anti-malware tools capable of detecting rootkits.

• Disabling GPS: Affects location services, not email connectivity.
• Configuring 4G usage only: Does not enable international data access and could prevent connectivity if 4G is unavailable.
• Connecting using a hotspot: Could provide data, but it is not the most direct solution and depends on another network or device.

• Why this is correct: In Azure Virtual Desktop, user access to a host pool is controlled through App Groups. The default app group for a host pool publishes the full desktop, so adding members to that app group grants them sign-in and access to the desktop (and any RemoteApps in that group). This is the standard way to give users access to AVD resources.

• Why the other options are not correct:

• Practical steps (high level):

• Each statement is evaluated as True (Yes) or False (No) independently.
• Key Azure facts to recall:

• In the AWS shared responsibility model, AWS manages the security of the “infrastructure,” including the physical hardware and underlying virtualization.
• The customer is responsible for everything else in the cloud stack: the guest OS on EC2, the NoSQL database software running on it, data, patching the OS, and configuring access controls like security groups.
• So, for a self-managed NoSQL database on EC2, AWS would handle the physical hardware, while you would patch the guest OS and manage DB availability, backups, and security.

• It is a sequence of distinct phases that flow one after another (requirements ? design ? implementation ? verification ? maintenance).
• Requirements are defined up front and changes are costly; the project often requires formal sign-off before moving to the next phase.
• It emphasizes heavy documentation and minimal iteration after a phase is completed.

• Answer: A

• Reason: The Standard web tier is the lowest tier that provides dedicated compute, built-in load balancing across instances, and sufficient storage to host multiple apps with custom domains. Basic may lack the required scalability/storage, while Free/Shared do not offer dedicated compute or proper load balancing.

• Network Security Groups (NSGs) control network traffic to and from Azure resources.
• By applying NSGs to the web tier and the database tier (subnets or NICs), you can:

• NSGs provide the necessary granularity (source/destination, port, protocol) to enforce the desired traffic patterns between tiers.
• For easier management you can use separate subnets for each tier or, optionally, use Application Security Groups to simplify rule management.

• IPsec: Protects traffic at the network layer, commonly for VPNs; it is not WPA2’s authentication protocol.
• SSL: Protects specific application sessions and has largely been replaced by TLS.
• SSH: Secures remote command-line administration.

• The correct option is B: AWS Storage Gateway.

• Why: The scenario requires backing up on-prem data to AWS without changing existing backup workflows. AWS Storage Gateway provides a hybrid storage solution; specifically, the Tape Gateway emulates a physical tape library, allowing your existing backup software to write to virtual tapes that are stored in AWS (in S3 or S3 Glacier). This lets you back up 10 TB to the cloud while preserving current backup workflows and on-prem infrastructure.

• How it would work: Deploy a gateway appliance or VM on-site, connect your tape-based backup software to the virtual tape library, and start writing to virtual tapes. The data is then archived in AWS, freeing up local storage.

• Why the others aren’t suitable:

• Quick tip: If you weren’t using tape, File Gateway could be another option for file-based backups; Tape Gateway is the right pick for tape-based workflows.

• Basic: Self-help only; no technical support or design assessment.
• Developer/Standard: Technical support, but generally not the full proactive architecture guidance required here.
• Professional Direct: Includes proactive guidance and architecture recommendations.
• Premier: Also supports this, but is not the minimum-cost option.

• Context: You’ve enabled auditing in Dataverse and need to trim audit data to free storage. The question asks which deletion options you can use.

• What the options typically mean:

• About the provided answer (A, C, D): The list includes “by column,” which isn’t a typical or supported way to purge audit data. The more plausible trio is A (by record), B (date range), and C (by table older than date). If the exam expects A, C, D, that seems incorrect or mis-stated in the source.

• Practical takeaway: To reduce audit storage, use per-record deletions, per-table purge by date, and/or date-range deletions as supported by the environment’s audit management UI or admin docs.

1. Create a new AMI or copy the existing AMI while specifying EBS encryption and an appropriate AWS KMS key.
2. This creates an encrypted AMI backed by encrypted EBS snapshots.
3. Copy the encrypted AMI to the destination Region, using a KMS key available there.
4. Launch the application stack from the encrypted AMI.

