Free Practice Questions for Isaca CDPSE Exam

Sensitive personal data is a subset of personal data that reveals or relates to more intimate or confidential aspects of a person’s identity, such as their racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, health status, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, biometric or genetic data, or criminal record. Sensitive personal data is subject to more stringent legal and regulatory protections and requires a higher level of consent from the data subject to be processed. Mailing address, bank account login ID, and contact phone number are examples of personal data, but not sensitive personal data, as they do not reveal or relate to such intimate or confidential aspects of a person’s identity.

References: CDPSE Review Manual, 2021, p. 29

However, the risks associated with long-term retention have compelled organizations to consider alternatives; one is data archival, the process of preparing data for long-term storage. When organizations are bound by specific laws to retain data for many years, archival provides a viable opportunity to remove data from online transaction systems to other systems or media.

Data archiving is the process of moving data that is no longer actively used to a separate storage device for long-term retention. Data archiving helps to reduce the cost and complexity of data storage, improve the performance and availability of data systems, and comply with data retention policies and regulations. Data archiving should document controls relating to periods of retention for personal data, such as the criteria for determining the retention period, the procedures for deleting or anonymizing data after the retention period expires, and the mechanisms for ensuring the integrity and security of archived data. References: : CDPSE Review Manual (Digital Version), page 123

A privacy risk assessment is a process of identifying, analyzing and evaluating the privacy risks associated with the collection, use, disclosure or retention of personal data. A privacy risk assessment is the best way to distinguish between a privacy risk and compliance risk, as it would help to determine the likelihood and impact of privacy incidents or breaches that could affect the rights and interests of the data subjects, as well as the legal obligations and responsibilities of the organization. A privacy risk assessment would also help to identify and implement appropriate controls and measures to mitigate or reduce the privacy risks and ensure compliance with privacy principles, laws and regulations. The other options are not as effective as conducting a privacy risk assessment in distinguishing between a privacy risk and compliance risk. Performing a privacy risk audit is a process of verifying and validating the effectiveness and adequacy of the privacy controls and measures implemented by the organization, but it does not necessarily identify or evaluate the privacy risks or compliance risks. Validating a privacy risk attestation is a process of confirming and certifying the accuracy and completeness of the privacy information or statements provided by the organization, but it does not necessarily identify or evaluate the privacy risks or compliance risks. Conducting a privacy risk remediation exercise is a process of implementing corrective actions or improvements to address the identified or reported privacy risks or compliance risks, but it does not necessarily distinguish between them1, p. 66-67 References: 1: CDPSE Review Manual (Digital Version)

The primary consideration of a multinational organization deploying a user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) tool to centralize the monitoring of anomalous employee behavior is cross-border data transfer, because it may involve the transfer of personal data across different jurisdictions with different privacy laws and regulations. The organization needs to ensure that it complies with the applicable legal requirements and safeguards the privacy rights of its employees when transferring their data to a central location for analysis. The other options are secondary or operational considerations that may not have a significant impact on the privacy of the employees.

References:

CDPSE Exam Content Outline, Domain 2 – Privacy Architecture (Privacy Architecture Implementation), Task 3: Implement privacy solutions1.

CDPSE Review Manual, Chapter 2 – Privacy Architecture, Section 2.4 – Cross-Border Data Transfer2.

CDPSE Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer All-in-One Exam Guide, Chapter 2 – Privacy Architecture, Section 2.5 – Cross-Border Data Transfer3.

The best indication of a highly effective privacy training program is that members of the workforce understand their roles in protecting data privacy, because this shows that the training program has successfully raised the awareness and knowledge of the workforce on the importance, principles and practices of data privacy, and how they can contribute to the organization’s privacy objectives and compliance. According to ISACA, one of the key elements of a privacy training program is to define and communicate the roles and responsibilities of the workforce in relation to data privacy1. Members of the workforce who understand their roles in protecting data privacy are more likely to follow the privacy policies and procedures, report any privacy incidents or issues, and support the privacy culture of the organization2. Recent audits have no findings or recommendations related to data privacy, no privacy incidents have been reported in the last year, and HR has made privacy training an annual mandate for the organization are not as reliable as members of the workforce understand their roles in protecting data privacy, as they do not necessarily reflect the effectiveness of the privacy training program, but rather the performance of other factors such as audit processes, incident management systems, or HR policies.

The organization’s potential legal liabilities related to the data should be of greatest concern when an organization wants to store personal data in the cloud, as it may expose the organization to various compliance risks, such as data breach notification laws, data protection regulations, data sovereignty laws, and contractual obligations. The organization should ensure that the cloud storage provider complies with the applicable legal and regulatory requirements, and that the organization retains control and ownership of the data. The organization should also conduct due diligence and risk assessment of the cloud storage provider before entering into a contract. References: 2 Domain 2, Task 9; 4 

The primary reason for an organization to use hash functions when hardening application systems involved in biometric data processing is to reduce the risk of sensitive data breaches, because hash functions are one-way mathematical functions that transform biometric data into a unique and irreversible representation that cannot be reconstructed or reversed. This means that even if an attacker gains access to the hashed biometric data, they cannot use it to identify or impersonate the individual. Hash functions also help preserve the privacy and confidentiality of biometric data by preventing unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure.

References:

CDPSE Exam Content Outline, Domain 2 – Privacy Architecture (Privacy Architecture Implementation), Task 2: Implement privacy solutions1.

CDPSE Review Manual, Chapter 2 – Privacy Architecture, Section 2.3 – Privacy Architecture Implementation2.

CDPSE Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer All-in-One Exam Guide, Chapter 2 – Privacy Architecture, Section 2.4 – Remote Access3.

An audit log is a record of the activities and events that occur in an information system, such as an application hosting personal data. An audit log can help to monitor, detect, investigate and prevent unauthorized or malicious access, use, modification or deletion of personal data. An audit log can also help to demonstrate compliance with data protection laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). An audit log should capture the following information for each event: 9

The date and time of the event

The identity of the user or system that performed the event

The type and description of the event

The outcome or result of the event

The personal data that were accessed, used, modified or deleted

The last user who accessed personal data is the most important information to capture in the audit log, as it can help to identify who is responsible for any data breach or misuse of personal data. It can also help to verify that only authorized and legitimate users have access to personal data, and that they follow the data use policy and the principle of least privilege. The last user who accessed personal data can also help to support data subjects’ rights, such as the right to access, rectify, erase or restrict their personal data.

The other options are less important or irrelevant to capture in the audit log of an application hosting personal data. Server details of the hosting environment are not related to personal data, and they can be obtained from other sources, such as network logs or configuration files. Last logins of privileged users are important to capture in a separate audit log for user account management, but they do not indicate what personal data were accessed or used by those users. Application error events are important to capture in a separate audit log for system performance and reliability, but they do not indicate what personal data were affected by those errors.

References:

IS Audit Basics: Auditing Data Privacy, section 4: “Audit logs should be maintained for all systems that process PII.”

Data Protection Audit Manual, section 3.2: “Audit trails should be kept for all processing operations involving personal data.”

Audit Logging Best Practices, section 2: “An audit log entry should contain enough information to answer who did what and when.”