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CISA Practice Question: An IT auditor is reviewing the system development…
An IT auditor is reviewing the system development life cycle (SDLC) process for a critical application. Which of the following findings would be of MOST concern?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates may dismiss local development environments or monthly test data refreshes as risky, while overlooking the critical segregation of duties violation inherent in granting developers direct production database access.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Developers have production database access
Developers having direct production database access violates the principle of segregation of duties and poses a significant risk of unauthorized data modification, deletion, or exfiltration. In a well-controlled SDLC, production access should be restricted to operations or DBA teams, with changes promoted through automated deployment pipelines. This finding directly undermines data integrity and confidentiality controls.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Test data is refreshed from production monthly
Why it's wrong here
Common practice, but requires masking.
- ✗
Developers use local development environments
Why it's wrong here
This is standard practice.
- ✓
Developers have production database access
Why this is correct
Violates segregation of duties.
- ✗
Code reviews are performed by senior developers
Why it's wrong here
This is a control.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISA practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISACA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CISA exam.