Question 40
During a payment-platform modernization at a payment clearing organization, the IS auditor learns that the plan omits a newly acquired high-risk cloud service from its audit universe. The affected operation supports merchant settlement and reconciliation. Finance and settlement integrity depend on this operation. Which risk statement is BEST supported by the recorded exception?
Explanation
Correct Answer
Correct. Audit resources may fail to address the systems and exposures most material to organizational objectives. The described exception is: the plan omits a newly acquired high-risk cloud service from its audit universe. This risk ties the observation to the business significance of merchant settlement and reconciliation, rather than treating management's claim as independent assurance.
Incorrect Answers
Decision makers may misjudge material exposure if reporting lacks supported facts, criteria, impact, agreed actions or limitations. Recurrence here depends on evidence appropriate to the audit conclusion, not this safeguard.
Biased or incomplete samples can produce unsupported conclusions about how a control operates across the actual population. That protection can exist while evidence appropriate to the audit conclusion is still missing.
Unmanaged scope, dependencies and evidence deadlines can leave significant objectives untested or conclusions unsupported. It protects a different risk than the evidence appropriate to the audit conclusion requirement.