• B: AWS KMS does not encrypt an existing unencrypted AMI in place. You must create an encrypted copy.
• C: AWS Certificate Manager manages TLS certificates, not EBS or AMI encryption.
• D: Enabling encryption by default affects newly created EBS volumes and snapshots; it does not encrypt an existing unencrypted AMI during copying.

Why B works

• AWS KMS keys are Regional resources. A normal customer managed key in Region A cannot be used directly in Region B.
• A customer managed multi-Region KMS key (MRK) has related key replicas in both Regions. The replicas share key material and key ID, although each has a Regional ARN.
• With client-side encryption, the application encrypts the data before storing it in S3. Cross-Region replication then copies already-encrypted objects, so S3 does not need to decrypt and re-encrypt them with a different Regional key.

Why the other choices are weaker

• A and C: SSE-S3 uses Amazon-managed S3 keys, not the required customer managed KMS key.
• D: SSE-KMS can work only if the solution creates and configures the appropriate KMS key or multi-Region key replica in each Region. As written, it says to create a customer managed KMS key in each Region, which implies separate keys—not the same KMS key. Replication also requires additional KMS permissions and destination encryption configuration.

• Correct answer: C. AWS CloudFormation

• Why: CloudFormation lets you define infrastructure as code via templates (JSON or YAML). You can create a single template that describes multiple AWS resources and reuse it to deploy consistent stacks across environments. Templates can be parameterized and stored for repeated deployments. Other options (Marketplace, AMI, OpsWorks) don’t provide reusable deployment templates in the same way.

• Sales Processes define the set of Opportunity stages for a given workflow.
• Record Types let you have different data models (different fields and picklist values) on the same object.
• Page Layouts control which fields are shown/required for each record type.

• Create three Sales Processes so each team can use its own stages.
• Create three Record Types so each team has its own fields and picklist values.
• Create three Page Layouts so each record type shows the appropriate fields.

• Multiple AWS accounts: Create a separate account for each department or workload. This provides clear isolation and makes it easier to track each department’s usage and costs for chargeback.
• Consolidated billing: AWS Organizations can combine billing for multiple accounts into one central payer account. The company can still view costs by account while managing payment centrally.

• Placement groups: Control how EC2 instances are physically placed for networking or performance; they do not provide departmental billing separation.
• Edge locations: Infrastructure used by services such as Amazon CloudFront; unrelated to chargeback.
• AWS Config: Records and evaluates resource configurations and compliance; it is not a billing-separation mechanism.

• Wiping securely overwrites the drive so the original data cannot reasonably be recovered. It is generally less expensive than physically destroying the device.
• Recycling could expose the data if the drive is not securely erased first.
• Shredding physically destroys the drive and is effective, but usually more costly and prevents reuse.
• Deletion only removes file references; it is not a secure sanitization method.

• A) You can only apply a single template BOM to a service object.

• C) You can modify or delete lines in a BOM template regardless of whether the template has been associated to a service object, or not.

• B) You can apply many template BOMs to a service object — false; typically only one template per service object.
• D) You can modify/delete lines only if not associated — false; you can modify templates even after association (per C).

• A Storage Gateway File Gateway provides an on-premises NFS/SMB file share that's backed by objects in S3. This is exactly what you need to migrate an NFS workload: applications continue using NFS, while the actual data moves to and is stored in S3.
• It can cache frequently accessed data locally for performance, while uploads go to an S3 bucket.
• Why the other options aren’t suitable:

• IaaS provides virtualized infrastructure, including VMs, disks, and networking. You manage the guest operating system and software installed on the VM.
• PaaS provides a managed platform for deploying applications without managing the underlying VMs or operating systems. Examples include Azure App Service and Azure Functions.

• On-Demand: You pay by the hour with no long-term commitment. This is ideal for workloads that are infrequent or have highly variable usage. Since this job runs only 24 hours once per year, you pay only for those 24 hours, with no wasted upfront or long-term payments.
• Reserved Instances: Require a 1- or 3-year commitment and pay for capacity whether you use it or not. For a workload that runs just 24 hours a year, you’d be paying for most of the term unused, making it far less cost-efficient.
• Spot Instances: Can be interrupted whenever AWS needs capacity, which is unacceptable for an uninterruptible workload.
• Dedicated Instances: Generally more expensive and aimed at licensing or compliance requirements; not needed for this use case.

