PECB Lead Auditor Exam Dumps & Practice Test Questions

Question 1:

Which scenario best illustrates a security vulnerability within Northstorm’s IT infrastructure?

A. The latest version of the application had a direct impact on the primary server.
B. A new version of the application was required to resolve issues.
C. The deployed version of the application was unauthorized or fake.

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

In this case, the core security vulnerability in Northstorm’s system was the installation of a counterfeit or unauthorized version of the "YouDecide" application. This vulnerability arose because the update was implemented without proper verification or testing, resulting in the deployment of a version that was neither legitimate nor secure. Such a failure in software validation processes reflects a broader issue in change management and software deployment practices.

Option A, while highlighting a serious consequence—namely, that the primary server was affected—describes the outcome of the vulnerability rather than the vulnerability itself. The server’s disruption is a symptom of the larger issue, not the root cause.

Option B mentions the need for a new version of the application, which may point to outdated or incompatible software. However, merely requiring an updated application doesn't necessarily represent a vulnerability. The vulnerability is not in the need for an update but in how that update was handled—specifically, the failure to confirm the authenticity and integrity of the installed software.

Option C correctly identifies the true security weakness: the deployment of an illegitimate application version. This indicates a lapse in proper validation protocols, potentially exposing the system to malware, backdoors, or unauthorized functionalities. The result was severe—Northstorm’s website went offline for an entire week, disrupting service and damaging customer trust.

Ultimately, a vulnerability is any flaw or weakness in a system that could be exploited to compromise its integrity, confidentiality, or availability. In this case, the flaw was the unchecked acceptance and installation of a fake application version. This oversight reflects insufficient quality control, weak change management, and a lack of secure software deployment practices.

Therefore, the best representation of a vulnerability in this scenario is C—the use of an unauthorized or invalid application version that compromised system functionality.

Question 2:

Which core information security principle was compromised when Northstorm's website became unavailable?

A. Availability
B. Integrity
C. Confidentiality

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

The principle most clearly violated in this scenario is availability—one of the foundational pillars of information security, along with integrity and confidentiality. Availability ensures that systems, services, and data are accessible to authorized users whenever needed. In this case, Northstorm’s website experienced a significant service disruption that lasted an entire week. This downtime was caused by a faulty patch or application update that had not been properly validated before deployment.

The core failure here was not due to unauthorized access or tampered data but rather the inability of users to access the website and perform typical functions like shopping or checking order statuses. Such unplanned outages represent a direct threat to the availability principle because they obstruct legitimate access to IT services and can lead to revenue loss, reputational damage, and poor customer experience.

Option A is correct because the crash and subsequent unavailability of the website fall squarely under this principle. The patch installed caused system instability, rendering the website inaccessible. From a business continuity and cybersecurity perspective, ensuring uptime and access is essential, especially for e-commerce platforms that rely heavily on online availability.

Option B, integrity, pertains to maintaining the accuracy and reliability of data. While there were technical issues, there’s no evidence that data was lost, altered, or corrupted. The incident did not involve a breach of data trustworthiness, so integrity was not the central concern.

Option C, confidentiality, involves preventing unauthorized access to sensitive or private data. In this scenario, no mention is made of a data breach or data exposure, and there’s no indication that user information was accessed by malicious actors. Therefore, confidentiality remained intact.

To summarize, the most relevant and affected principle here is availability. The lack of proper validation in the software update process led to prolonged website downtime, making services inaccessible to legitimate users and directly undermining the availability component of information security.

Question 3:

Based on the scenario, which of the following represents a preventive control?

A. Utilizing an application that organizes order processing based on previous data
B. Implementing a confidentiality agreement before outsourcing
C. Increasing the internal data center’s storage capacity

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

Preventive controls are mechanisms put in place to stop security incidents or operational failures before they occur. These controls are proactive by nature, focusing on eliminating or reducing risk in advance rather than reacting to an incident after it has happened.

In this case, option B, signing a confidentiality agreement before working with a third-party e-commerce provider, serves as a preventive control. This step ensures that sensitive business information—such as product design, proprietary data, or internal processes—is legally protected from being misused or leaked by the outsourced vendor. By legally binding the external provider to maintain confidentiality, the organization effectively mitigates the risk of unauthorized disclosure of intellectual property, setting clear boundaries and expectations from the outset. This proactive approach is a classic example of a preventive administrative control.

