hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
CISA Practice Question: During an audit of a privileged access management…
During an audit of a privileged access management (PAM) system, the auditor finds that privileged sessions are recorded but not reviewed. What is the primary risk?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'recording' with 'monitoring' and assume that recording alone provides security, but without review, the recordings are merely stored data with no active threat detection value.
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
✓
Missing evidence of malicious activity after an incident.
Recording privileged sessions without review means that while a log of activities exists, it is not analyzed for signs of compromise or policy violations. The primary risk is that after a security incident, the recorded sessions may be the only source of evidence to reconstruct the attack, but without prior review, the organization may fail to identify malicious activity in a timely manner or may lose critical forensic data if logs are overwritten or deleted before an incident is discovered.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Inability to detect real-time threats.
Why it's wrong here
Recordings are not real-time; they are post-event.
- ✗
Increased administrative overhead.
Why it's wrong here
Recording itself does not add overhead if storage is adequate.
- ✗
Non-compliance with licensing agreements.
Why it's wrong here
Licensing is not directly impacted.
- ✓
Missing evidence of malicious activity after an incident.
Why this is correct
Recordings are useless without review, losing forensic value.
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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.