Chapter 2 Security Operations (Sybex) Flashcards
A white hat penetration test showed your organization to be susceptible to social engineering attacks. A victim in your organization was phished successfully, clicked a link in an email, and downloaded commodity malware. What processes could you take to prevent the spread of malware or ransomware in your environment in the future?
A. IPsec on critical systems
B. Use threat emulation
C. Encryption
D. Establish KPIs
B. Use threat emulation
Explanation:
Threat emulation picks up malware at the exploit phase before hackers can apply evasion techniques. Files are quickly quarantined and inspected, running virtually to discover malicious -behavior before it enters your network. Threat emulation can convert newly identified unknown attacks into known signatures, making it possible to block these threats before they have a chance to become widespread
Your CISO wants you to conduct risk assessment for a vital new healthcare system that needs to be in place as quickly as possible. As you conduct the assessment, you find a review from a competitor who is using the software that mentions a vulnerability with a low likelihood of exploitation. Why might your CISO still have reservations deploying this system?
A. The CISO is concerned about government regulations and compliance
B. The CISO feels rushed to decide
C. Other competitors have elected not to use the system
D. Even one attack would be devastating to the organization, both financially and to its reputation
D. Even one attack would be devastating to the organization, both financially and to its reputation
Explanation:
The vital new healthcare system being exploited might ruin the company. The healthcare industry is a prime target for cyberattacks and faces hostile cybersecurity issues that have financial and reputational impacts for hospitals, pharmaceutical and other healthcare institutions
Alex works for a financial institution that decided to purchase costly custom computer systems and software. In the supply chain, one of the vendors supplying the custom computer software is experiencing a delay without any type of explanation. What should Alex be wary of to limit exposure?
A. SLA
B. Penalty clause
C. Supply chain attack
D. Proof of insurance in the RFP
C. Supply chain attack
Explanation:
The risks associated with a supply chain attack have never been higher. Due to recent supply chain attacks, there is growing public awareness of these threats and increased oversight from regulators. Meanwhile, attackers have more resources and tools at their disposal than ever before. A supply chain attack, also known as third party, happens when someone infiltrates your enterprise through an outside partner, vendor or provider who has access to your software, systems, updates and patches and/or data
A newly certified administrator makes a change to Group Policy for 12,000 users. The box is checked on the operating system to not allow the overwriting of operating system security logs. After 48 hours, no users can log into their domain accounts because the logs have filled up. What change control process was initially skipped in this scenario?
A. Approval
B. Testing
C. Implementation
D. Deployment
A. Approval
Explanation:
If the administrator received approval, perhaps the technical catastrophe could have been avoided with a more senior administrators wisdom. Gaining approval is the first step in managing a needed change. Once approved, testing can be performed. Implementation, deployment and documentation should follow after testing
You reached out to your legal department to determine whether there are repercussions after a data breach, including notification of customers whose personal information might have been lost. Every state and federal definition is based on the unlawful acquisition of personal information. What is the safe harbor for organizations?
A. Encryption
B. Divestiture
C. Confidentiality
D. Investigation
A. Encryption
Explanation:
If sensitive data is encrypted properly, there is no possibility of repercussions. Organizations that are the target of attackers usually face serious costs due to notification of quantitative and qualitative losses. Organizations with PII face even higher liabilities
You need to find the true severity of an incident and accurately measure based on certain factors like scope and impact as well as how you should have prioritized the incident. Which of the following is not a factor for measuring the severity of an incident for your organization?
A. Cost
B. Downtime
C. Disclosure
D. Legal ramifications
C. Disclosure
Explanation:
In measuring the severity of an incident, the five measurable factors are scope, impact, cost, downtime and legal ramifications. Disclosure should be in the disclosure policy, which ensures that the require information is shared with the public, investors, customers, employees and other stakeholders at the proper time after an event, incident or breach
A firewall administrator added new rules to the corporate border firewall. What should the firewall administrator do next to ensure that the rules are functioning properly?
A. All firewall rules should be tested with traffic matching the rules
B. Only the new firewall rules should be tested with traffic matching the rules
C. No testing is required. Firewall rules are checked for validity within the firewall
D. Because of time constraints, only firewall rules considered to be the most important should be tested
A. All firewall rules should be tested with traffic matching the rules
Explanation:
When changing or adding firewall rules, all rules should be tested with matching traffic. It is possible that the rule is not configured properly or that there is a contradicting rule higher up the firewall rule list that could negate the new rule. Only by testing all the rules on the firewall can the validity of the rules be verified.
A system administrator has a Bash script that does not need many commands. For security reasons, the admin wants to run the Bash script in restricted mode. Which of the following commands does not provide a restricted shell?
A. bash /r
B. rbash
C. bash –restricted
D. bash -r
A. bash /r
Explanation:
The command bash /r is not a valid Bash command. All of the other commands listed place Bash in restricted mode
Angel works for a large enterprise that is expanding through the acquisition of a second corporation. What should be done before connecting the networks?