On the other hand, option A, using a predictive order management application, appears helpful but is not preventive. The application failed due to compatibility issues with a new operating system, and the rushed patch deployment exacerbated the problem. Rather than preventing the issue, this was a case of corrective action following a failure. Attempting to patch the application after it malfunctioned indicates that no preventive steps were taken to validate the application beforehand.

Option C, expanding the in-house data center’s capacity, also does not represent a preventive measure. This step was taken in response to prior performance issues and still fell short of meeting business demands. Rather than anticipating and preventing scalability challenges, the organization reacted to existing limitations. Therefore, it qualifies more as a corrective or reactive measure than a preventive one.

In summary, B is the correct answer because signing a confidentiality agreement is a forward-looking action that directly prevents security and intellectual property risks, fitting the definition of a preventive control.

Question 4:

According to the scenario, Northstorm conducted a review of users’ access permissions. What category and function does this type of security control represent?

A. Detective and administrative
B. Corrective and managerial
C. Legal and technical

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

Reviewing user access rights is an essential security practice that ensures individuals have appropriate levels of access to systems and data. This activity primarily functions as a detective control because it helps identify unauthorized access or inappropriate permissions that may have already been granted. Detective controls are used to uncover anomalies or violations that could compromise data integrity or security. They are essential for identifying potential weaknesses in an organization’s access management processes.

This type of control also qualifies as administrative, as it involves policies, procedures, and oversight driven by management. Administrative controls generally pertain to human-related processes, such as user onboarding/offboarding, role-based access control reviews, and policy enforcement. In this case, the act of periodically reviewing who has access to what data aligns with best practices in administrative security governance.

Option A is correct because this process both detects potential vulnerabilities or misuse of access privileges and is executed through administrative policies and oversight.

Option B—labeling the control as “corrective and managerial”—is inaccurate. Corrective controls are implemented after a problem has been discovered to fix the issue, such as disabling a compromised user account or applying a software patch. Access reviews don’t fix an issue but rather help to uncover them, which makes them detective, not corrective. Additionally, while managers may oversee the process, "managerial" controls refer to broader oversight strategies rather than specific tasks like access reviews.

Option C, "legal and technical," also does not apply. Legal controls are about compliance with regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA, and technical controls involve system-level mechanisms like firewalls or encryption. Reviewing access rights is neither a legal mandate (though it may support compliance) nor a purely technical action; it’s procedural and administrative.

Therefore, A is the correct choice because the review of access permissions serves both to detect potential risks and is conducted through administrative oversight.

Question 5:

During its second phase of expansion, which international standard did Northstorm implement related to personal data management?

A. ISO/IEC 27701
B. ISO/IEC 27009
C. ISO/IEC 27003

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

In the given scenario, Northstorm adopted an international standard specifically aimed at managing personal identifiable information (PII) during its second expansion phase. The correct standard is ISO/IEC 27701, which is an extension of the widely recognized ISO/IEC 27001 information security framework. ISO/IEC 27701 focuses on establishing and maintaining a Privacy Information Management System (PIMS) to help organizations protect personal data and comply with global privacy regulations such as GDPR.

This standard provides detailed guidelines for roles like PII controllers and PII processors, ensuring proper handling, processing, and safeguarding of personal data throughout its lifecycle. The adoption of ISO/IEC 27701 demonstrates Northstorm’s commitment to managing privacy risks systematically and establishing trust with its customers by aligning with internationally accepted privacy practices.

In contrast, ISO/IEC 27009 (Option B) deals with sector-specific applications of information security management systems and doesn’t primarily focus on privacy or PII management. It helps tailor security controls for specific industries but lacks the privacy-centric guidelines critical for PII controllers and processors.

Similarly, ISO/IEC 27003 (Option C) serves as an implementation guide for information security management systems. While helpful for setting up security frameworks, it does not provide the targeted controls or processes necessary to govern personal data privacy as ISO/IEC 27701 does.

