IT Audit Questions and Answers: Controls, Cloud, and Compliance
Below are clear, slightly detailed (“little big”) answers to all Short Answer and Long Answer questions from the image.
✅ Short Answer Type Questions
1. Explain the difference between internal audits and regulatory audits.
Internal audits are conducted by an organization’s internal audit team to evaluate internal controls, risk management, and operational efficiency. They focus on improving internal processes.
Regulatory audits are performed by external regulators or certified auditors to verify compliance with laws, industry standards, or governmental requirements (e.g., PCI DSS, SOX).
2. What is a control objective, and how does it support compliance?
A control objective defines the desired outcome of a security or compliance control, such as ensuring data confidentiality or verifying user access.
3. Describe the role of Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) tools in auditing cloud infrastructure.
CSPM tools continuously monitor cloud environments for misconfigurations, policy violations, and security gaps.
4. Explain the importance of ISO 27001 compliance in IT infrastructure.
ISO 27001 establishes a structured Information Security Management System (ISMS).
5. What is the significance of an audit report, and what key information does it typically include?
An audit report presents findings from the audit and provides transparency. It typically includes:
Scope and objectives
Methodology
Observations and findings
Risk level of issues
Recommendations for remediation
6. Describe how business continuity and disaster recovery plans are evaluated during an IT audit.
Auditors review the BC/DR documentation, test results, recovery objectives (RTO/RPO), backup procedures, and incident response plans. They check whether the organization can restore operations after an outage.
7. Explain the main purpose of auditing IT infrastructure in an organization.
The main purpose is to assess controls, security, performance, and compliance of the IT environment.
8. What is a gap analysis in IT auditing, and why is it important?
Gap analysis compares current IT controls and processes with required standards or best practices.
9. Describe the role of a remediation plan in addressing non-compliance issues.
A remediation plan outlines corrective actions to fix security weaknesses or compliance gaps.
10. Explain the concept of segregation of duties (SoD) and its importance in IT compliance.
SoD ensures that no single person has complete control over critical tasks—for example, creating, approving, and executing a transaction.
11. What is an audit trail, and how does it help in IT audits?
An audit trail is a chronological log of system activities such as logins, file changes, or transactions.
12. Describe the purpose of risk assessment during IT infrastructure auditing.
Risk assessment identifies vulnerabilities, threats, and the impact on critical assets.
✅ Long Answer Type Questions
1. Explain the importance of internal controls and segregation of duties (SoD) in IT governance. Provide examples of control failures and their impact on organizational compliance.
Internal controls form the backbone of IT governance by ensuring that processes are secure, reliable, and compliant. They define how an organization safeguards its assets, manages risks, and ensures accurate reporting. Segregation of Duties (SoD) is a critical internal control that divides responsibilities so that no single person can execute and conceal errors or fraud.
Importance:
Prevents unauthorized access
Reduces fraud and insider threats
Ensures accuracy of financial and operational data
Supports regulatory compliance (SOX, ISO 27001)
Examples of Control Failures:
Single administrator responsible for user creation and activity approval — can create fake accounts.
Weak change management — unauthorized system changes lead to outages.
Poor access control — non-employees retain system access, violating compliance.
These failures can result in penalties, data breaches, or non-compliance with frameworks such as SOX or PCI DSS.
2. Discuss how cloud infrastructure auditing is conducted. Include CSPM tools, key compliance requirements, challenges in auditing cloud environments, and examples of audit checks.
Cloud auditing evaluates cloud configurations, security controls, and adherence to compliance requirements.
Key Steps in Cloud Auditing
Identify cloud services used (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).
Review cloud security policies, IAM roles, encryption, and network controls.
Use CSPM tools for continuous monitoring.
Role of CSPM Tools
Detect misconfigurations (e.g., open S3 buckets)
Enforce security baselines
Map configurations to compliance frameworks (ISO, CIS, NIST)
Compliance Requirements
Organizations must meet standards like ISO 27001, GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS depending on their industry.
Challenges
Shared responsibility model
Dynamic resources (auto-scaling, ephemeral workloads)
Multi-cloud complexity
Examples of Cloud Audit Checks
Check MFA enforcement for admin accounts
Ensure encryption of data at rest and in transit
Review logging and monitoring settings
Validate network segmentation and firewall rules
3. Explain the evaluation of business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plans during an IT audit.
Auditors must ensure the organization can continue operations after disruptions such as cyberattacks, system failures, or natural disasters.
Key Areas Evaluated
Risk analysis: Identify critical systems and potential threats.
Recovery objectives: RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective).
Backup strategy: Frequency, integrity, offsite storage.
Testing effectiveness: Tabletop exercises, failover tests, emergency drills.
Documentation quality: Contact lists, procedures, responsibilities.
Compliance
Regulations such as ISO 22301 and HIPAA require a functional BC/DR strategy.
4. Explain the process of IT infrastructure auditing, including the key phases. Provide examples of audit activities.
IT infrastructure auditing follows a structured lifecycle:
1. Planning
Define audit scope, objectives, and resources.
Example: Determine whether audit covers networks, servers, or databases.
2. Scoping
Identify systems, locations, and compliance requirements.
Example: Selecting data centers or cloud accounts to inspect.
3. Risk Assessment
Identify vulnerabilities and threats.
Example: Evaluating risks associated with outdated OS versions.
4. Testing
Perform control testing, configuration reviews, and sampling.
Example: Checking user access logs or firewall policies.
5. Reporting
Document findings, severity, and remediation recommendations.
Example: Highlighting critical misconfigurations or unpatched servers.
5. Discuss the concept of compliance frameworks (ISO 27001, COBIT, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX). Explain implementation and audit verification.
Compliance Frameworks
ISO 27001: Information Security Management System.
COBIT: Governance and management of enterprise IT.
PCI DSS: Protects payment card data.
HIPAA: Secures healthcare data.
SOX: Mandates financial auditing and IT controls.
Implementation
Organizations create policies, deploy controls, train employees, document procedures, and continuously monitor compliance.
Audit Verification
Auditors review policies, test controls, check logs, interview staff, and assess evidence to confirm adherence to framework requirements.
6. Describe the role of gap analysis and remediation plans in IT compliance. Include how auditors identify gaps, prioritize risks, and ensure corrective actions are effective.
Gap analysis evaluates the difference between current practices and required standards. Auditors examine controls, policies, and technical settings to identify shortcomings.
Steps Involved
Identify compliance requirements.
Evaluate current controls and compare with expected controls.
Document gaps and assign risk levels.
Develop a remediation plan with timelines and responsibilities.
Ensuring Effectiveness
Follow-up audits
Verifying implementation of fixes
Testing controls again
Ensuring long-term compliance by updating documentation and policies
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