Chapter 1

Question 1

Data Confidentiality (Confidentiality)

Answer 1

Assures that private or confidential information is not made available or disclosed to unauthorized individuals

Question 2

Privacy (Confidentiality)

Answer 2

Assure that individuals control or influence what information related to them may be collected and stored and by whom and to whom that information may be disclosed

Question 3

Data integrity (Integrity)

Answer 3

Assures that information and programs are changed only in a specified and authorized manner

Question 4

System integrity (Integrity)

Answer 4

Assures that a system performs its intended function in an unimpaired manner, free from deliberate or inadvertent unauthorized manipulation of the system

Question 5

Availability

Answer 5

Assures that systems work promptly and service is not denied to authorized users

Question 6

Authenticity

Answer 6

The property of being genuine and being able to be verified and trusted; confidence in the validity of a transmission, a message, or message originator. This means verifying that users are who they say they are and that each input arriving at the system came from a trusted source.

Question 7

Accountability

Answer 7

The security goal that generates the requirement for actions of an entity to be traced uniquely to that entity. This supports nonrepudiation, deterrence, fault isolation, intrusion detection and prevention, and after-action recovery and legal action. Because truly secure systems are not yet an achievable goal, we must be able to trace a security breach to a responsible party. Systems must keep records of their activities to permit later forensic analysis to trace security breaches or to aid in transaction disputes

Question 8

Adversary (threat agent)

Answer 8

An entity that attacks, or is a threat to, a system.

Question 9

Attack

Answer 9

An assault on system security that derives from an intelligent threat; that is, an intelligent act that is a deliberate attempt (especially in the sense of a method or technique) to evade security services and violate the security policy of a system

Question 10

Countermeasure

Answer 10

An action, device, procedure, or technique that reduces a threat, a vulnerability, or an attack by eliminating or preventing it, by minimizing the harm it can cause, or by discovering and reporting it so that corrective action can be taken

Question 11

Risk

Answer 11

An expectation of loss expressed as the probability that a particular threat will exploit a particular vulnerability with a particular harmful result.

Question 12

Security Policy

Answer 12

A set of rules and practices that specify or regulate how a system or organization provides security services to protect sensitive and critical system resources

Question 13

System Resource (Asset)

Answer 13

Data contained in an information system; or a service provided by a system; or a system capability, such as processing power or communication bandwidth; or an item of system equipment (i.e., a system component - hardware, firmware, software, or documentation); or a facility that houses system operations and equipment.

Question 14

Threat

Answer 14

A potential for violation of security, which exists when there is a circumstance, capability, action, or event, that could breach security and cause harm. That is, a threat is a possible danger that might exploit a vulnerability.

Question 15

Vulnerability

Answer 15

A flaw or weakness in a system’s design, implementation, or operation and management that could be exploited to violate the system’s security policy

Question 16

Unauthorized Disclosure

Answer 16

A circumstance or event whereby an entity gains access to data for which the entity is not authorized

Question 17

Exposure (Unauthorized Disclosure)

Answer 17

Sensitive data are directly released to an unauthorized entity

Question 18

Interception (Unauthorized Disclosure)

Answer 18

An unauthorized entity directly access sensitive data traveling between authorized sources and destinations

Question 19

Inference (Unauthorized Disclosure)

Answer 19

A threat action whereby an unauthorized entity indirectly accesses sensitive data (but not necessarily the data contained in the communication) by reasoning from characteristics or by-products of communications

Question 20

Intrusion (Unauthorized Disclosure)

Answer 20

An unauthorized entity gains access to sensitive data by circumventing a system’s security protections.

Question 21

Deception

Answer 21

A circumstance or event that may result in an authorized entity receiving false data and believing it to be true

Question 22

Masquerade (Deception)

Answer 22

An unauthorized entity gains access to a system or performs a malicious act by posing as an authorized entity.

Question 23

Falsification (Deception)

Answer 23

False data deceive an authorized entity.

Question 24

Repudiation (Deception)

Answer 24

An entity deceives another by falsely denying responsibility for an act.

