• Execute a risk-based IS audit strategy in compliance with IS audit standards to ensure that key risk areas are audited.
• Plan specific audits to determine whether information systems are protected, controlled and provide value to the organization.
• Conduct audits in accordance with IS audit standards to achieve planned audit objectives.
• Communicate audit results and make recommendations to key stakeholders through meetings and audit reports to promote change when necessary.
• Conduct audit follow-ups to determine whether appropriate actions have been taken by management in a timely manner.

Domain 2 – Governance and Management of IT (16%)

• Evaluate the IT strategy, including IT direction, and the processes for the strategy’s development, approval, implementation and maintenance for alignment with the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the IT governance structure to determine whether IT decisions, directions and performance support the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate IT organizational structure and human resources (personnel) management to determine whether they support the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate the organization’s IT policies, standards and procedures, and the processes for their development, approval, release/publishing, implementation and maintenance to determine whether they support the IT strategy and comply with regulatory and legal requirements.
• Evaluate IT resource management, including investment, prioritization, allocation and use, for alignment with the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate IT portfolio management, including investment, prioritization and allocation, for alignment with the organization’s strategies and objectives.
• Evaluate risk management practices to determine whether the organization’s IT-related risk is identified, assessed, monitored, reported and managed.
• Evaluate IT management and monitoring of controls (e.g., continuous monitoring, quality assurance [QA]) for compliance with the organization’s policies, standards and procedures.
• Evaluate monitoring and reporting of IT key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine whether management receives sufficient and timely information.
• Evaluate the organization’s business continuity plan (BCP), including alignment of the IT disaster recovery plan (DRP) with the BCP, to determine the organization’s ability to continue essential business operations during the period of an IT disruption.

Domain 3 – Information Systems Acquisition, Development and Implementation (18%)

• Evaluate the business case for the proposed investments in information systems acquisition, development, maintenance and subsequent retirement to determine whether the business case meets business objectives.
• Evaluate IT supplier selection and contract management processes to ensure that the organization’s service levels and requisite controls are met.
• Evaluate the project management framework and controls to determine whether business requirements are achieved in a cost-effective manner while managing risk to the organization.
• Conduct reviews to determine whether a project is progressing in accordance with project plans, is adequately supported by documentation, and has timely and accurate status reporting.
• Evaluate controls for information systems during the requirements, acquisition, development and testing phases for compliance with the organization’s policies, standards, procedures and applicable external requirements.
• Evaluate the readiness of information systems for implementation and migration into production to determine whether project deliverables, controls and the organization’s requirements are met.
• Conduct post-implementation reviews of systems to determine whether project deliverables, controls and the organization’s requirements are met.

Domain 4 – Information Systems Operations, Maintenance and Service Management (20%)

• Evaluate the IT service management framework and practices (internal or third party) to determine whether the controls and service levels expected by the organization are being adhered to and whether strategic objectives are met.
• Conduct periodic reviews of information systems to determine whether they continue to meet the organization’s objectives within the enterprise architecture (EA).
• Evaluate IT operations (e.g., job scheduling, configuration management, capacity and performance management) to determine whether they are controlled effectively and continue to support the organization’s objectives.
• Evaluate IT maintenance (patches, upgrades) to determine whether they are controlled effectively and continue to support the organization’s objectives.
• Evaluate database management practices to determine the integrity and optimization of databases.
• Evaluate data quality and life cycle management to determine whether they continue to meet strategic objectives.
• Evaluate problem and incident management practices to determine whether problems and incidents are prevented, detected, analyzed, reported and resolved in a timely manner to support the organization´s objectives.
• Evaluate change and release management practices to determine whether changes made to systems and applications are adequately controlled and documented.
• Evaluate end-user computing to determine whether the processes are effectively controlled and support the organization’s objectives.
• Evaluate IT continuity and resilience (backups/restores, disaster recovery plan [DRP]) to determine whether they are controlled effectively and continue to support the organization’s objectives.

