hardMultiple Choice
CISA Practice Question: During an IT audit, the auditor observes that…
During an IT audit, the auditor observes that mandatory vacation policies are not enforced for IT staff with access to financial systems. What is the PRIMARY risk associated with this finding?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse mandatory vacation policies with segregation of duties, assuming both address the same control objective, when in fact vacation enforcement is a detective control for fraud detection, not a preventive control for duty separation.
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
✓
Increased risk of undetected fraud
Mandatory vacation policies force the periodic removal of an employee's access, which allows detection of irregularities or fraudulent activities that require the employee's continued presence to conceal. Without enforcement, a malicious insider could perpetrate fraud (e.g., creating ghost vendors, altering payment records) and cover it up by maintaining daily control over transactions. This directly increases the risk that fraudulent actions will go undetected over extended periods.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increased likelihood of system downtime
Why it's wrong here
Mandatory vacations exist to force segregation of duties and expose fraud by rotating staff; without them, a single administrator can conceal fraudulent transactions indefinitely. System downtime is a tempting answer because unpatched or misconfigured systems cause outages, but the stem concerns financial-system access, where the primary risk is undetected fraud.
- ✓
Increased risk of undetected fraud
Why this is correct
Unenforced mandatory vacation lets staff with financial-system access retain continuous control of transactions, so fraudulent entries and concealment schemes can persist without a forced handover period. That continuity removes the detection window a rotated absence would create, directly increasing the risk of undetected fraud.
- ✗
Inadequate segregation of duties
Why it's wrong here
Segregation of duties concerns splitting incompatible tasks between different people; mandatory vacation is a detective control that surfaces fraud by forcing another employee to perform the role. It is tempting because both address insider fraud, and would be correct when one person can both initiate and approve financial transactions.
- ✗
Non-compliance with licensing agreements
Why it's wrong here
Licensing agreements govern software usage rights and are unrelated to staff leave controls; unenforced vacation creates no licensing exposure. It is tempting because audit findings often cite compliance breaches, and would be correct when software is installed or used beyond the terms of its licence.
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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.