IIA CIA Exam Prep
Certified Internal Auditor Exam (Page 157 )

• Red team: Simulates attackers; exploits weaknesses to test security.
• Blue team: Defends systems; monitors, detects, and responds to attacks.
• Purple team: Combines red- and blue-team efforts to improve detection and defense.
• White team: Oversees or manages the test, defining rules, scope, and authorization.

• Resources that do not need internet access should remain on private network segments.
• Internet-facing access should be restricted to systems that require it.
• Access should be explicitly allowed rather than broadly exposed.

• A: A single administrator with access to core functions may violate least privilege if that access is broader than necessary.
• B: Inspecting traffic supports monitoring and defense, but does not itself limit privileges.
• C: Updating routing configurations supports availability and connectivity, not least privilege.

• MAC flooding: Overwhelms a switch’s MAC address table, potentially causing traffic to be broadcast.
• DNS spoofing: Provides false DNS responses to redirect users.
• ARP poisoning: Sends false ARP information to associate an attacker’s MAC address with another device’s IP address.

• Additional running costs: $800
• Less depreciation: $300

• The $100 reduction in fixed production overhead absorbed is only an accounting reallocation. It does not represent an actual saving in total fixed overhead.

• B — Reviewing the strategy: Usually performed by a security steering committee or other governance body.
• C — Communicating the strategy: The security manager may help communicate it, but communication is not the primary governance responsibility tested here.
• D — Approving the strategy: Approval belongs to executive management or the appropriate governing authority, not the person who develops it.

• A. IDS attack signatures: An IDS primarily detects suspicious network activity and usually does not provide dedicated file-upload malware scanning. It is generally detective rather than preventive.
• C. Load balancer: Distributes traffic among servers and improves availability; it does not inspect documents for malware.
• D. WAF: Helps block web-application attacks such as SQL injection, command injection, and XSS. Although a WAF may inspect upload requests, malware detection in PDF files is more directly addressed by antivirus or content-scanning functionality.

• A — Correct: Flow Builder is declarative and visual, so administrators and other non-developers can participate in designing and improving business processes without writing Apex.
• D — Correct: Flow Builder provides visual debugging tools, allowing an admin to test paths, inspect variable values, and identify where a specific business case fails.
• E — Correct: A flow’s visual structure documents the logic and makes later maintenance easier than reading and updating custom Apex code.

• B — Incorrect: Flow debugging does not attach a debugger to live customer sessions. The admin uses Flow Builder’s debug functionality with test inputs; this is not live-session debugging and should not be used to monitor real customer transactions.

• Espionage: Stealing information for intelligence or competitive purposes.
• Data exfiltration: Unauthorized removal or transfer of data.
• Nation-state attack: A sophisticated attack sponsored by a government.
• Shadow IT: Unapproved technology or access methods used by employees.

• AWS Budgets lets you create a cost or usage budget and configure alerts when actual or forecasted spending reaches a threshold. Notifications can be sent through email or Amazon SNS.
• Amazon CloudWatch can monitor AWS billing metrics and trigger an alarm when estimated charges exceed a specified amount.

• Amazon SQS is a message queue, not a cost-monitoring service.
• Cost Explorer analyzes spending but does not directly provide threshold notifications.
• AWS Cost and Usage Report delivers detailed billing data for analysis; it does not itself send threshold alerts.

• The selling division receives a credit based on a favourable transfer price, often market price or full cost plus a profit margin.
• The receiving division is charged a lower amount, such as marginal cost or another agreed price.
• The difference is accounted for centrally by head office or a corporate adjustment.

• Code suggestions: Inline completions as you write code, such as lines, functions, or blocks.
• Chat: An interactive interface for asking questions, explaining code, generating code, and helping with debugging.

• Knowledge Base: Not listed as a standard Copilot Individual IDE feature in this context.
• Pull Request Diff Analysis: More closely associated with GitHub-based code review or pull-request features, not the core Individual IDE extension capabilities.

• Espionage: Stealing confidential information, often for a competitor or government.
• Data exfiltration: Unauthorized transfer of data outside the organization. This could occur, but the question focuses on using unapproved access methods.
• Nation-state attack: An attack sponsored or conducted by a government.
• Shadow IT: Employees using technology or access methods outside the organization’s approved security controls.