Therefore, ISO/IEC 27701 is the most suitable standard for Northstorm’s second phase, as it directly addresses the protection of personal data and compliance with data privacy regulations. This choice supports Northstorm’s efforts to securely manage PII and meet international privacy standards during their expansion.

Question 6:

Which fundamental information security principle is the organization applying by implementing regular, automated backups of critical data to offsite locations after a security incident?

A. Integrity
B. Confidentiality
C. Availability

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

The organization’s implementation of a comprehensive backup strategy—specifically, regular and automated backups stored offsite—primarily addresses the availability aspect of information security. Availability ensures that authorized users can access necessary data and systems whenever required, particularly during or after disruptive events such as system failures, cyberattacks, or natural disasters.

By creating automated backups and storing them in geographically separate, offsite locations, the organization reduces the risk of data loss and improves resilience against incidents that might otherwise render data inaccessible. This approach allows quick restoration of critical information, ensuring continuous business operations and minimizing downtime. Therefore, the backup strategy directly supports maintaining data availability.

The other two principles do not fully capture this focus:

Integrity (Option A) pertains to protecting data from unauthorized alteration, ensuring accuracy and completeness. While backups may help protect integrity by preserving unaltered copies, the core goal here is to ensure access, not just correctness.

Confidentiality (Option B) involves restricting data access to authorized individuals only. Although offsite backups should be secured to maintain confidentiality, the main emphasis in this scenario is not on controlling access but ensuring the data remains accessible and recoverable when needed.

In summary, by implementing regular automated offsite backups, the organization is reinforcing the availability principle of information security. This proactive measure enables recovery from data loss scenarios, maintaining operational continuity and safeguarding critical information assets.

Question 7:

What type of vulnerability occurs when a data processing application crashes because it cannot properly check if the data added exceeds the buffer's capacity, due to a failure in array boundary checking?

A. An intrinsic vulnerability caused by the tool’s inability to properly bound check arrays
B. An extrinsic vulnerability caused by an external exploit of the buffer overflow
C. None; buffer overflow is not a vulnerability but a threat

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

This question describes a classic example of a buffer overflow vulnerability, which arises when software does not properly check the bounds of an array before writing data into it. Specifically, the data processing tool crashes because it lacks the ability to validate whether incoming data exceeds the buffer’s allocated memory space. This failure to perform boundary checks is an inherent flaw in the software’s design or implementation.

Such flaws are classified as intrinsic vulnerabilities because they exist within the internal structure of the application itself. In this case, the inability to correctly bound check arrays means the software inherently exposes itself to the risk of buffer overflow. This vulnerability is not the result of an external cause but is built into the code logic, making it a design or coding weakness.

By contrast, extrinsic vulnerabilities arise due to external factors or attackers exploiting the system. For example, when a hacker deliberately sends malicious data to trigger the overflow, the vulnerability itself remains intrinsic, but the exploit is extrinsic. Therefore, option B incorrectly describes the vulnerability as extrinsic since the question is about the nature of the flaw, not its exploitation.

Finally, option C incorrectly states that buffer overflow is not a vulnerability but a threat. In cybersecurity terminology, a vulnerability is a weakness or flaw in a system that could be exploited, whereas a threat is a potential cause of harm, such as an attacker or malware. Buffer overflow represents a weakness, and thus, it is indeed a vulnerability.

In summary, the failure of the tool to properly bound check arrays is an intrinsic vulnerability—a fundamental weakness inherent in the software that can lead to buffer overflow problems.

Question 8:

Which option best describes managerial controls in the context of organizational security?

A. Controls related to managing personnel, including employee training, management reviews, and internal audits
B. Controls focused on organizational structure, like segregation of duties, job rotations, and approval processes
C. Controls involving technical safeguards such as firewalls, surveillance cameras, and intrusion detection systems

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

Managerial controls are a category of security controls that primarily focus on the management and oversight of personnel and organizational processes. These controls include activities like employee training, where staff are educated about security policies and best practices; management reviews, which involve periodic evaluations of policies and performance; and internal audits, designed to verify compliance and identify potential weaknesses within the organization.

