ISACA originated in United States in 1967,[5] when a group of individuals working on auditing controls in computer systems started to become increasingly critical of the operations of their organizations.

In 1969, Stuart Tyrnauer, an employee of the (later) Douglas Aircraft Company, incorporated the group as the EDP Auditors Association (EDPAA).

In 1976 the association formed an education foundation to undertake large-scale research efforts to expand the knowledge of and value accorded to the fields of governance and control of information technology.

Specifically, the exam puts test takers in a live network with a real incident taking place.

The student's efforts to respond to the incident and fix the problem results in the type of score awarded.