RPA RPA Security and Governance 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'bot sprawl' and why is it a governance concern?
- Uncontrolled proliferation of bots without proper oversight, documentation, or maintenance (Correct answer)
- Bots consuming excessive server resources during peak processing times
- A security vulnerability where bots access more systems than needed
- Bots that replicate themselves across multiple servers automatically
Correct answer: Uncontrolled proliferation of bots without proper oversight, documentation, or maintenance
Bot sprawl occurs when bots are created without governance controls, leading to an unmanageable inventory of undocumented, unmaintained, or redundant automations.
Question 2: What is the purpose of an 'audit trail' in RPA?
- Providing a detailed, tamper-evident log of all bot actions for compliance and forensic review (Correct answer)
- Recording the development history of bot code changes
- Tracking the time bots spend on each process step
- Logging IT infrastructure changes made to support bot deployments
Correct answer: Providing a detailed, tamper-evident log of all bot actions for compliance and forensic review
An audit trail creates an immutable record of what each bot did, when, and to what data — essential for compliance, investigations, and demonstrating regulatory adherence.
Question 3: What does 'least privilege' mean as applied to RPA bot accounts?
- Bots should only be granted the minimum access rights needed to perform their specific tasks (Correct answer)
- Bots should have the lowest processing priority to avoid impacting human users
- Bot accounts should be set to read-only by default for all systems
- Privileged bot actions should require the least number of approval steps
Correct answer: Bots should only be granted the minimum access rights needed to perform their specific tasks
The least privilege principle limits bot access rights to only what is required for its specific tasks, reducing the attack surface if the bot account is compromised.
Question 4: What is 'change control' in the context of RPA bot management?
- A formal process for reviewing, approving, and documenting changes to bot workflows before deployment (Correct answer)
- Controlling how frequently bots are allowed to change data in target systems
- Managing when business processes can be changed to accommodate RPA
- Tracking UI changes in target applications that might break bots
Correct answer: A formal process for reviewing, approving, and documenting changes to bot workflows before deployment
Change control ensures all bot updates go through a structured review and approval process to prevent unauthorized or untested changes from reaching production.
Question 5: Which regulation most directly impacts how RPA bots handle personal data in the US healthcare sector?
- HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) (Correct answer)
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
- SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
- PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard)
Correct answer: HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
HIPAA governs the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI) in the US — RPA bots processing healthcare data must comply with its requirements.
Question 6: What is 'incident management' for RPA bots concerned with?
- Detecting, reporting, investigating, and resolving bot failures and security incidents (Correct answer)
- Managing the rollout of new bot deployments to minimize disruption
- Handling user complaints about bot performance in business processes
- Coordinating bot downtime during planned maintenance windows
Correct answer: Detecting, reporting, investigating, and resolving bot failures and security incidents
Incident management for RPA covers the processes for identifying when a bot fails or behaves unexpectedly, triaging the issue, and restoring normal operation.
RPA RPA Security and Governance 2
What is 'bot sprawl' and why is it a governance concern?