CompTIA Security+ Practice Questions Flashcards by Elevate Elevate

Which of the following threat actors is the most likely to be hired by a foreign government to attack critical systems located in other countries?

A. Hacktivist
B. Whistleblower
C. Organized crime
D. Unskilled attacker

C. Organized crime

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Which of the following is used to add extra complexity before using a one-way data transformation algorithm?

A. Key stretching
B. Data masking
C. Steganography
D. Salting

D. Salting

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An employee clicked a link in an email from a payment website that asked the employee to update contact information. The employee entered the log-in information but received a “page not found” error message. Which of the following types of social engineering attacks occurred?

A. Brand impersonation
B. Pretexting
C. Typosquatting
D. Phishing

D. Phishing

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An enterprise is trying to limit outbound DNS traffic originating from its internal network. Outbound DNS requests will only be allowed from one device with the IP address 10.50.10.25. Which of the following firewall ACLs will accomplish this goal?

A. Access list outbound permit 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 port 53
Access list outbound deny 10.50.10.25/32 0.0.0.0/0 port 53
B. Access list outbound permit 0.0.0.0/0 10.50.10.25/32 port 53
Access list outbound deny 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 port 53
C. Access list outbound permit 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 port 53
Access list outbound deny 0.0.0.0/0 10.50.10.25/32 port 53
D. Access list outbound permit 10.50.10.25/32 0.0.0.0/0 port 53
Access list outbound deny 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 port 53

D. Access list outbound permit 10.50.10.25/32 0.0.0.0/0 port 53
Access list outbound deny 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 port 53

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A data administrator is configuring authentication for a SaaS application and would like to reduce the number of credentials employees need to maintain. The company prefers to use domain credentials to access new SaaS applications. Which of the following methods would allow this functionality?

A. SSO
B. LEAP
C. MFA
D. PEAP

A. SSO

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Which of the following scenarios describes a possible business email compromise attack?

A. An employee receives a gift card request in an email that has an executive’s name in the display field of the email.
B. Employees who open an email attachment receive messages demanding payment in order to access files.
C. A service desk employee receives an email from the HR director asking for log-in credentials to a cloud administrator account.
D. An employee receives an email with a link to a phishing site that is designed to look like the company’s email portal.

C. A service desk employee receives an email from the HR director asking for log-in credentials to a cloud administrator account.

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A company prevented direct access from the database administrators’ workstations to the network segment that contains database servers. Which of the following should a database administrator use to access the database servers?

A. Jump server
B. RADIUS
C. HSM
D. Load balancer

A. Jump server

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An organization’s internet-facing website was compromised when an attacker exploited a buffer overflow. Which of the following should the organization deploy to best protect against similar attacks in the future?

A. NGFW
B. WAF
C. TLS
D. SD-WAN

B. WAF

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An administrator notices that several users are logging in from suspicious IP addresses. After speaking with the users, the administrator determines that the employees were not logging in from those IP addresses and resets the affected users’ passwords. Which of the following should the administrator implement to prevent this type of attack from succeeding in the future?

A. Multifactor authentication
B. Permissions assignment
C. Access management
D. Password complexity

A. Multifactor authentication

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An employee receives a text message that appears to have been sent by the payroll department and is asking for credential verification. Which of the following social engineering techniques are being attempted? (Choose two.)

A. Typosquatting
B. Phishing
C. Impersonation
D. Vishing
E. Smishing
F. Misinformation

C. Impersonation / E. Smishing

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Several employees received a fraudulent text message from someone claiming to be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The message stated:
“I’m in an airport right now with no access to email. I need you to buy gift cards for employee recognition awards. Please send the gift cards to following email address.”
Which of the following are the best responses to this situation? (Choose two).

A. Cancel current employee recognition gift cards.
B. Add a smishing exercise to the annual company training.
C. Issue a general email warning to the company.
D. Have the CEO change phone numbers.
E. Conduct a forensic investigation on the CEO’s phone.
F. Implement mobile device management.

B. Add a smishing exercise to the annual company training. / C. Issue a general email warning to the company.

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A company is required to use certified hardware when building networks. Which of the following best addresses the risks associated with procuring counterfeit hardware?

