An organization allows programmers to change production systems in emergency situations. Which of the following is the BEST control?

An emergency change authorization process ensures that even urgent changes follow a documented procedure, requiring explicit approval from appropriate personnel, potentially post-facto, while still documenting the rationale and scope. This control balances the need for rapid resolution with critical oversight, accountability, and proper documentation, minimizing the risk of unauthorized or detrimental changes to production systems.

Periodically reviewing operator logs is a detective control that identifies issues after they have occurred, not a proactive control to ensure proper authorization and control over emergency changes.

Limiting the number of super users is a good general security practice for least privilege, but it does not specify the control mechanism for *how* those permitted super users make emergency changes.

Reviewing programmers' emergency change reports is a detective control, similar to log review, providing oversight after the fact rather than upfront control and authorization for emergency changes.