ISC2 ISSAP Exam Actual Questions
ISC2 Information Systems Security Architecture Professional Exam (Page 12 )

• Risk tolerance describes the organization’s overall risk appetite, not the risks themselves.
• Risk transfer is a treatment option (e.g., insurance), not a documentation artifact.
• Risk analysis assesses likelihood and impact but doesn’t establish ownership or thresholds in a formal register.

• Geo-redundant storage (GRS) replicates data to a secondary Azure region, but the secondary copy is normally unavailable for read access.
• RA-GRS provides geo-replication and read-only access to the secondary region, satisfying all requirements.
• Zone-redundant storage (ZRS) replicates data across availability zones within the same Azure region, not separate geographic regions.
• Locally redundant storage (LRS) keeps copies within a single datacenter or region and does not provide geographic resiliency.

• Batch processing, such as scheduled data transformations
• Streaming processing, such as continuously ingesting events

• Manipulating data with multiple languages: Mainly a benefit of Databricks and Spark.
• Real-time notebook collaboration: A workspace/notebook feature.
• Alerts for query failures: A Databricks SQL or job-monitoring feature.
• Distributing complex operations: Primarily a Spark compute capability.

• B. Enable column profile — This turns on column profiling, which computes statistics like min and max for each column.
• C. Show column profile in details pane — This ensures the per-column profile is visible in the details pane.
• E. Enable details pane — This makes the details pane available so you can view the column profile there.

• A. Show column value distribution may help with distribution but isn’t specifically about min/max.
• D. Show column quality details shows data quality (valid/null counts), not min/max.

• Risk transfer means shifting the financial impact of a threat from the organization to another party (the insurer). Buying cyber insurance accomplishes this shift.
• It is not Accept: acceptance of risk would be tolerating it without action.
• It is not Mitigate: mitigation involves reducing likelihood or impact with controls, not shifting costs.
• It is not Avoid: avoidance would be not engaging in the activity that creates the risk; insurance does not remove the risk itself.

• If the account name includes the parsed search string, show the element; otherwise hide it.
• In CSS, to show an element you can set display to a visible value (commonly 'block' for block-level elements), and to hide you set display to 'none'.

• The ternary should map true to a visible display value and false to 'none'.
• Therefore the placeholder should be replaced with 'block' : 'none' (so the code becomes: accountName.includes(parsedSearchString) ? 'block' : 'none').

• There are several typos in the snippet (e.g., quesrySelectorAll, toLOwerCase, Style.display). In a working version you’d also fix those to document.querySelectorAll, account.innerHTML.toLowerCase(), and account.style.display.

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 — The model is deployed at UK border checkpoints.

• The EU AI Act applies to AI systems used within the EU or by entities established in the EU. So:

• A assigned without var becomes a global variable (in non-strict mode). So after myFunction(), a = 5 is accessible.
• b is declared with var inside the function, so it’s local to that function (function-scoped). It’s not defined in the outer (global) scope.

• console.log(a) prints 5.
• console.log(b) throws a ReferenceError: b is not defined.

• Improve QA testing efficiency: A prototype may help discover defects early, but that is not its greatest benefit.
• Decrease time allocated for user testing and review: Prototyping usually requires additional user involvement and review, not less.
• Minimize scope changes: Prototypes can actually reveal new requirements or cause scope changes. However, discovering those changes early is beneficial.

• A: True. You can change the size of a Virtual Warehouse after creation (via UI or ALTER WAREHOUSE).

• B: True. A warehouse can be resized while it’s running; the resize will take effect without needing to stop queries.

• C: True. A warehouse can be configured to suspend after a period of inactivity (AUTO_SUSPEND).

• D: True. A warehouse can be configured to auto-resume when new queries are submitted (AUTO_RESUME).

• 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.

• Correct answer: B — A reservation for the server based on the MAC address.

• Why this is the best choice:

• Why the other options are less suitable:

• Quick takeaway: Use a DHCP reservation to give the file server a fixed IP while still benefiting from centralized DHCP management.

