Chapter 1

Question 1

Asset

Answer 1

property that belongs to an individual, organization, company, etc. A bank’s asset is its money; programming code is a software company’s asset.

Question 2

Threat

Answer 2

the possibility of being a cyberattack target. Every organization and individual can be threatened by cyber-attacks for a variety of reasons, such as competition, politics, revenge, and more.

Question 3

Risk

Answer 3

the potential damage to an individual or organization that exists due to a lack of security or awareness.

Question 4

Vulnerability

Answer 4

weakness that can pose risks. Systems, software, hardware, and other elements that are not configured properly may have vulnerabilities that can be exploited for malicious purposes.

Question 5

Exploitation

Answer 5

taking advantage of vulnerabilities to gain access to and control over a system.

Question 6

Firewall

Answer 6

software that inspects, detects, and blocks traffic based on policies and parameters (IP, port, etc.). It can also be a physical device with the same purpose but is capable of handling a higher volume of network traffic.

Question 7

Antivirus

Answer 7

software that inspects, detects, and removes malicious programs. There are many types of antivirus applications, but all have the same basic purpose. Each application incorporates different technologies to accomplish the task.

Question 8

The CIA Triad

Answer 8

Confidentiality
Integrity
Availability
key to keeping information protected from potential leaks, changes, or other types of harm.

Question 9

Malware

Answer 9

software designed for malicious purposes, or malicious software. It can be hidden in a computer program, a piece of code, and even embedded in hardware. malicious software created with the purpose of causing damage or exploiting any device, including computers, routers/switches, servers, and IoT devices. Some examples of malware are trojans, viruses, worms, ransomware, and spyware.

Question 10

Virus

Answer 10

Self-replicating software that targets systems in a computer and attaches itself to them upon execution. As a virus spreads across a computer, it may corrupt or destroy data and cause a lot of damage.

Question 11

Worm

Answer 11

Similar to a virus, a worm self-replicates, but does not require user intervention for it to be executed. It can spread to other computers, typically over a network.

Question 12

Trojan Horse

Answer 12

Code that masquerades as a legitimate program but causes a lot of damage when executed. Trojan horses do not self-replicate like worms or viruses. They can, however, create backdoors in systems, or use system resources for various purposes, such as crypto mining.

Question 13

Spyware

Answer 13

Malware that attempts to harvest information from a computer. The possibly confidential information is copied to the attacker’s computer.

Question 14

Ransomware

Answer 14

The malware encrypts computer files and prevents them from being accessed or restored. Widely used for financial purposes, including demands for payment in return for decrypting the files.

Question 15

Social Engineering

Answer 15

Art used to reveal vulnerabilities related to human action or obtain important information. By observing human behavior, hobbies, and social activities, a lot of information can be gathered and used for both malicious purposes and security assessments.

Question 16

DoS

Answer 16

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack disables a service by overwhelming it with requests. This type of attack is no longer as practical as in past years, due to the more powerful ability of computers today to handle larger volumes of requests.

Question 17

DDoS

Answer 17

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is similar to DoS but is initiated from multiple stations simultaneously. This type of attack remains a current threat to services.

Question 18

The Morris Worm

Answer 18

This was the very first computer worm, which was created as an experiment in 1988 and managed to spread across the internet. The worm spread to computers and replicated several times, with each replication causing the entire system to slow down until it could not be used at all. Although its purpose was not malicious, and the intention was to highlight a potential security flaw, it nonetheless ended up causing extensive damage to many computers and networks.

Question 19

Elk Cloner

Answer 19

One of the first viruses was written in 1982 by a 15-year-old student. It spread to personal computers via a floppy disk that hosted a game. After the game was used a number of times, the virus was executed and ran a poem about the virus.