• Encryption to preserve confidentiality
• Integrity protection to detect alteration
• Authentication of the server through certificates

• SHA-256: A hashing algorithm; it does not encrypt data for transmission.
• SSL 3.0: Obsolete and insecure. It should not be used.
• AES-256: A strong encryption algorithm, but by itself it does not provide the complete secure communication protocol needed for data in transit.

• An active relationship is used automatically when filters are evaluated. An inactive relationship does not propagate filters unless explicitly activated in DAX, so it would not reliably enforce the required security behavior.
• Apply security filter in both directions allows RLS filters to propagate across the relationship in both directions. This ensures that bidirectional filtering respects the RLS rules applied to both tables.
• Assume referential integrity is unrelated to RLS. It is mainly a DirectQuery optimization that allows Power BI to use an inner join when matching keys are guaranteed to exist.
• The relationship must therefore be active, with security filtering enabled in both directions.

json 
{ 
  "Effect": "Deny", 
  "NotAction": [ 
    "iam:*", 
    "route53:*", 
    "cloudfront:*", 
    "support:*" 
  ], 
  "Resource": "*", 
  "Condition": { 
    "StringNotEquals": { 
      "aws:RequestedRegion": "eu-west-1" 
    } 
  } 
}

• SCPs set maximum permissions; they do not grant permissions. The default SCP allows actions, so the restriction must be an explicit Deny.
• aws:RequestedRegion checks the Region targeted by an API request.
• StringNotEquals: eu-west-1 denies requests directed to every other Region.
• NotAction allows designated global services to remain usable because they do not operate in a single AWS Region.
• Attaching the SCP to the OU makes it apply to existing accounts and accounts later added to that OU.

• B. Deploy to a SageMaker endpoint: This is needed for SageMaker-hosted models, not for a model intended to be used directly in Amazon Bedrock.
• C. Register with SageMaker Model Registry: SageMaker Model Registry is unrelated to invoking custom models in Bedrock.
• D. Grant access in Bedrock: Access permissions may be necessary, but they do not replace the required provisioned capacity.

• Economy: Obtaining inputs at the lowest appropriate cost.
• Efficiency: Making the best use of resources, such as staff, money, and equipment.
• Effectiveness: Achieving the intended objectives or outcomes.

• VLAN 10 for data
• VLAN 20 for voice

• A: Describes physical trunking or logical switch ports, not an SVI.
• B: An SVI can provide management access, but that is only one use—not the best description here.
• D: SVI use is not related to running out of physical ports.

• Code signing: Verifies the software’s authenticity and integrity; it does not hide the source code or prevent reverse engineering.
• Tokenization: Replaces sensitive data with tokens, mainly for protecting data such as payment information—not software logic.
• Blockchain: Provides a tamper-resistant record of transactions or data; it does not protect compiled code from analysis.

• Honeypots: Deliberately vulnerable or attractive systems designed to lure attackers. Legitimate users should not access them, so activity on a honeypot is a strong indicator of compromise.
• DNS sinkholes: Redirect requests for known malicious domains to a controlled internal system instead of allowing the connection. This can identify infected hosts attempting to contact command-and-control infrastructure.

• Tokenization: Replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive tokens; it protects data but does not primarily detect attackers.
• CI/CD: Automates software development and deployment processes.
• Threat modeling: Identifies potential threats and weaknesses before or during system design.
• Data obfuscation: Makes data harder to understand, but it is not an attacker-detection method.

• The requirement explicitly says the organization wants to use SAML to secure Salesforce API access.
• The SAML Bearer Assertion Flow exchanges a SAML assertion for a Salesforce OAuth access token.
• It is intended for server-to-server or other noninteractive integrations where the application has already been authenticated by an identity provider.
• The connected app can be configured so administrators authorize or preauthorize applications that consume the APIs.

• B — JWT Bearer Flow: Uses a signed JWT, not a SAML assertion. It would be appropriate if the requirement specified JWT-based authentication.
• C — SAML Assertion Flow: This is not the standard Salesforce OAuth flow name; the relevant name is OAuth 2.0 SAML Bearer Assertion Flow.
• D — User-Agent Flow: Designed for interactive browser-based authorization, not a SAML-based server-to-server integration.

yaml 
clusterIP: None

• CronJob: Runs Jobs on a schedule and normally does not need stable networking.
• Deployment: Manages interchangeable, stateless replicas and usually uses a regular Service.
• DaemonSet: Runs a Pod on selected nodes but does not inherently require stable Pod identities.