A. A thorough analysis of the supply chain
B. A legally enforceable corporate acquisition policy
C. A right to audit clause in vendor contracts and SOWs
D. An in-depth penetration test of all suppliers and vendors

A. A thorough analysis of the supply chain

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Which of the following provides the details about the terms of a test with a third-party penetration tester?

A. Rules of engagement
B. Supply chain analysis
C. Right to audit clause
D. Due diligence

A. Rules of engagement

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A penetration tester begins an engagement by performing port and service scans against the client environment according to the rules of engagement. Which of the following reconnaissance types is the tester performing?

A. Active
B. Passive
C. Defensive
D. Offensive

A. Active

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Which of the following is required for an organization to properly manage its restore process in the event of system failure?

A. IRP
B. DRP
C. RPO
D. SDLC

B. DRP

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Which of the following vulnerabilities is associated with installing software outside of a manufacturer’s approved software repository?

A. Jailbreaking
B. Memory injection
C. Resource reuse
D. Side loading

D. Side loading

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An analyst is evaluating the implementation of Zero Trust principles within the data plane. Which of the following would be most relevant for the analyst to evaluate?

A. Secured zones
B. Subject role
C. Adaptive identity
D. Threat scope reduction

B. Subject role

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An engineer needs to find a solution that creates an added layer of security by preventing unauthorized access to internal company resources. Which of the following would be the best solution?

A. RDP server
B. Jump server
C. Proxy server
D. Hypervisor

B. Jump server

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A company’s web filter is configured to scan the URL for strings and deny access when matches are found. Which of the following search strings should an analyst employ to prohibit access to non-encrypted websites?

A. encryption=off
B. http://
C. www.*.com
D. :443

B. http://

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During a security incident, the security operations team identified sustained network traffic from a malicious IP address: 10.1.4.9. A security analyst is creating an inbound firewall rule to block the IP address from accessing the organization’s network. Which of the following fulfills this request?

A. access-list inbound deny ip source 0.0.0.0/0 destination 10.1.4.9/32
B. access-list inbound deny ip source 10.1.4.9/32 destination 0.0.0.0/0
C. access-list inbound permit ip source 10.1.4.9/32 destination 0.0.0.0/0
D. access-list inbound permit ip source 0.0.0.0/0 destination 10.1.4.9/32

B. access-list inbound deny ip source 10.1.4.9/32 destination 0.0.0.0/0

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A company needs to provide administrative access to internal resources while minimizing the traffic allowed through the security boundary. Which of the following methods is most secure?

A. Implementing a bastion host
B. Deploying a perimeter network
C. Installing a WAF
D. Utilizing single sign-on

A. Implementing a bastion host

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A security analyst is reviewing alerts in the SIEM related to potential malicious network traffic coming from an employee’s corporate laptop. The security analyst has determined that additional data about the executable running on the machine is necessary to continue the investigation. Which of the following logs should the analyst use as a data source?

A. Application
B. IPS/IDS
C. Network
D. Endpoint

D. Endpoint

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A cyber operations team informs a security analyst about a new tactic malicious actors are using to compromise networks.
SIEM alerts have not yet been configured. Which of the following best describes what the security analyst should do to identify this behavior?

A. Digital forensics
B. E-discovery
C. Incident response
D. Threat hunting

D. Threat hunting

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A company purchased cyber insurance to address items listed on the risk register. Which of the following strategies does this represent?

A. Accept
B. Transfer
C. Mitigate
D. Avoid

B. Transfer

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A security administrator would like to protect data on employees’ laptops. Which of the following encryption techniques should the security administrator use? A. Partition B. Asymmetric C. Full disk D. Database

C. Full disk

Which of the following security control types does an acceptable use policy best represent? A. Detective B. Compensating C. Corrective D. Preventive

D. Preventive

An IT manager informs the entire help desk staff that only the IT manager and the help desk lead will have access to the administrator console of the help desk software. Which of the following security techniques is the IT manager setting up? A. Hardening B. Employee monitoring C. Configuration enforcement D. Least privilege

D. Least privilege

Which of the following is the most likely to be used to document risks, responsible parties, and thresholds? A. Risk tolerance B. Risk transfer C. Risk register D. Risk analysis

C. Risk register

Which of the following should a security administrator adhere to when setting up a new set of firewall rules? A. Disaster recovery plan B. Incident response procedure C. Business continuity plan D. Change management procedure

