CISA Practice Question: Information Systems Operations and Business Resilience
During a change management board (CAB) meeting, a proposed change to the network firewall configuration is discussed. The change is considered low risk and pre-approved. Which type of change does this represent?
⚠ Common exam trap
CISA often tests the distinction between standard and normal changes, where candidates may incorrectly assume that any low-risk change is a normal change requiring CAB approval, forgetting that standard changes are pre-approved and do not need CAB review.
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
✓
Standard change
A standard change is a pre-approved, low-risk change that follows a documented procedure and does not require additional review or approval from the change management board (CAB). Since the firewall change is described as low risk and pre-approved, it fits the definition of a standard change. Standard changes are routine and repeatable, allowing them to bypass the full CAB review process, which is reserved for normal or major changes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Emergency change
Why it's wrong here
Emergency changes are implemented immediately to resolve an active incident or outage, bypassing prior CAB approval and documented retrospectively. This firewall amendment was pre-approved as low risk, so no emergency trigger exists. It is tempting because emergency changes also skip CAB review, but only under urgent unplanned circumstances.
- ✗
Major change
Why it's wrong here
Major changes require full CAB review and approval before implementation, so a pre-approved low-risk firewall amendment cannot be one. It is tempting because major changes do go through the CAB, but that is precisely the route this change bypassed via pre-approval.
- ✓
Standard change
Why this is correct
A standard change is a pre-authorised, low-risk change with a documented procedure, requiring no further CAB approval before implementation. This directly satisfies the stem's constraints: the firewall change is low risk and pre-approved, so it follows an established path rather than requiring individual authorisation.
- ✗
Normal change
Why it's wrong here
Normal changes require individual CAB review and approval before implementation; this change was pre-approved as low risk, so it follows the standard pre-authorised path instead. It is tempting because normal changes are the routine CAB-tracked category, which would apply had the change not been pre-approved.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official ISACA exam blueprint
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.