• Ablauf: Er wird in der gleichen Transaktion ausgeführt, bei der z. B. ein Datensatz erstellt oder aktualisiert wird. Der Benutzer wartet, bis der Workflow abgeschlossen ist.
• Stufen: Kann vor dem Vorgang (pre-operation) oder nach dem Vorgang (post-operation) laufen.
• Zweck: Sofortige Validierung oder Anpassung von Daten, ggf. auch das Verhindern eines Vorgangs, wenn Bedingungen nicht erfüllt sind.

• Automatisierte Flows (Power Automate, automatisierte/ Background Flows) laufen asynchron im Hintergrund, nachdem der Trigger erkannt wurde, und blockieren den Benutzer nicht.

• Correct answer: D) Microservices using API

• Why:

• The diagnostic output shows that the protocol is TCP (proto=6) and the session state is 2.
• In FortiGate’s session output, state=2 maps to SYN_SENT. This means the TCP SYN has been sent but the handshake hasn’t completed yet.
• Therefore, the session is not ESTABLISHED, FIN/ACK-related states, or other states; it’s in SYN_SENT.

• As the project progresses, you gain information, refine requirements, and lock down baselines (scope, schedule, cost). This reduces overall risk and uncertainty because more is known and addressed.
• At the same time, changes become more costly over time. Later changes can affect already approved baselines, cause rework, impact the critical path, require more coordination, and incur penalties or delays, all of which raise the cost of making changes.

• Basic: Self-help only; no technical support or design assessment.
• Standard: Technical support, but not the full proactive architectural guidance required here.
• Professional Direct: Provides proactive guidance and architecture-related assistance.
• Premier: Also supports this, but is a more expensive, enterprise-level option.

• What the scenario asks: You have a Power BI semantic model that pulls from multiple sources (Azure SQL Database and SharePoint Online), must support a single dataset for three reports, keep data current (daily refresh by 7 AM PT), and apply RLS to limit sales data by region. You need to choose a storage mode for the tables.

• Correct choice: Dual storage mode.

• Why Dual fits:

• Key concepts:

• The correct setting to configure is the Enrollment Status Page (ESP) profile.
• Why: ESP tracks the enrollment progress and logs during Autopilot provisioning. You can enable log collection within the ESP policy so that, if ESP times out, the user can collect and share the logs with support.
• Optional enhancement: In the ESP policy (or the Autopilot diagnostics settings), you can enable:

• Automatic enrollment settings: control how devices auto-enroll, not log collection.
• Windows Autopilot deployment profile: controls deployment steps but not ESP log collection.
• Device configuration profile: applies settings but doesn’t provide ESP log collection mechanics.

• Storage requirement: 10 apps × 10 GB each = 100 GB total. Basic’s storage quota is insufficient to host 100 GB in one plan, whereas Standard provides enough storage capacity for multiple apps.

• Dedicated compute: The plan must use dedicated compute instances; Free/Shared do not meet this, while Basic, Standard, and higher do.

• Load balancing: The plan must include load balancing between instances. Standard includes built-in load balancing across app instances; Basic may not meet this requirement.

• Costs: Among the plans that satisfy storage, dedicated compute, and load balancing, Standard is the lowest-cost option.

• The Accrue liability on product receipt flag controls whether a liability is accrued and posted at the time of receiving the item.
• If this checkbox is unchecked, receipts won’t create postings to the Product receipt journal. Enabling it ensures the system posts inventory value and the vendor liability when the item is received.

• Go to the Item model group setup form.
• Enable (check) Accrue liability on product receipt.
• Save.

• The other option, Include physical value, affects how physical value is handled but is not the direct cause of postings to the product receipt journal. If issues persist after enabling accrual, you may need to verify related posting definitions or journal setup.

• A — SCIM synchronizes changes to user attributes from the identity provider to GitHub.
• B — SCIM deactivates GitHub accounts when users are removed or deactivated in the identity provider.
• D — SCIM automates user provisioning when new users are added to the identity provider.

• C: SCIM does not delete organization repositories.
• E: SCIM does not generate REST API authentication tokens.
• F: SCIM handles identity lifecycle management, not repository permission configuration based on roles.

• 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.

• The app on EC2 connects to Aurora using DB credentials stored on the instance. Secrets Manager centralizes these credentials and can rotate them automatically, eliminating manual updates on each EC2 host.
• Automatic rotation reduces operational overhead and enhances security because credentials are rotated on a schedule without code changes.
• The app can retrieve the current secret at runtime (e.g., via the AWS SDK) and use it to authenticate to Aurora, avoiding reliance on locally stored files.

