Suggested May 2017 PDF
Suggested May 2017 PDF
o Business owners testing and approval before system going live; Version
control on programs;
o Source Code is properly secured;
o Adequate audit trails are provided in system; and
o Appropriateness of methodologies selected.
Determine whether the system adequately meets earlier identified business
requirements and needs post -implementation review.
Determine if the expected benefits of the new system are realized and whether
users are satisfied with the new system.
Review which of the phases till implementation of MIS have not met desired
objectives and whether any corrective actions were taken in post implementation
review.
Question 2
(a) You are appointed as a member of the IT Steering Committee for IT implementation and
deployment in a large company. What are the major functions of this committee? (6 Marks)
(b) COBIT 5 has a specific process "MEA02 Monitor, Evaluate and Assess the system of
Internal Control." Discuss in brief any 6 key practices for assessing and evaluating the
system of Internal Control in an enterprise based on this process. (6 Marks)
(c) The Cloud Computing Architecture comprises of two parts. Briefly describe these two
parts. (4 Marks)
Answer
(a) The major functions of the IT Steering Committee would include the following:
To ensure that long and short-range plans of the IT department are in tune with
enterprise goals and objectives;
To establish size and scope of IT function and sets priorities within the scope;
To review and approve major IT deployment projects in all their stages;
To approve and monitor key projects by measuring result of IT projects in terms of
return on investment, etc.;
To review the status of Information Systems’ plans and budgets and overall IT
performance;
To review and approve standards, policies and procedures;
To make decisions on all key aspects of IT deployment and implementation;
To facilitate implementation of IT security within enterprise;
(c) A Cloud computing architecture consists of two parts - a Front End and a Back End that
connect to each other through a network, usually the Internet. A central server is
established to be used for administering the whole system.
Front End Architecture: The front end of the cloud computing system is the side -
the computer user sees and interacts through and comprises of the client’s devices
(or computer network) and some applications needed for accessing the cloud
computing system. All the cloud computing systems do not give the same interface
to users. Web services like electronic mail programs use some existing web
browsers such as Firefox, Microsoft’s internet explorer or Apple’s Safari. Other
types of systems have some unique applications which provide network access to
its clients.
Back End Architecture: Back end is the “cloud” section of the system and refers to
some service facilitating peripherals. In cloud computing, the back end is cloud
itself, which may encompass various computer machines, data storage systems and
servers. Groups of these clouds make up a whole cloud computing system.
Theoretically, a cloud computing system can include any type of web application
program such as video games to applications for data processing, software
development and entertainment.
Question 3
(a) What should an IS Auditor evaluate while reviewing the adequacy of data security
controls? (6 Marks)
(b) "Information has become a key resource for any type of business activity." Briefly discuss
the various attributes of information. (6 Marks)
(c) List out the major activities to be carried out in the implementation of a Business
Continuity Plan. (4 Marks)
Answer
(a) An Information Systems (IS) Auditor is responsible to evaluate the following while
reviewing the adequacy of Data Security Controls:
Who is responsible for the accuracy of the data?
Who is permitted to update data?
Who is permitted to read and use the data?
Who is responsible for determining who can read and update the data?
Who controls the security of the data?
If the IS system is outsourced, what security controls and protection mechanism
does the vendor have in place to secure and protect data?
Contractually, what penalties or remedies are in place to protect the tangible and
intangible values of the information?
The disclosure of sensitive information is a serious concern to the organization and
is mandatory on the auditor’s list of priorities .
(b) Some of the important attributes of useful and effective information are as follows:
Availability - Information is useless if it is not available at the time of need.
Database is a collection of files which is collection of records and data from where
the required information is derived for useful purpose.
Purpose/Objective - Information must have purposes/objective at the time it is
transmitted to a person or machine, otherwise it is simple data. The basic objective
of information is to inform, evaluate, persuade, and organize. This indeed helps in
decision making, generating new concepts and ideas, identify and solve problems,
planning, and controlling which are needed to direct human activity in business
enterprises.
Mode and format - The modes of communicating information to humans should be
in such a way that it can be easily understandable by the people and may be in the
form of voice, text and combination of these two. Format design should be simple,
relevant and should highlight important point in such a way that it assists in decision
making, solving problems, initiating planning, controlling and searching. According
to the type of information, the different formats can be used e.g. diagrams, graphs,
curves are best suited for representing the statistical data.
Current/Updated - The information should be refreshed from time to time as it
usually rots with time and usage. For example, the running score sheet of a cricket
match available in Internet sites should be refreshed at fixed interval of time so that
the current score will be available.
Rate - The rate of transmission/reception of information may be represented by the
time required to understand a particular situation. Useful information is the one
which is transmitted at a rate which matches with the rate at which the recipient
wants to receive. For example- the information available from internet site should be
available at a click of mouse.