D. Change management procedure

A company is expanding its threat surface program and allowing individuals to security test the company’s internet-facing application. The company will compensate researchers based on the vulnerabilities discovered. Which of the following best describes the program the company is setting up? A. Open-source intelligence B. Bug bounty C. Red team D. Penetration testing

B. Bug bounty

Which of the following threat actors is the most likely to use large financial resources to attack critical systems located in other countries? A. Insider B. Unskilled attacker C. Nation-state D. Hacktivist

C. Nation-state

Which of the following enables the use of an input field to run commands that can view or manipulate data? A. Cross-site scripting B. Side loading C. Buffer overflow D. SQL injection

D. SQL injection

Employees in the research and development business unit receive extensive training to ensure they understand how to best protect company data. Which of the following is the type of data these employees are most likely to use in day-to-day work activities? A. Encrypted B. Intellectual property C. Critical D. Data in transit

B. Intellectual property

A company has begun labeling all laptops with asset inventory stickers and associating them with employee IDs. Which of the following security benefits do these actions provide? (Choose two.) A. If a security incident occurs on the device, the correct employee can be notified. B. The security team will be able to send user awareness training to the appropriate device. C. Users can be mapped to their devices when configuring software MFA tokens. D. User-based firewall policies can be correctly targeted to the appropriate laptops. E. When conducting penetration testing, the security team will be able to target the desired laptops. F. Company data can be accounted for when the employee leaves the organization.

A. If a security incident occurs on the device, the correct employee can be notified. / F. Company data can be accounted for when the employee leaves the organization.

A technician wants to improve the situational and environmental awareness of existing users as they transition from remote to in-office work. Which of the following is the best option? A. Send out periodic security reminders. B. Update the content of new hire documentation. C. Modify the content of recurring training. D. Implement a phishing campaign.

C. Modify the content of recurring training.

A newly appointed board member with cybersecurity knowledge wants the board of directors to receive a quarterly report detailing the number of incidents that impacted the organization. The systems administrator is creating a way to present the data to the board of directors. Which of the following should the systems administrator use? A. Packet captures B. Vulnerability scans C. Metadata D. Dashboard

D. Dashboard

A systems administrator receives the following alert from a file integrity monitoring tool: The hash of the cmd.exe file has changed. The systems administrator checks the OS logs and notices that no patches were applied in the last two months. Which of the following most likely occurred? A. The end user changed the file permissions. B. A cryptographic collision was detected. C. A snapshot of the file system was taken. D. A rootkit was deployed.

D. A rootkit was deployed.

Which of the following roles, according to the shared responsibility model, is responsible for securing the company’s database in an IaaS model for a cloud environment? A. Client B. Third-party vendor C. Cloud provider D. DBA

A. Client

A client asked a security company to provide a document outlining the project, the cost, and the completion time frame. Which of the following documents should the company provide to the client? A. MSA B. SLA C. BPA D. SOW

D. SOW

A security team is reviewing the findings in a report that was delivered after a third party performed a penetration test. One of the findings indicated that a web application form field is vulnerable to cross-site scripting. Which of the following application security techniques should the security analyst recommend the developer implement to prevent this vulnerability? A. Secure cookies B. Version control C. Input validation D. Code signing

C. Input validation

Which of the following must be considered when designing a high-availability network? (Choose two). A. Ease of recovery B. Ability to patch C. Physical isolation D. Responsiveness E. Attack surface F. Extensible authentication

A. Ease of recovery / D. Responsiveness

A technician needs to apply a high-priority patch to a production system. Which of the following steps should be taken first? A. Air gap the system. B. Move the system to a different network segment. C. Create a change control request. D. Apply the patch to the system.