• B (Parameter Store) can store secrets but lacks seamless built-in rotation for database credentials like Secrets Manager; rotation often requires more custom work.
• C (S3) would require complex tooling to rotate and securely fetch credentials and still risks exposure if access policies aren’t perfect.
• D (Encrypted EBS volumes) would store credentials locally on each instance and does not automate rotation or centralized management.

• Correct answer: D.

• Why: In a service offering, a service action is the activity performed by the service provider to deliver or support the service. A service desk agent provides support to a user is the actual action.

• Why the others aren’t service actions:

• What the goal is: You want to add guest (external) users to your Azure AD tenant contoso.com, one entry per external user in a CSV.

• The proposed solution uses New-AzureADUser for each external user. Why this isn’t correct: New-AzureADUser creates a regular (internal) user in your directory. It does not create a guest/B2B user invite. So you’d end up with 500 ordinary accounts, not guest accounts with external access.

• The correct approach: Use New-AzureADMSInvitation for each external user. This invites the external user to your directory and creates a guest user (a B2B collaboration user) in your tenant. The invited user then accepts the invitation and gains access as a guest.

• Azure AD vs directory/tenant: Azure AD is the cloud identity service. A directory (also called a tenant) is your specific instance of that service (contoso.com in your scenario). The terms are often used interchangeably in exams.
• Guest user vs internal user: A guest user is external to your organization; an internal user is created directly in your directory as a normal employee/user account.
• B2B invitation: The process of inviting external users so they can collaborate in your resources; New-AzureADMSInvitation is designed for this.

• Storage accounts: storage1, storage2, and storage3
• Log Analytics workspace: Analytics3

• Azure Backup reports can send the AzureBackupReports diagnostic log to eligible storage accounts. The storage account’s subscription and region do not have to match the Recovery Services vault, so all three listed storage accounts are valid.
• The Log Analytics workspace must be in the same region as the Recovery Services vault for this configuration. Vault1 and Analytics3 are both in West Europe, making Analytics3 the valid workspace.

• Answer: A) Clear the Windows event logs

• Windows event logs (System, Security, Application) are key forensic artifacts. If an attacker clears these logs, there’s no built-in local record of actions taken, making it harder for investigators to trace what happened.

• Modify the system time: may misalign timestamps but does not erase past events and can be easily detected.
• Alter log permissions: could prevent new log entries, but it doesn’t remove existing ones and can raise alarms due to permission changes.
• Reduce log retention settings: affects only future logs; it doesn’t wipe already recorded activity.

• In real environments, defenders mitigate this risk with tamper-evident, centralized logging (remote SIEM, write-once storage, log integrity checks) to preserve evidence even if a host is compromised.

• Answer: No (B)

• SaaS (Software as a Service) delivers applications over the internet; you don’t manage the underlying infrastructure or OS.
• Deploying Azure virtual machines requires provisioning and managing virtual machines, OS, updates, and networking—this is classic IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).
• PaaS is for managed runtime environments (apps hosted on a platform), not for VM deployment.

• 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.

• Two VMs
• Distributed across two separate availability zones

• Correct answer: A — The degradation of a service.

• Why: A service request is a formal request from a user for something that is pre-approved and routine (e.g., provisioning a laptop, replacing a toner cartridge). Those are typical service request actions. The degradation of a service, however, is an incident: it describes a problem affecting service quality or availability and is handled by Incident Management (and possibly Problem Management), not as a standard service request.

• Quick note on the other options:

• Developed and maintained independently
• Deployed without changing the entire application
• Scaled separately based on demand
• More resilient when another service has problems

• A: Functional testing is useful, but it is not the main practice described.
• B: Automation helps deployment, but the scenario focuses on architectural decomposition.
• C: Multiple locations improve availability, not application modularity.

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.

• Basic: billing/subscription support only; no technical support requests can be opened.
• Developer, Standard, Professional Direct, and Premier: include technical support and allow opening new support requests.

• If option A corresponds to “Developer, Standard, Professional Direct, Premier,” that is the correct choice.
• If the option text is really “Premier only,” that would be incorrect per current Azure docs.