The purpose of managerial controls is to establish governance, accountability, and procedural oversight, ensuring that security policies are understood, followed, and enforced through leadership and administrative measures. These controls are essential for creating a security-conscious culture and for providing mechanisms to monitor and improve organizational security posture.

Option B describes administrative controls (sometimes overlapping with managerial controls), which involve the formal structure and assignment of duties within the organization—such as segregation of duties to prevent conflicts of interest, job rotation to reduce fraud risk, and clearly defined job descriptions and approval workflows. Although important, these controls focus more on organizational design and policy than on direct personnel management activities.

Option C refers to technical controls, which involve hardware and software tools deployed to protect systems, such as firewalls, alarm systems, surveillance cameras, and intrusion detection systems (IDS). These are technological defenses that operate at the system or network level, rather than processes aimed at managing human factors.

Therefore, option A correctly identifies managerial controls as those related to overseeing and managing personnel through training, reviews, and audits, which are critical for ensuring effective security management within any organization.

Question 9:

What is the main purpose of penetration testing within the risk assessment framework?

A. Performing detailed reviews of source code
B. Detecting possible weaknesses in ICT security controls
C. Carrying out physical inspections of hardware devices

Answer: B

Explanation:

Penetration testing, often called “pen testing,” is a vital part of the risk assessment process aimed primarily at uncovering potential vulnerabilities within an organization’s ICT (Information and Communication Technology) protection mechanisms. The core purpose is to simulate cyberattacks against a system or network, mimicking the tactics, techniques, and procedures that real-world attackers might use. By doing so, penetration testers can reveal security gaps or weaknesses in defenses such as firewalls, authentication systems, encryption protocols, and access controls. Identifying these vulnerabilities before malicious actors exploit them allows organizations to proactively strengthen their cybersecurity posture and reduce risk exposure.

While option A, conducting thorough code reviews, is an important security practice, it focuses specifically on analyzing the application’s source code for bugs or insecure coding practices. Code reviews examine the internal logic and quality of software but do not involve simulating external attacks against the entire system, which is the essence of penetration testing.

Option C, physically inspecting hardware, relates to evaluating physical security controls like locked server rooms or tamper-resistant devices. Though critical in comprehensive security programs, physical inspection differs from penetration testing, which primarily targets digital and network-based vulnerabilities through simulated cyberattacks.

In summary, penetration testing’s main objective is to identify weaknesses in ICT protection schemes that could be exploited by attackers. It provides a practical, adversary-like assessment of an organization’s defenses, enabling security teams to fix gaps before they lead to real incidents. Therefore, B is the correct choice, as it directly reflects the goal of penetration testing in risk assessment.

Question 10:

Which type of controls, associated with Annex A of ISO/IEC 27001, are commonly chosen from other frameworks or created internally by organizations to address specific security requirements?

A. General controls
B. Strategic controls
C. Specific controls

Answer: C

Explanation:

ISO/IEC 27001 is an internationally recognized standard for establishing and maintaining an effective Information Security Management System (ISMS). Annex A of this standard lists a comprehensive catalogue of controls—security measures and safeguards—that organizations are encouraged to consider implementing to manage information security risks. These controls cover a wide range of domains such as organizational policies, access management, cryptographic techniques, physical security, and personnel security.

However, beyond Annex A’s controls, organizations often need to implement additional measures tailored to their unique environments and specific risk profiles. These are referred to as “specific controls.” Unlike the generic or broadly applicable controls in Annex A, specific controls are selected either from other security standards, frameworks, or are custom-designed by the organization itself to meet particular business needs, regulatory requirements, or threat landscapes. This flexibility is essential because no single standard can cover every unique situation an organization faces.

Option A, general controls, typically refer to baseline security practices applied across systems to provide foundational protection. These controls form the basic security hygiene but lack the customization to address particular risks in specialized contexts.

Option B, strategic controls, focus more on high-level governance, risk management policies, and organizational strategies rather than operational or technical security controls. These are concerned with aligning security objectives with business goals rather than specific control implementations.

Thus, the correct answer is C. Specific controls represent the adaptive, targeted security measures that organizations incorporate alongside the Annex A baseline to ensure their ISMS effectively manages all relevant risks.