• Windows 10 VMs
• Windows Server 2012 or later VMs
• Running VMs—they do not need to be shut down
• Debian 8.2+ VMs, assuming the specific version is supported
• Stopped or deallocated VMs

• Step 1: From Power BI Desktop, select Get Data, choose Folder, enter the folder path, and click OK, then choose Transform data to open Power Query Editor.

• Step 2: In Power Query Editor, expand the Attributes column.

• Step 3: From the Power Query Editor, select the Content column and use Home > Combine Files (aka “Combine binaries”) to consolidate the files.

• In Spark, an executor is a JVM that can have multiple cores. Each task can consume some CPUs (spark.task.cpus).
• The executor’s resources are effectively partitioned into slots, where each slot can run one task. The number of slots per executor is roughly spark.executor.cores / spark.task.cpus.
• Therefore, multiple tasks can run in parallel within the same executor (via these slots). So the statement “Tasks run in parallel via slots” is correct.

• A: A slot is not another name for an executor; a slot is a unit inside an executor.
• B: There’s no requirement that there must be fewer executors than tasks; tasks can be scheduled over time across the available slots.
• C: An executor can run more than one core; it’s not limited to a single core.
• D: There isn’t a rule that there must be more slots than tasks; tasks can wait if slots aren’t available, and you can have equal or even fewer slots than concurrent tasks.

• You want: a row for each year and each product (year+product), plus a summary row for each year that totals all products (year only).
• GROUP BY ROLLUP(YEAR(SO.ModifiedDate), P.Name) yields:

• GROUP BY CUBE(YEAR(SO.ModifiedDate), P.Name) produces all combinations of the grouping columns, including:

• This adds extra rows (per-year totals by product across all years and a grand total) that aren’t needed for your stated goal.

• If you want exactly the (Year, Product) and (Year) rows, you can use GROUPING SETS ((Year, Product), (Year)) which is equivalent to Rollup in this two-column case but makes intent explicit.

• SELECT YEAR(SO.ModifiedDate) AS OrderYear, P.Name AS ProductName, SUM(SO.OrderQty) AS TotalQty

1. Remote access to a Windows PC
2. Full chat and optional game-console functions

• Windows Remote Desktop (RDP) uses TCP 3389. The router needs a port-forwarding rule that sends incoming traffic on that port to the Windows PC’s internal IP address.
• The game console should connect through the wireless AP. Using WPA2-PSK provides the required wireless security while allowing normal online, chat, and optional services.
• The firewall should separate the internal network from the screened subnet. Its screened-subnet-side address is shown as 10.100.0.1.
• Devices must be placed in the correct network locations: the PC behind the router, the console on the wireless AP, and the firewall between the appropriate network segments.

• Pay-as-you-go in Azure is an operating expense (OPEX) model, not an “elastic” expenditure model.
• Elastic or scalable terms describe capacity planning, not the cost category. The cost should be treated as OPEX since you pay for usage each month.
• The parallel question (Question 12) shows the correct approach is using an operational expenditure model.

• In Microsoft Teams Phone System, a single Auto Attendant can handle multiple time-based greetings by using separate schedules for office hours, after hours, weekends, and holidays.
• You can configure one Auto Attendant with four distinct greetings mapped to:

• Open the Teams admin center > Voice > Auto attendants, edit or create an Auto Attendant.
• Under Time-based routing, define four rules:

• Create a Holiday schedule with the relevant dates (e.g., Easter, Christmas) and assign the Holiday greeting.
• Save the configuration.

• If your environment cannot separate weekend from after-hours within a single Auto Attendant, you might technically need more than one Auto Attendant.

• administrators — Full access to switch configuration and REST API functions; excessive for this requirement.
• sysadmin — Intended for highly privileged system administration, not basic monitoring.
• helpdesk — More limited and focused on troubleshooting/support functions; it does not match the stated default role and level-1 requirement as directly.