• Key concept: ALE = SLE × ARO

• SLE = $15,000
• Occurrences: 2 in 3 years ? ARO = 2/3 per year ˜ 0.6667

• ALE = $15,000 × 0.6667 ˜ $10,000 per year

• ALE is the expected annual loss, so it averages the losses over each year.
• This helps prioritize risk treatments by comparing ALE to the cost of controls.

• Phishing can map to two MITRE ATT&CK tactics depending on the attacker’s objective.

• Therefore, phishing isn’t confined to a single tactic; it can serve both Reconnaissance and Initial Access, which is why option D (Reconnaissance, Initial Access) is correct.

• Amazon S3 — Object storage, not a database.
• Amazon DynamoDB — Fully managed NoSQL key-value and document database.
• Amazon Redshift — Managed data warehouse designed for analytics, not primarily transactional MySQL workloads.

• Active vs passive: Active assessment involves actively scanning targets by sending probes/packets to identify hosts, services, and vulnerabilities. Passive assessment observes traffic without probing.
• External vs internal: External assessment is about testing from outside the network perimeter; the scenario doesn’t specify external vantage, only that tools are identifying hosts/services across the enterprise network.

• 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.

• Ethical red-teaming is adversarial testing aimed at uncovering weaknesses and potential exploits in an AI system before deployment.
• A (improving accuracy) is not the primary?? of red-teaming.
• B (simulate model risk scenarios) is related but narrower; red-teaming centers on finding vulnerabilities and risk exposure, not just simulating risks.
• D (ensure compliance) is not the main goal of red-teaming.

• A (training data, hyperparameters, stakeholder feedback) focuses on training provenance; these details are important but are typically part of pre-deployment/training records, not the primary post-deployment documentation.
• B (encountered issues, monitoring process, risks) relates to governance and monitoring rather than the core documentation you’d publish about the deployed model itself.
• C (licensing information, the team, business goals) covers governance context but not the technical traceability and performance-based record needed for ongoing maintenance.

• The stage has a default file format defined (e.g., when you create the stage with FILE_FORMAT = (...)), and Snowflake will use that default.

• You use a named file format attached to the stage, or you specify an inline format in the COPY command, e.g., COPY INTO my_table FROM @my_stage FILE_FORMAT = (TYPE = 'CSV');

• Use a stage default: omit FILE_FORMAT in COPY.
• Or rely on a named/inline format: specify FILE_FORMAT in COPY or set a format on the stage.

• The correct answer is “Think and work holistically” (Option B).

• Focus on value: ensures outcomes matter to stakeholders, but isn’t specifically about end-to-end delivery.
• Optimize and automate: about efficiency and performance, not the holistic view.
• Collaborate and promote visibility: about teamwork and sharing information, not the end-to-end scope.

• Statement 1: Admin1 must approve requests for the Agent ID Developer role — No

• Statement 2: Admin2 can approve requests for the AI Administrator role — No

• Statement 3: Admin3 can assign User1 a two-day active assignment for the Agent ID Developer role — Yes

• 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:

• Elicited and documented customer requirements
• Converted them into clear, measurable specifications
• Validated the requirements with the customer
• Used them as the basis for design, quality checks, and acceptance

• A: Requirements should reflect the customer’s needs—not the supplier’s standards.
• B: Iteration review planning does not replace proper requirements collection.
• D: A retrospective occurs after work is completed and is mainly for process improvement, not initial requirements definition.

• Why Ishikawa:

• Why not the others:

• Alice is co-resident on the same physical host and exploits shared hardware (the processor cache) to infer secrets. This is the classic definition of a side-channel attack—information leakage through implementation details (like timing or cache behavior) rather than by breaking a protocol or injecting code.

• Observing cache timing or access patterns to deduce cryptographic keys or plaintext data from the victim VM.

• Man-in-the-cloud attack: targets cloud trust/auth, not local hardware sharing.
• SQL injection: exploits input to run SQL commands, not a VM/caching vector.
• Service hijacking: takes control of a service, not about covert data leakage via shared hardware.

• Notice phrases like “shared hardware resources,” “co-resident,” or “cache”—these indicate a side-channel vector.