Domain 5 – Protection of Information Assets (25%)

• Evaluate the information security and privacy policies, standards and procedures for completeness, alignment with generally accepted practices and compliance with applicable external requirements.
• Evaluate the design, implementation, maintenance, monitoring and reporting of physical and environmental controls to determine whether information assets are adequately safeguarded.
• Evaluate the design, implementation, maintenance, monitoring and reporting of system and logical security controls to verify the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information.
• Evaluate the design, implementation and monitoring of the data classification processes and procedures for alignment with the organization’s policies, standards, procedures and applicable external requirements.
• Evaluate the processes and procedures used to store, retrieve, transport and dispose of assets to determine whether information assets are adequately safeguarded.
• Evaluate the information security program to determine its effectiveness and alignment with the organization’s strategies and objectives.

• Implement Authentication Mechanisms.
• Operate Internetwork Trust Architectures.
• Participate in the Identity-Management Lifecycle.
• Implement Access Controls.

Security Operations and Administration.

• Understand and Comply with Code of Ethics.
• Understand Security Concepts.
• Document and Operate Security Controls.
• Participate in Asset Management.
• Implement and Assess Compliance with Controls.
• Participate in Change Management.7.Participate in Security Awareness and Training.
• Participate in Physical Security Operations.

Secure Software Design

• Design Processes.
• Design Considerations.
• Securing Commonly Used Architecture.
• Technologies.

Risk Identification, Monitoring, and Analysis.

• Understand the Risk Management Process.
• Perform Security Assessment Activities.
• Operate and Maintain Monitoring Systems.
• Analyze Monitoring Results.

Incident Response and Recovery

• Participate in Incident Handling.
• Understand and Support Forensic Investigations.
• Understand and Support Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP).

Cryptography

• Understand and Apply Fundamental Concepts of Cryptography.
• Understand Requirements for Cryptography.
• Understand and Support Secure Protocols.
• Operate and Implement Cryptographic Systems.

Networks and Communications Security

• Understand Security Issues Related to Networks.
• Protect Telecommunications Technologies.
• Control Network Access.
• Manage LAN-based Security.
• Operate and Configure Network-based Security Devices.
• Implement and Operate Wireless Technologies.

Systems and Application Security

• Identify and Analyze Malicious Code and Activity.
• Implement and Operate Endpoint Device Security.
• Operate and Configure Cloud Security.
• Secure Big Data Systems
• Operate and Secure Virtual Environments.

• Core Concepts.
• Security Design Principles.
• Privacy (e.g., data anonymization, user content, disposition, test data management).
• Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC).
• Software Development Methodologies (e.g., Waterfall, Agile).

Secure Software Requirements

• Policy Decomposition (e.g., Internal and External Requirements).
• Data Classification and Categorization
• Functional Requirements (e.g., Use Cases and Abuse Cases).
• Operational Requirements (e.g., how the software is deployed, operated, managed).

Secure Software Design

• Design Processes.
• Design Considerations.
• Securing Commonly Used Architecture.
• Technologies.

Secure Software Implementation/Coding

• Declarative versus Imperative (Programmatic) Security.
• Vulnerability Databases/Lists (e.g., OWASP Top 10, CWE).
• Defensive Coding Practices and Controls.
• Source Code and Versioning.
• Development and Build Environment (e.g., build tools, automatic build script).
• Functional Requirements (e.g., Use Cases and Abuse Cases).
• Code/Peer Review.
• Code Analysis (e.g., static, dynamic).
• Anti-tampering Techniques (e.g., code signing, obfuscation).

Secure Software Testing

• Testing Artifacts (e.g., strategies, plans, cases).
• Testing for Security and Quality Assurance.
• Types of Testing.
• Impact Assessment and Corrective Action.
• Test Data Lifecycle Management (e.g., privacy, dummy data, referential integrity).

Software Acceptance

• Pre-release and Pre-deployment.
• Post-release.

Software Deployment, Operations, Maintenance and Disposal

• Installation and Deployment.
• Operations and Maintenance.
• Software Disposal (e.g., retirement, end of life policies, decommissioning).

Supply Chain and Software Acquisition

• Supplier Risk Assessment (e.g., managing the enterprise risk of outsourcing).
• Supplier Sourcing.
• Software Development and Test.
• Software Delivery, Operations and Maintenance.
• Supplier Transitioning (e.g., code escrow, data exports, contracts, disclosure).