C. Create a change control request.

Which of the following describes the reason root cause analysis should be conducted as part of incident response? A. To gather IoCs for the investigation B. To discover which systems have been affected C. To eradicate any trace of malware on the network D. To prevent future incidents of the same nature

D. To prevent future incidents of the same nature

Which of the following is the most likely outcome if a large bank fails an internal PCI DSS compliance assessment? A. Fines B. Audit findings C. Sanctions D. Reputation damage

B. Audit findings

A company is developing a business continuity strategy and needs to determine how many staff members would be required to sustain the business in the case of a disruption. Which of the following best describes this step? A. Capacity planning B. Redundancy C. Geographic dispersion D. Tabletop exercise

A. Capacity planning

A company’s legal department drafted sensitive documents in a SaaS application and wants to ensure the documents cannot be accessed by individuals in high-risk countries. Which of the following is the most effective way to limit this access? A. Data masking B. Encryption C. Geolocation policy D. Data sovereignty regulation

C. Geolocation policy

Which of the following is a hardware-specific vulnerability? A. Firmware version B. Buffer overflow C. SQL injection D. Cross-site scripting

A. Firmware version

While troubleshooting a firewall configuration, a technician determines that a “deny any” policy should be added to the bottom of the ACL. The technician updates the policy, but the new policy causes several company servers to become unreachable. Which of the following actions would prevent this issue? A. Documenting the new policy in a change request and submitting the request to change management B. Testing the policy in a non-production environment before enabling the policy in the production network C. Disabling any intrusion prevention signatures on the “deny any” policy prior to enabling the new policy D. Including an “allow any” policy above the “deny any” policy

B. Testing the policy in a non-production environment before enabling the policy in the production network

An organization is building a new backup data center with cost-benefit as the primary requirement and RTO and RPO values around two days. Which of the following types of sites is the best for this scenario? A. Real-time recovery B. Hot C. Cold D. Warm

D. Warm

A company requires hard drives to be securely wiped before sending decommissioned systems to recycling. Which of the following best describes this policy? A. Enumeration B. Sanitization C. Destruction D. Inventory

B. Sanitization Most Voted

A systems administrator works for a local hospital and needs to ensure patient data is protected and secure. Which of the following data classifications should be used to secure patient data? A. Private B. Critical C. Sensitive D. Public

C. Sensitive

A U.S.-based cloud-hosting provider wants to expand its data centers to new international locations. Which of the following should the hosting provider consider first? A. Local data protection regulations B. Risks from hackers residing in other countries C. Impacts to existing contractual obligations D. Time zone differences in log correlation

A. Local data protection regulations

Which of the following would be the best way to block unknown programs from executing? A. Access control list B. Application allow list C. Host-based firewall D. DLP solution

B. Application allow list

A company hired a consultant to perform an offensive security assessment covering penetration testing and social engineering. Which of the following teams will conduct this assessment activity? A. White B. Purple C. Blue D. Red

D. Red

A software development manager wants to ensure the authenticity of the code created by the company. Which of the following options is the most appropriate? A. Testing input validation on the user input fields B. Performing code signing on company-developed software C. Performing static code analysis on the software D. Ensuring secure cookies are use

B. Performing code signing on company-developed software

Which of the following can be used to identify potential attacker activities without affecting production servers? A. Honeypot B. Video surveillance C. Zero Trust D. Geofencing

A. Honeypot

During an investigation, an incident response team attempts to understand the source of an incident. Which of the following incident response activities describes this process? A. Analysis B. Lessons learned C. Detection D. Containment

A. Analysis

A security practitioner completes a vulnerability assessment on a company’s network and finds several vulnerabilities, which the operations team remediates. Which of the following should be done next? A. Conduct an audit. B. Initiate a penetration test. C. Rescan the network. D. Submit a report.

C. Rescan the network.

An administrator was notified that a user logged in remotely after hours and copied large amounts of data to a personal device. Which of the following best describes the user’s activity? A. Penetration testing B. Phishing campaign C. External audit D. Insider threat

D. Insider threat

Which of the following allows for the attribution of messages to individuals? A. Adaptive identity B. Non-repudiation C. Authentication D. Access logs

B. Non-repudiation

Which of the following is the best way to consistently determine on a daily basis whether security settings on servers have been modified? A. Automation B. Compliance checklist C. Attestation D. Manual audit

A. Automation

Which of the following tools can assist with detecting an employee who has accidentally emailed a file containing a customer’s PII? A. SCAP B. NetFlow C. Antivirus D. DLP

D. DLP

An organization recently updated its security policy to include the following statement: Regular expressions are included in source code to remove special characters such as $, |, ;. &, `, and ? from variables set by forms in a web application. Which of the following best explains the security technique the organization adopted by making this addition to the policy? A. Identify embedded keys B. Code debugging C. Input validation D. Static code analysis

C. Input validation

A security analyst and the management team are reviewing the organizational performance of a recent phishing campaign. The user click-through rate exceeded the acceptable risk threshold, and the management team wants to reduce the impact when a user clicks on a link in a phishing message. Which of the following should the analyst do? A. Place posters around the office to raise awareness of common phishing activities. B. Implement email security filters to prevent phishing emails from being delivered. C. Update the EDR policies to block automatic execution of downloaded programs. D. Create additional training for users to recognize the signs of phishing attempts.

