Best Way to Prioritize Systems for Access, Patching, and Change Management

B.

When planning to audit an organization's infrastructure for access, patching, and change management, it's important to prioritize the systems to be audited. Prioritization ensures that the most critical systems are audited first, reducing the risk of potential security breaches.

Among the options provided, the best way to prioritize systems is based on the criticality of the system. Criticality is the measure of the importance of a system to the business. Critical systems are those that are essential to the organization's operations and have the highest impact in case of failure.

Here's a detailed explanation of each of the options:

A. Complexity of the environment: This refers to the level of complexity of the organization's infrastructure. While it's essential to consider the complexity of the environment when planning an audit, it should not be the sole basis for prioritization. A less complex system may still be critical to the organization's operations, while a more complex system may have less impact on the business.

B. Criticality of the system: This refers to the importance of the system to the organization's operations. Critical systems are those that have the highest impact on the business in case of failure. Therefore, it's important to prioritize auditing these systems first to minimize the risk of potential security breaches.

C. System hierarchy within the infrastructure: This refers to the placement of systems within the infrastructure. While it's important to consider the system hierarchy when planning an audit, it should not be the sole basis for prioritization. A system that is lower in the hierarchy may still be critical to the organization's operations, while a higher-level system may have less impact on the business.

D. System retirement plan: This refers to the organization's plan to retire the system. While it's important to consider the system retirement plan when planning an audit, it should not be the sole basis for prioritization. A system that is scheduled for retirement may still be critical to the organization's operations, while a system that is not scheduled for retirement may have less impact on the business.

In summary, the criticality of the system is the best way to prioritize systems when planning an audit of an organization's infrastructure for access, patching, and change management.