Which of the following is an example of an informational event?

An informational event provides additional insights or context about the operation of systems or applications but does not require an immediate response or action. In the given choices, the scenario where a user accesses an application exemplifies this type of event. It serves as a notification that something has occurred within the system, which can be recorded for future analysis, but it doesn't indicate any error or issue that needs to be addressed right away.

Informational events play a crucial role in helping organizations monitor usage patterns and system performance over time. By maintaining logs of such events, IT teams can identify trends, improve user experience, and support capacity planning efforts.

In contrast, the other options all pertain to conditions or incidents that are indicative of problems or potential issues that typically require a response. For instance, a hardware failure signals a critical malfunction, unauthorized software installation raises security concerns, and high CPU utilization can suggest performance issues that need to be investigated. Therefore, these events do not fit the definition of an informational event, which is more passive and descriptive in nature.