Key external stakeholders include those who have significant influence over the organization's operations, strategy, and outcomes, such as customers, shareholders, creditors and lenders, government, and NGOs.
External Stakeholder Roles:
Customers: Drive revenue and product/service demand.
Shareholders: Provide capital and influence strategic decisions.
Creditors and Lenders: Affect financing and liquidity.
Government and NGOs: Set regulatory frameworks and advocate for societal priorities.
Why Other Options Are Incorrect:
A: Distributors and resellers are part of supply chain stakeholders, not key external influencers.
B: Employees and board members are internal stakeholders.
C: Marketing agencies and auditors are third-party service providers, not primary external stakeholders.
Reference:
Stakeholder Management Standards (ISO 26000): Discusses key stakeholder identification.
COSO Framework: Emphasizes the importance of external stakeholder engagement in risk management and governance.

Continuous control monitoring involves automated systems that track organizational activities and generate alerts for specific notifications or anomalies that may require attention.
Role of Continuous Control Monitoring:
Provides real-time detection of risks, compliance issues, or performance deviations.
Enhances the organization's ability to respond quickly to potential problems.
Benefits:
Improves the effectiveness of risk and compliance management by flagging issues promptly.
Reduces manual effort and reliance on periodic reviews.
Why Other Options Are Incorrect:
A: Monitoring personal communications violates privacy and is not the intended purpose.
C: While response tracking is important, it is not the primary focus of continuous control monitoring.
D: Monitoring hotline performance is unrelated to control monitoring systems.
Reference:
COSO ERM Framework: Highlights the role of automated tools in risk and compliance management.
OCEG GRC Capability Model: Discusses continuous control monitoring as part of a robust notification system.

Level I in the Maturity Model represents the lowest level of process maturity, characterized by:
Improvised, Ad Hoc Practices:
Processes are informal, reactive, and lack standardization.
Activities are driven by immediate needs rather than planned procedures.
Chaotic Nature:
Organizations at this level face high variability and inefficiency in their operations.
There is minimal alignment with organizational goals or strategic objectives.
Indicators of Low Maturity:
Poor documentation and lack of repeatability in processes.
High dependency on individual effort rather than institutionalized practices.
Reference:
CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration): Defines Level I as "Initial" with disorganized processes.
OCEG GRC Capability Model: Highlights maturity stages for improving GRC practices.