C. Update the EDR policies to block automatic execution of downloaded programs.

Which of the following has been implemented when a host-based firewall on a legacy Linux system allows connections from only specific internal IP addresses? A. Compensating control B. Network segmentation C. Transfer of risk D. SNMP traps

A. Compensating control

The management team notices that new accounts that are set up manually do not always have correct access or permissions. Which of the following automation techniques should a systems administrator use to streamline account creation? A. Guard rail script B. Ticketing workflow C. Escalation script D. User provisioning script

D. User provisioning script

A company is planning to set up a SIEM system and assign an analyst to review the logs on a weekly basis. Which of the following types of controls is the company setting up? A. Corrective B. Preventive C. Detective D. Deterrent

C. Detective

A systems administrator is looking for a low-cost application-hosting solution that is cloud-based. Which of the following meets these requirements? A. Serverless framework B. Type 1 hypervisor C. SD-WAN D. SDN

A. Serverless framework

A security operations center determines that the malicious activity detected on a server is normal. Which of the following activities describes the act of ignoring detected activity in the future? A. Tuning B. Aggregating C. Quarantining D. Archiving

A. Tuning

A company is concerned about weather events causing damage to the server room and downtime. Which of the following should the company consider? A. Clustering servers B. Geographic dispersion C. Load balancers D. Off-site backups

B. Geographic dispersion

Which of the following is a primary security concern for a company setting up a BYOD program? A. End of life B. Buffer overflow C. VM escape D. Jailbreaking

D. Jailbreaking

A company decided to reduce the cost of its annual cyber insurance policy by removing the coverage for ransomware attacks. Which of the following analysis elements did the company most likely use in making this decision? A. MTTR B. RTO C. ARO D. MTBF

C. ARO

Which of the following is the most likely to be included as an element of communication in a security awareness program? A. Reporting phishing attempts or other suspicious activities B. Detecting insider threats using anomalous behavior recognition C. Verifying information when modifying wire transfer data D. Performing social engineering as part of third-party penetration testing

A. Reporting phishing attempts or other suspicious activities

Which of the following is the phase in the incident response process when a security analyst reviews roles and responsibilities? A. Preparation B. Recovery C. Lessons learned D. Analysis

A. Preparation

After a recent vulnerability scan, a security engineer needs to harden the routers within the corporate network. Which of the following is the most appropriate to disable? A. Console access B. Routing protocols C. VLANs D. Web-based administration

D. Web-based administration

A security administrator needs a method to secure data in an environment that includes some form of checks so track any changes. Which of the following should the administrator set up to achieve this goal? A. SPF B. GPO C. NAC D. FIM

D. FIM

A security engineer is implementing FDE for all laptops in an organization. Which of the following are the most important for the engineer to consider as part of the planning process? (Choose two.) A. Key escrow B. TPM presence C. Digital signatures D. Data tokenization E. Public key management F. Certificate authority linking

A. Key escrow / B. TPM presence

A security analyst scans a company's public network and discovers a host is running a remote desktop that can be used to access the production network. Which of the following changes should the security analyst recommend? A. Changing the remote desktop port to a non-standard number B. Setting up a VPN and placing the jump server inside the firewall C. Using a proxy for web connections from the remote desktop server D. Connecting the remote server to the domain and increasing the password length

B. Setting up a VPN and placing the jump server inside the firewall

An enterprise has been experiencing attacks focused on exploiting vulnerabilities in older browser versions with well-known exploits. Which of the following security solutions should be configured to best provide the ability to monitor and block these known signature-based attacks? A. ACL B. DLP C. IDS D. IPS

D. IPS

Security controls in a data center are being reviewed to ensure data is properly protected and that human life considerations are included. Which of the following best describes how the controls should be set up? A. Remote access points should fail closed. B. Logging controls should fail open. C. Safety controls should fail open. D. Logical security controls should fail closed.

