The best recommendation to help prevent the situation where IT support staff were put in a position to make decisions beyond their level of authority during the review of a system disruption incident is to introduce escalation protocols. Escalation protocols are policies and procedures that define who should be notified, involved, or consulted when an incident occurs, how the communication and handover should take place, and what criteria or triggers should be used to escalate the incident to a higher level of authority or expertise2.
Escalation protocols help to ensure that:
Incidents are handled by the appropriate staff with the required skills, knowledge, and experience Incidents are resolved in a timely and effective manner Incidents are escalated to senior management or specialized teams when necessary Incidents are documented and reported accurately and transparently Incidents are analyzed and learned from to prevent recurrence or mitigate impact Therefore, by introducing escalation protocols, an organization can improve its incident management process and avoid putting IT support staff in a position to make decisions beyond their level of authority.
References:
Escalation policies for effective incident management, Section 1: What is incident escalation?

A compliance gap analysis is a detailed review of an organization's current state of compliance against a specific regulation or standard. It helps identify the areas and controls that are not meeting the requirements, assess their risk levels, and determine the corrective actions that can be taken to achieve compliance12. A compliance gap analysis is the most useful tool for an IS auditor to review when auditing against a new regulation, as it provides a clear and comprehensive picture of the compliance status, gaps, and remediation plan of the organization.
References
1: Information Security Architecture: Gap Assessment and Prioritization - ISACA
2: How to perform Compliance Gap Analysis? - Sprinto

Asking management why the regulatory changes have not been included is the first thing that an IS auditor should do during the planning stage of a compliance audit. An IS auditor should inquire about the reasons for not updating the inventory of compliance requirements with recent regulatory changes related to managing data risk. This will help the IS auditor to understand whether there is a gap in awareness, communication, or implementation of compliance obligations within the organization. The other options are not the first things that an IS auditor should do, but rather possible subsequent actions that may depend on management's response. References:
* CISA Review Manual (Digital Version), Chapter 2, Section 2.31
* CISA Review Questions, Answers & Explanations Database, Question ID 214