Frequency - The frequency with which information is transmitted or received affects
its value. For example- the weekly reports of sales show little change as compared
to the quarterly and contribute less for accessing salesman capability.
Completeness and Adequacy - The information provided should be complete and
adequate in itself because only complete information can be used in policy making.
For example-the position of student in a class can be find out only after having the
information of the marks of all students and the total number of students in a class.
(c) IS Auditors review risks relating to IT systems and processes. Briefly discuss these risks.
(4 Marks)
Answer
(a) Information Systems Audits has been categorized into following types:
(i) Systems and Application: It is an audit to verify that systems and applications are
appropriate, are efficient, and are adequately controlled to ensure valid, reliable,
timely, and secure input, processing, and output at all levels of a system's activity.
(ii) Information Processing Facilities: This audit verifies that the processing facility is
controlled to ensure timely, accurate, and efficient processing of applications under
normal and potentially disruptive conditions.
(iii) Systems Development: It is an audit to verify that the systems under development
meet the objectives of the organization and to ensure that the systems are
developed in accordance with generally accepted standards for systems
development.
(iv) Management of IT and Enterprise Architecture: This audit verifies that IT
management has developed an organizational structure and procedures to ensure a
controlled and efficient environment for information processing.
(v) Telecommunications, Intranets, and Extranets: This is an audit to verify that
controls are in place on the client (end point device), server, and on the network
connecting the clients and servers.
(b) The following documents (representative only) are classified as being part of the
Business Continuity Management System:
The Business Continuity Policy;
The Business Continuity Management System;
The Business Impact Analysis report;
The Risk Assessment report;
The aims and objectives of each function;
The activities undertaken by each function;
The Business Continuity strategies;
The overall and specific Incident Management Plans;
The Business Continuity plans;
Change control, preventative action, corrective action, document control and record
control processes;
Local Authority Risk Register;
(3) Any person by the use of a public key of the subscriber can verify the electronic
record.
(4) The private key and the public key are unique to the subscriber and constitute a
functioning key pair. [Section 3]
(b) The various components of Business Continuity Management (BCM) Process are as
follows:
BCM – Process: The management process enables the business continuity,
capacity and capability to be established and maintained. The capacity and
capability are established in accordance to the requirements of the enterprise.
BCM – Information Collection Process: The activities of assessment process do
the prioritization of an enterprise’s products and services and the urgency of the
activities that are required to deliver them. This sets the requirements that will
determine the selection of appropriate BCM strategies in the next process.
BCM – Strategy Process: Finalization of business continuity strategy requires
assessment of a range of strategies. This requires an appropriate response to be
selected at an acceptable level and during and after a disruption within an
acceptable timeframe for each product or service, so that the enterprise continues
to provide those products and services.
BCM – Development and Implementation Process: Development of a
management framework and a structure of incident management, business
continuity and business recovery and restoration plans.
BCM – Testing and Maintenance Process: BCM testing, maintenance and audit
testify the enterprise BCM to prove the extent to which its strategies and plans are
complete, current and accurate; and Identifies opportunities for improvement.
BCM – Training Process: Extensive trainings in BCM framework, incident
management, business continuity and business recovery and restoration plans
enable it to become part of the enterprise’s core values and provide confidence in
all stakeholders in the ability of the enterprise to cope with minimum disruptions and
loss of service.
(c) In IT Act, 2000, Section 70 defines “Protected System” that is as follows:
Protected System
(1) The appropriate Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare any
computer resource which directly or indirectly affects the facility of Critical
Information Infrastructure, to be a protected system.
(2) The appropriate Government may, by order in writing, authorize the persons who
are authorized to access protected systems notified under sub-section (1).
(3) Any person who secures access or attempts to secure access to a protected system
in contravention of the provisions of this section shall be punished with
imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and
shall also be liable to fine.
(4) The Central Government shall prescribe the information security practices and
procedures for such protected system. [Section 70]
Question 6
(a) You are appointed as the IS Auditor of a large company with multiple locations across the
globe which are connected to a common platform. What are the steps you would take as
part of your preliminary evaluation to fully comprehend the technology environment and
control issues? (6 Marks)
(b) Discuss in brief the major concerns to be addressed by an auditor in the different
activities of the Programming Management Control Phase. (6 Marks)
(c) What are the key benefits of GEIT? (4 Marks)
Answer
(a) An important task for the auditor as a part of his preliminary evaluation is to gain a good
understanding of the technology environment and related control issues. This could
include consideration of the following:
Analysis of business processes and level of automation;
Assessing the extent of dependence of the enterprise on Information Technology to
carry on its businesses i.e. Role of IT in the success and survival of business;
Understanding technology architecture which could be quite diverse such as a
distributed architecture or a centralized architecture or a hybrid architecture;
Studying network diagrams to understand physical and logical network connectivity;
Understanding extended enterprise architecture wherein the organization systems
connect seamlessly with other stakeholders such as vendors (SCM), customers
(CRM), employees (ERM) and the government;
Knowledge of various technologies and their advantages and limitations is a critical
competence requirement for the auditor. For example, authentication risks relating
to e-mail systems; and
Finally, Studying Information Technology policies, standards, guidelines and
procedures.