C. Safety controls should fail open.

Which of the following would be best suited for constantly changing environments? A. RTOS B. Containers C. Embedded systems D. SCADA

B. Containers

Which of the following incident response activities ensures evidence is properly handled? A. E-discovery B. Chain of custody C. Legal hold D. Preservation

B. Chain of custody

An accounting clerk sent money to an attacker's bank account after receiving fraudulent instructions to use a new account. Which of the following would most likely prevent this activity in the future? A. Standardizing security incident reporting B. Executing regular phishing campaigns C. Implementing insider threat detection measures D. Updating processes for sending wire transfers

D. Updating processes for sending wire transfers

A systems administrator is creating a script that would save time and prevent human error when performing account creation for a large number of end users. Which of the following would be a good use case for this task? A. Off-the-shelf software B. Orchestration C. Baseline D. Policy enforcement

B. Orchestration

A company's marketing department collects, modifies, and stores sensitive customer data. The infrastructure team is responsible for securing the data while in transit and at rest. Which of the following data roles describes the customer? A. Processor B. Custodian C. Subject D. Owner

C. Subject

Which of the following describes the maximum allowance of accepted risk? A. Risk indicator B. Risk level C. Risk score D. Risk threshold

D. Risk threshold

A security analyst receives alerts about an internal system sending a large amount of unusual DNS queries to systems on the internet over short periods of time during non-business hours. Which of the following is most likely occurring? A. A worm is propagating across the network. B. Data is being exfiltrated. C. A logic bomb is deleting data. D. Ransomware is encrypting files.

B. Data is being exfiltrated.

A technician is opening ports on a firewall for a new system being deployed and supported by a SaaS provider. Which of the following is a risk in the new system? A. Default credentials B. Non-segmented network C. Supply chain vendor D. Vulnerable software

C. Supply chain vendor

A systems administrator is working on a solution with the following requirements: • Provide a secure zone. • Enforce a company-wide access control policy. • Reduce the scope of threats. Which of the following is the systems administrator setting up? A. Zero Trust B. AAA C. Non-repudiation D. CIA

A. Zero Trust

Which of the following involves an attempt to take advantage of database misconfigurations? A. Buffer overflow B. SQL injection C. VM escape D. Memory injection

B. SQL injection

Which of the following is used to validate a certificate when it is presented to a user? A. OCSP B. CSR C. CA D. CRC

A. OCSP

One of a company's vendors sent an analyst a security bulletin that recommends a BIOS update. Which of the following vulnerability types is being addressed by the patch? A. Virtualization B. Firmware C. Application D. Operating system

B. Firmware

Which of the following is used to quantitatively measure the criticality of a vulnerability? A. CVE B. CVSS C. CIA D. CERT

B. CVSS

Which of the following actions could a security engineer take to ensure workstations and servers are properly monitored for unauthorized changes and software? A. Configure all systems to log scheduled tasks. B. Collect and monitor all traffic exiting the network. C. Block traffic based on known malicious signatures. D. Install endpoint management software on all systems

D. Install endpoint management software on all systems

An organization is leveraging a VPN between its headquarters and a branch location. Which of the following is the VPN protecting? A. Data in use B. Data in transit C. Geographic restrictions D. Data sovereignty

B. Data in transit

An organization disabled unneeded services and placed a firewall in front of a business-critical legacy system. Which of the following best describes the actions taken by the organization? A. Exception B. Segmentation C. Risk transfer D. Compensating controls

D. Compensating controls

A security consultant needs secure, remote access to a client environment. Which of the following should the security consultant most likely use to gain access? A. EAP B. DHCP C. IPSec D. NAT

C. IPSec

Which of the following should a systems administrator use to ensure an easy deployment of resources within the cloud provider? A. Software as a service B. Infrastructure as code C. Internet of Things D. Software-defined networking

B. Infrastructure as code

After a security awareness training session, a user called the IT help desk and reported a suspicious call. The suspicious caller stated that the Chief Financial Officer wanted credit card information in order to close an invoice. Which of the following topics did the user recognize from the training? A. Insider threat B. Email phishing C. Social engineering D. Executive whaling

C. Social engineering

A security administrator is deploying a DLP solution to prevent the exfiltration of sensitive customer data. Which of the following should the administrator do first? A. Block access to cloud storage websites. B. Create a rule to block outgoing email attachments. C. Apply classifications to the data. D. Remove all user permissions from shares on the file server.

