An audit of a database management system found the audit log was not restarted following maintenance.
Which of the following is the GREATEST concern to the IS auditor?
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A. B. C. D.A.
The GREATEST concern to the IS auditor in this scenario is option D, "Changes by application users will not be logged."
An audit log is a record of all activities occurring within a system, including any changes made to the data. The purpose of the audit log is to provide an accountability trail of who did what, when, and why. This information is crucial for detecting and investigating security breaches, fraud, errors, and compliance violations.
In this case, the audit log was not restarted following maintenance, which means that any changes made by application users will not be recorded. This is a significant concern because it creates a gap in the accountability trail and makes it difficult or impossible to trace unauthorized or erroneous changes to the data.
Option A, "Changes by the database administrators will not be logged," is also a concern, but it is of lesser importance because the database administrators typically have higher levels of access and accountability than application users, and their activities are often subject to additional controls and monitoring.
Option B, "The database optimization will be compromised," and option C, "The database triggers and pointers will not be optimized," are not directly related to the audit log and are therefore less relevant to the auditor's concerns. However, these issues may still be important from a performance and functionality perspective and may warrant further investigation.