Question 25

Disruption

Answer 25

A circumstance or event that interrupts or prevents the correct operation of system services and functions

Question 26

Incapacitation (Disruption)

Answer 26

Prevents or interrupts system operation by disabling a system component

Question 27

Corruption (Disruption)

Answer 27

Undesirably alters system operation by adversely modifying system functions or data

Question 28

Obstruction (Disruption)

Answer 28

A threat action that interrupts delivery of system services by hindering system operation.

Question 29

Usurpation

Answer 29

A circumstance or event that results in control of system services or functions by an unauthorized entity

Question 30

Misappropriation (Usurpation)

Answer 30

An entity assumes unauthorized logical or physical control of a system resource

Question 31

Misuse (Usurpation)

Answer 31

Causes a system component to perform a function or service that is detrimental to system security.

Question 32

Major threat to computer system hardware

Answer 32

threat to availability

Question 33

Key threat to software

Answer 33

attack on availability

Question 34

Passive attacks

Answer 34

attempts to learn or make use of information from the system but does not affect system resources

Question 35

2 types of passive attacks

Answer 35

release of message contents and traffic analysis

Question 36

Active attacks

Answer 36

involve some modification of the data stream or the creation of a false stream and can be subdivided into 4 categories:
replay, masquerade, modification of messages, and denial of service

Question 37

replay

Answer 37

involves the passive capture of a data unit and its subsequent retransmission to produce an unauthorized effect

Question 38

Economy of mechanism (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 38

the design of security measures embodied in both hardware and software should be as simple and small as possible.

Question 39

Fail-safe default (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 39

access decisions should be based on permission rather than exclusion

Question 40

Complete mediation (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 40

every access must be checked against the access control mechanism

Question 41

Open design (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 41

The design of a security mechanism should be open rather than secret

Question 42

Separation of privilege (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 42

a practice in which multiple privilege attributes are required to achieve access to a restricted resource

Question 43

Least privilege (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 43

Every process and every user of the system should operate using the least set of privileges necessary to perform the task

Question 44

Least common mechanism (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 44

the design should minimize the functions shared by different users, providing mutual security

Question 45

Psychological acceptability (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 45

the security mechanisms should not interfere unduly with the work of users, while at the same time meeting the needs of those who authorize access

Question 46

Isolation (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 46

a principle that applies three contexts.

1. public access systems should be isolated from critical resources (data, processes, etc.) to prevent disclosure or tampering
2. The processes and files of individual users should be isolated from one another except where it is explicitly desired
3. Security mechanisms should be isolated in the sense of preventing access to those mechanisms

Question 47

Encapsulation (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 47

a specific form of isolation based on object oriented functionality

Question 48

Modularity (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 48

refers both to the development of security functions as separate, protected modules and to the use of a modular architecture for mechanism design and implementation

Question 49

Layering (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 49

refers to the use of multiple, overlapping protection approaches addressing the people, technology, and operational aspects of information systems.

Question 50

Least astonishment (fundamental security design principle)

Answer 50

a program or user interface should always response in the way that is least likely to astonish the user

Question 51

Attack Surface

Answer 51

Consists of the reachable and exploitable vulnerabilities in a system

Question 52

Network attack surface

Answer 52

Refers to vulnerabilities over an enterprise network, wide-area network, or the Internet. Included in this category are network protocol vulnerabilities, such as those used for a denial-of-service attack, disruption of communications links, and various forms of intruder attacks.

Question 53

Software attack surface

Answer 53

Refers to vulnerabilities in application, utility, or operating system code. A particular focus in this category is Web server software

Question 54

Human attack surface

Answer 54

Refers to vulnerabilities created by personnel or outsiders, such as social engineering, human error, and trusted insiders.

Question 55

Attack Tree

Answer 55

a branching, hierarchical data structure that represents a set of potential techniques for exploiting security vulnerabilities

Question 56

Comprehensive security strategy

Answer 56

3 aspects:
Specification/policy: What is the security scheme supposed to do?

Implementation/mechanisms: How does it do it?

Correctness/assurance: Does it really work?

Question 57

Security implementation involves 4 complementary courses of action:

Answer 57

Prevention, detection, response, recovery