C. Apply classifications to the data.

An administrator assists the legal and compliance team with ensuring information about customer transactions is archived for the proper time period. Which of the following data policies is the administrator carrying out? A. Compromise B. Retention C. Analysis D. Transfer E. Inventory

B. Retention

A company is working with a vendor to perform a penetration test. Which of the following includes an estimate about the number of hours required to complete the engagement? A. SOW B. BPA C. SLA D. NDA

A. SOW

A Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) wants to explicitly raise awareness about the increase of ransomware-as-a-service in a report to the management team. Which of the following best describes the threat actor in the CISO’s report? A. Insider threat B. Hacktivist C. Nation-state D. Organized crime

D. Organized crime

Which of the following practices would be best to prevent an insider from introducing malicious code into a company's development process? A. Code scanning for vulnerabilities B. Open-source component usage C. Quality assurance testing D. Peer review and approval

D. Peer review and approval

Which of the following can best protect against an employee inadvertently installing malware on a company system? A. Host-based firewall B. System isolation C. Least privilege D. Application allow list

D. Application allow list

A company is adding a clause to its AUP that states employees are not allowed to modify the operating system on mobile devices. Which of the following vulnerabilities is the organization addressing? A. Cross-site scripting B. Buffer overflow C. Jailbreaking D. Side loading

C. Jailbreaking

Which of the following would be the best ways to ensure only authorized personnel can access a secure facility? (Choose two.) A. Fencing B. Video surveillance C. Badge access D. Access control vestibule E. Sign-in sheet F. Sensor

C. Badge access / D. Access control vestibule

An organization would like to store customer data on a separate part of the network that is not accessible to users on the main corporate network. Which of the following should the administrator use to accomplish this goal? A. Segmentation B. Isolation C. Patching D. Encryption

A. Segmentation

Which of the following is the most common data loss path for an air-gapped network? A. Bastion host B. Unsecured Bluetooth C. Unpatched OS D. Removable devices

D. Removable devices

Malware spread across a company's network after an employee visited a compromised industry blog. Which of the following best describes this type of attack? A. Impersonation B. Disinformation C. Watering-hole D. Smishing

C. Watering-hole

An organization is struggling with scaling issues on its VPN concentrator and internet circuit due to remote work. The organization is looking for a software solution that will allow it to reduce traffic on the VPN and internet circuit, while still providing encrypted tunnel access to the data center and monitoring of remote employee internet traffic. Which of the following will help achieve these objectives? A. Deploying a SASE solution to remote employees B. Building a load-balanced VPN solution with redundant internet C. Purchasing a low-cost SD-WAN solution for VPN traffic D. Using a cloud provider to create additional VPN concentrators

A. Deploying a SASE solution to remote employees

Which of the following is the best reason to complete an audit in a banking environment? A. Regulatory requirement B. Organizational change C. Self-assessment requirement D. Service-level requirement

A. Regulatory requirement

Which of the following security concepts is the best reason for permissions on a human resources fileshare to follow the principle of least privilege? A. Integrity B. Availability C. Confidentiality D. Non-repudiation

C. Confidentiality

Which of the following are cases in which an engineer should recommend the decommissioning of a network device? (Choose two.) A. The device has been moved from a production environment to a test environment. B. The device is configured to use cleartext passwords. C. The device is moved to an isolated segment on the enterprise network. D. The device is moved to a different location in the enterprise. E. The device's encryption level cannot meet organizational standards. F. The device is unable to receive authorized updates.

E. The device's encryption level cannot meet organizational standards. / F. The device is unable to receive authorized updates.