• Continuous deployment: Automates software releases; it does not specifically test input handling.
• Static code analysis: Examines source or compiled code without executing it. It can find coding flaws but does not directly stress the application with malformed inputs.
• Manual peer review: Developers inspect code or design manually. Useful, but not the best practice specifically for testing how a live product handles invalid input.

• Accept: Acknowledge the risk and choose not to take additional action.
• Transfer: Shift the risk or its financial impact to another party, such as through insurance or outsourcing.
• Mitigate: Reduce the likelihood or impact of the risk, such as by implementing security controls.
• Avoid: Eliminate the activity or condition that creates the risk.

• Cloud architecture
• Data architecture
• Platform engineering
• Data engineering
• Provisioning and modernization

• Data protection is associated mainly with security and risk management.
• Data governance belongs to the governance perspective.
• Data science is not an AWS CAF capability.

• A laptop
• Software access
• A password reset
• A mobile phone

• They run behind the scenes — applies more to automation or workflows.
• They are optional — catalog items are fundamental to a request-based catalog.
• They provide options — variables and variable options collect the requester’s choices for an item; they are not the catalog item itself.

• T?o m?t Systems Manager Automation runbook d? ch?y l?nh kh?i d?ng l?i ?ng d?ng trên các EC2 instance.
• T?o m?t Amazon EventBridge rule ph?n ?ng khi CloudWatch alarm chuy?n sang tr?ng thái ALARM.
• Ð?t Automation runbook làm target c?a EventBridge rule.

1. Log c?a ?ng d?ng du?c ghi vào CloudWatch Logs.
2. CloudWatch alarm phát hi?n nhi?u l?i liên quan d?n vi?c restart.
3. Alarm chuy?n sang tr?ng thái ALARM.
4. EventBridge nh?n s? ki?n thay d?i tr?ng thái này.
5. EventBridge g?i Systems Manager Automation runbook.
6. Runbook restart ?ng d?ng trên các EC2 instance, không restart c? instance.

• A: SNS không tr?c ti?p g?i Systems Manager Automation runbook nhu m?t target native.
• B: Lambda có th? th?c hi?n vi?c restart, nhung ph?i t? x? lý vi?c xác d?nh instance và ch?y l?nh t? xa.
• C: Lambda ch? làm trung gian d? g?i runbook, không c?n thi?t vì EventBridge có th? g?i runbook tr?c ti?p.

• Azure creates a corresponding service principal in Microsoft Entra ID.
• The identity’s lifecycle is tied to the Azure resource.
• If the resource is deleted, Azure automatically deletes the identity.
• Only the associated resource can use that identity to request tokens.
• You can grant the identity permissions to access services such as Key Vault or Storage without storing credentials in code.

• vSmart controls the overlay control plane. It uses OMP to exchange routing information, distribute policies, and determine how WAN Edge devices reach one another.
• vManage is the centralized management and configuration platform.
• vBond is the orchestrator. It helps devices authenticate, discover controllers, and traverse NAT during onboarding.
• APIC-EM is not the SD-WAN control-plane component described here.

• 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.

• Accept: Acknowledging the risk without taking additional action.
• Transfer: Shifting the risk’s impact to a third party, such as through insurance or outsourcing.
• Mitigate: Reducing the likelihood or impact of the risk through security controls.
• Avoid: Eliminating the activity or process that creates the risk.

1. Product + ProductSubCategory: Inner join

1. Result + ProductCategory: Left outer join

1. Ensure BOMs can include subcomponents ? Configure an entity relationship

1. Report changes made by engineers ? Enable auditing

• Configure entity relationship
• Configure auditing

• A: Allow SAN certificates — SANs are used to identify valid hostnames in a certificate. They do not bypass trust validation.
• C: Open the secure LDAP port — A blocked port would normally cause a timeout or connection-refused error, not certificate errors.
• D: Increase the TLS version on the RA — The issue concerns certificate trust, not the organization’s registration authority.

• D — Create sibling resource pools for the Production VMs and Test VMs.

• B — Configure a memory reservation on the Production resource pool.

• Shares only determine relative priority when resources are scarce; they do not guarantee memory.
• A parent resource pool alone does not provide a guarantee.
• A child pool for Test VMs does not reserve memory for Production.

• The listener has a virtual IP address on the load balancer.
• The active SQL Server replica must respond using the listener’s IP address, not its own VM IP.
• Floating IP allows the listener IP to be preserved and returned by the active replica.
• This is required for the SQL Always On listener configuration.