(b) Some of the major concerns that an Auditor should address under di fferent activities
involved in Programming Management Control Phase are as under:
Phase Audit Trails
Planning They should evaluate whether the nature of and extent of
planning are appropriate to the different types of software
that are developed or acquired.
They must evaluate how well the planning work is being
undertaken.
Control They must evaluate whether the nature of an extent of
control activities undertaken are appropriate for the different
types of software that are developed or acquired.
They must gather evidence on whether the control
procedures are operating reliably. For example - they might
first choose a sample if past and current software
development and acquisition projects carried out at different
locations in the organization they are auditing.
Design Auditors should find out whether programmers use some
type of systematic approach to design.
Auditors can obtain evidence of the design practices used
by undertaking interviews, observations, and reviews of
documentation.
Coding Auditors should seek evidence –
On the level of care exercised by programming
management in choosing a module implementation and
integration strategy.
To determine whether programming management ensures
that programmers follow structured programming
conventions.
To check whether programmers employ automated facilities
to assist them with their coding work.
Testing Auditors can use interviews, observations, and examination
of documentation to evaluate how well unit testing is
conducted.
Auditors are most likely concerned primarily with the quality
of integration testing work carried out by information
systems professionals rather than end users.
Auditors primary concern is to see that whole-of-program
tests have been undertaken for all material programs and
that these tests have been well-designed and executed.
Operation and Auditors need to ensure that effective and timely reporting
Maintenance of maintenance needs occurs and maintenance is carried
out in a well-controlled manner.
Auditors should ensure that management has implemented
a review system and assigned responsibility for monitoring
the status of operational programs.
(c) Benefits of Governance of Enterprise IT (GEIT) are as follows:
It provides a consistent approach integrated and aligned with the enterpr ise
governance approach.
It ensures that IT-related decisions are made in line with the enterprise's strategies
and objectives.
It ensures that IT-related processes are overseen effectively and transparently.
It confirms compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
It ensures that the governance requirements for board members are met.
Question 7
Write short notes on any four of the following:
(a) Time Bomb vs. Logic Bomb
(b) Cloud vs. Grid Computing
(c) Boundary Control techniques
(d) Community Cloud
(e) ISO 27001 (4 x 4 = 16 Marks)
Answer
(a) Time Bomb: These are the programs that cause perverse activity, such as disruption of
computer system, modifications, or destructions of stored information etc. on a date and
time for which it has been developed. In other words, time bomb lies idle until some date
or time triggers it. The computer clock initiates it.
Logic Bomb: These are the programs that are activated by combination of events. In
other words, logic bombs lie idle until some specified circumstances trigger it. Once
triggered, the bomb sabotages the system by destroying programs, data or both.
(b) Some pertinent differences between Grid Computing and Cloud Computing are as
follows:
Grid Computing Cloud Computing
Grid Computing enables heterogeneous Cloud computing provides the facility to
resources of computers to work access shared resources and common
and it may exist on or off premises. This model is suitable for organizations that cannot
afford a private cloud and cannot rely on the public cloud either.
Community Cloud supports Collaborative and Distributive Maintenance, Partial Security,
cost Effectiveness, collaborative work on the cloud, sharing of responsibilities among the
organizations. The limitation of the community cloud is that the autonomy of the
organization is lost and some of the security features are not as good as the private
cloud. It is not suitable in the cases where there is no collaboration.
(e) ISO 27001: ISO 27001 is the international best practice and certification standard for an
Information Security Management System (ISMS). An ISMS is a systematic approach to
manage Information security in an IS environment through which an organization
identifies, analyzes and addresses its information security risks. It encompasses people,
processes and IT Systems. ISO 27001 defines how to organise information security in
any kind of organization, profit or non-profit, private or state-owned, small or large. This
standard is the foundation of information security management that enables an
organization to get certified, which means that an independent certification body has
confirmed that information security has been implemented in the organisation as defined
policies and procedures.
The ISO 27001 can act as the extension of the current quality system to include security;
provides an opportunity to identify and manage risks to key information and systems
assets; provides confidence and assurance to trading partners and clients; acts as a
marketing tool and allows an independent review and assurance to you on information
security practices.