A. Credentialed vulnerability scan
B. Implementation of a firewall system
C. Development of a risk analysis for the two networks
D. Complete review of the new corporation
C. Development of a risk analysis for the two networks
Explanation:
Networks can be built with a multitude of hardware and software. When you are attempting to join two disparate networks, many problems can occur with connectivity, latency, and vulnerabilities due to the two separate entities becoming one. Before making any technical changes, both networks should be examined and documented, and a risk analysis should be performed, beginning with a credentialed vulnerability scan
Your organization finished a penetration test with a third party and have received the report. The pentester has detailed what active and passive reconnaissance was done as well as what vulnerabilities were exploited and where they were able to move laterally during the test. When does lateral movement occur during a penetration test?
A. Reconnaissance
B. Persistence
C. Weaponization
D. Post exploitation
D. Post exploitation
Explanation:
There are several cyberattack models, including the Mandiant Attack Model and Lockheed Martins Cyber Kill Chain. Most steps are similar in nature. Post exploitation refers to any action taken after a session is open from a successful exploit or brute force
You look through your incident detection toolkit for a Windows tool that displays NetBIOS over TCP/IP protocol statistics for analyzation. Which tool do you choose?
A. netcat
B. memcat
C. nbstat
D. tshark
C. nbstat
Explanation:
nbtstat displays NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) statistics. NetBIOS displays tables for both the local and remote computers. It refreshes names registered with the Windows Internet Name Service (WINS)
Saul is on the development team testing an in house application for vulnerabilities. During the test, the application fails repeatedly and has poor exception handling. Which of the following tools do you suggest the development team deploy to identify these bugs?
A. Code escrow
B. Fuzzing
C. Pivoting
D. OSINT
B. Fuzzing
Explanation:
A fuzze
You have implement a Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol (SCEP) in your organization. SCEP is designed to support the issuing of certificates in a scalable way. How does SCEP work in an enterprise environment?
A. The SCEP server CA issues and approves the certificate
B. The SCEP server RA issues pending certificates automatically, and the IAM admin approves them
C. A certificate requested from the SCEP server and is issued automatically
D. The SCEP issues the certificate, the CA approves and issues the certificate
A. The SCEP server CA issues and approves the certificate
Explanation:
There are two ways to enroll in SCEP; an SCEP server CA automatically issues the certificate, or an SCEP is requested and set to PENDING, and the CA admin then manually approves or denies the certificate
As a security architect, you have blended Windows and Linux environments. What is the technology will you want to use that will virtualize an instance on top of their operating system kernel?
A. Hypervisor 1
B. Hypervisor 2
C. Containerization
D. Automation
C. Containerization
Explanation:
Containerization is a standardized unit for development and deployment. It is a standalone lightweight instance of software that includes code, system tools, third party libraries, and settings. The two most popular containerization tools are Docker and Kubernetes
You work for a SOHO and replace servers whenever there is money readily available from expenditure. Over the past few tech refresh cycles, you have received many servers and workstations from several different vendors. What is the challenge and risk to this style of asset management?
A. OS and asset EOL issues and updates
B. OS complexities and OS patch version dependencies
C. Failure rate of legacy equipment, replacement parts, and firmware updates and management
D. Poor security posture, inability to manage performance on old OS
C. Failure rate of legacy equipment, replacement parts, and firmware updates and management
Explanation:
This is hardware. You can put an OS on most any hardware out there. When old equipment has maintenance issues, it is sometimes difficult to find the parts and perform regular updates to those assets
Your end users utilize Microsoft Office. A few users have reached out for approval to install ActiveX. How do you advise those end users to use ActiveX securely?
A. If you are browsing the web and a site wants you to install an ActiveX control, decline it
B. If you are browsing the web and a site wants you to install an ActiveX control, accept it.
C. Request the vetting of the software to be downloaded
D. You cannot use ActiveX securely. You must use Flash.
A. If you are browsing the web and a site wants you to install an ActiveX control, decline it
Explanation:
ActiveX controls are dangerous and should be installed only when needed, removed when no longer necessary and downloaded only from a trusted source.
You examine your blue team cybersecurity toolkit and want to add a tool that produces proof of an exploit and supports JavaScript and Ajax-based applications. Which of these is best to use?
A. SET
B. Nmap
C. Netsparker
D. SQLi
C. Netsparker
Explanation:
Netsparker is a popular web application scanner that supports JavaScript and Ajax based apps. It can find flaws like SQLi and local file inclusion and event suggests remediation actions.
Ron is a security analyst reviewing corporate settings on multiple assets. He notices some settings were disabled and are allowing untrusted programs to be installed on mobile devices. What settings should be adjusted so that applications can be sandboxed and tested before deploying securely?
A. Updates
B. Digitally signed applications
C. Containerization
D. Remote wiping
C. Containerization
Explanation:
Containerization establishes a separate and encrypted space on employees mobile devices where business data is kept apart from everything else on the device. This can enable an administrator to manage what is in the container and restrict access to the corporate network