• A health probe for the SQL listener/cluster role
• The SQL Server listener port, commonly 1433
• Appropriate backend pool membership

• Employees can work from any location, including remote sites and offices worldwide.
• Login can be relatively seamless after the device is registered.
• It does not require distributing additional physical authentication equipment.

• Geotagging: Identifies location, but location alone is not a strong authentication method and may prevent legitimate remote access.
• Smart cards: Provide strong authentication but require card readers and physical cards, increasing equipment and management requirements.
• Time-based logins: Typically involve one-time codes that users must enter, making the experience less seamless and potentially requiring a token or authenticator app.

• C — “when the query finishes”

• D — “when the query began”

• BCP: Maintains essential business operations during and after disruption. It is broader than IT recovery, but the question focuses on restoring the destroyed data center.
• Communication plan: Defines how the organization communicates with staff, the public, and other stakeholders.
• IRP: Handles security incidents such as malware, unauthorized access, or data breaches—not physical disaster recovery.

• terraform apply
• terraform destroy

• Store privileged credentials securely
• Grant the consultant only the access needed
• Provide temporary or time-limited access
• Rotate passwords automatically
• Record or monitor administrator sessions

• TACACS+: Centralizes authentication and authorization, commonly for network devices, but does not primarily provide password vaulting and privileged-session control.
• SAML: Enables web-based federation and single sign-on, not privileged credential management.
• SSO platform: Reduces the number of passwords users need, but does not necessarily protect administrative credentials or control privileged sessions.
• Role-based access control (RBAC): Assigns permissions based on job roles, but does not by itself prevent password sharing or securely broker administrator access.

• Disaster recovery backups
• Long-term backup retention
• Data archiving that still needs occasional access

• Multi-Regional Storage: Intended for frequently accessed data needing broad geographic availability; it costs more.
• Regional Storage: Suitable for frequently accessed data within one region.
• Nearline Storage: Intended for data accessed roughly once per month, such as monthly backups.
• Coldline Storage: Better fit for backups accessed only during a disaster or occasional recovery event.

kusto 
Event 
| summarize make_set(EventID) by Computer

• summarize groups records.
• by Computer creates one result row per virtual machine.
• make_set(EventID) returns an array containing unique event IDs for that computer.

kusto 
| summarize make_list(EventID) by Computer

• Determining ISP-assigned address space: Usually involves public reconnaissance, such as WHOIS or regional Internet registry information.
• Bypassing DNS sinkholing: Would require evidence that malicious domains are resolving outside the organization’s sinkhole controls.
• Achieving initial access: DNS log entries alone do not demonstrate compromise or entry.
• Exfiltrating data: DNS tunneling generally involves repeated queries containing encoded or unusually long data, not merely internal host discovery.

• 16 VMs: one failure loses 25 GB and 10 cores—only 6.25% of memory.
• 8 VMs: one failure loses 12.5% of memory.
• 4 VMs: one failure loses 25%.
• 1 VM: one failure loses the entire application environment.

• Domain controllers, because the requirement specifically excludes them. However, note that both member servers and domain controllers run Windows Server, so OS targeting alone cannot distinguish them unless the targeting option allows selecting the relevant server role/version. In the usual exam interpretation, target the applicable server OS category.
• Client computers, because they run a client Windows operating system.

• Domain: Targets membership in a domain, not the computer’s operating-system type.
• Security Group: Would require creating and maintaining a group containing all member servers, increasing administrative effort.
• Environment Variable: Not designed to reliably identify member servers.

• 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.

• Employees can use approved devices from remote locations or worldwide offices.
• Users do not need to carry or insert extra hardware.
• It helps prevent account takeovers from unknown devices.

• Geotagging: Restricts access based on location, which could interfere with remote work and travel.
• Smart cards: Require additional physical equipment and card readers.
• Time-based logins: Limit access according to time but do not strongly bind access to an authorized user device.

Question 3: AWS Storage Gateway File Gateway

• A: S3 bucket per user — S3 is object storage, not a traditional shared file system; mounting it requires extra tools and is less efficient.
• B: File Gateway — Provides a local file share using standard file protocols while storing files in Amazon S3. This preserves convenient local access and extends storage capacity.
• C: WorkSpaces and WorkDocs — Designed for virtual desktops and document collaboration, not large shared file storage.
• D: EC2 with EBS — EBS is attached to one EC2 instance and is not designed for direct multi-user file sharing.