A company is required to perform a risk assessment on an annual basis. Which of the following types of risk assessments does this requirement describe? A. Continuous B. Ad hoc C. Recurring D. One time

C. Recurring

After a recent ransomware attack on a company's system, an administrator reviewed the log files. Which of the following control types did the administrator use? A. Compensating B. Detective C. Preventive D. Corrective

B. Detective

Which of the following exercises should an organization use to improve its incident response process? A. Tabletop B. Replication C. Failover D. Recovery

A. Tabletop

Which of the following best ensures minimal downtime and data loss for organizations with critical computing equipment located in earthquake-prone areas? A. Generators and UPS B. Off-site replication C. Redundant cold sites D. High availability networking

B. Off-site replication

A newly identified network access vulnerability has been found in the OS of legacy IoT devices. Which of the following would best mitigate this vulnerability quickly? A. Insurance B. Patching C. Segmentation D. Replacement

C. Segmentation

After an audit, an administrator discovers all users have access to confidential data on a file server. Which of the following should the administrator use to restrict access to the data quickly? A. Group Policy B. Content filtering C. Data loss prevention D. Access control lists

D. Access control lists

A client demands at least 99.99% uptime from a service provider's hosted security services. Which of the following documents includes the information the service provider should return to the client? A. MOA B. SOW C. MOU D. SLA

D. SLA

A company is discarding a classified storage array and hires an outside vendor to complete the disposal. Which of the following should the company request from the vendor? A. Certification B. Inventory list C. Classification D. Proof of ownership

A. Certification

A company is planning a disaster recovery site and needs to ensure that a single natural disaster would not result in the complete loss of regulated backup data. Which of the following should the company consider? A. Geographic dispersion B. Platform diversity C. Hot site D. Load balancing

A. Geographic dispersion

A security analyst locates a potentially malicious video file on a server and needs to identify both the creation date and the file's creator. Which of the following actions would most likely give the security analyst the information required? A. Obtain the file's SHA-256 hash. B. Use hexdump on the file's contents. C. Check endpoint logs. D. Query the file's metadata.

D. Query the file's metadata.

Which of the following teams combines both offensive and defensive testing techniques to protect an organization's critical systems? A. Red B. Blue C. Purple D. Yellow

C. Purple

A small business uses kiosks on the sales floor to display product information for customers. A security team discovers the kiosks use end-of-life operating systems. Which of the following is the security team most likely to document as a security implication of the current architecture? A. Patch availability B. Product software compatibility C. Ease of recovery D. Cost of replacement

A. Patch availability

Which of the following would help ensure a security analyst is able to accurately measure the overall risk to an organization when a new vulnerability is disclosed? A. A full inventory of all hardware and software B. Documentation of system classifications C. A list of system owners and their departments D. Third-party risk assessment documentation

A. A full inventory of all hardware and software

Which of the following best practices gives administrators a set period to perform changes to an operational system to ensure availability and minimize business impacts? A. Impact analysis B. Scheduled downtime C. Backout plan D. Change management boards

B. Scheduled downtime

A company must ensure sensitive data at rest is rendered unreadable. Which of the following will the company most likely use? A. Hashing B. Tokenization C. Encryption D. Segmentation

C. Encryption

A legacy device is being decommissioned and is no longer receiving updates or patches. Which of the following describes this scenario? A. End of business B. End of testing C. End of support D. End of life

D. End of life

A bank insists all of its vendors must prevent data loss on stolen laptops. Which of the following strategies is the bank requiring? A. Encryption at rest B. Masking C. Data classification D. Permission restrictions

A. Encryption at rest

A company's end users are reporting that they are unable to reach external websites. After reviewing the performance data for the DNS severs, the analyst discovers that the CPU, disk, and memory usage are minimal, but the network interface is flooded with inbound traffic. Network logs show only a small number of DNS queries sent to this server. Which of the following best describes what the security analyst is seeing? A. Concurrent session usage B. Secure DNS cryptographic downgrade C. On-path resource consumption D. Reflected denial of service

D. Reflected denial of service

A systems administrator wants to prevent users from being able to access data based on their responsibilities. The administrator also wants to apply the required access structure via a simplified format. Which of the following should the administrator apply to the site recovery resource group? A. RBAC B. ACL C. SAML D. GPO

A. RBAC

During the onboarding process, an employee needs to create a password for an intranet account. The password must include ten characters, numbers, and letters, and two special characters. Once the password is created, the company will grant the employee access to other company-owned websites based on the intranet profile. Which of the following access management concepts is the company most likely using to safeguard intranet accounts and grant access to multiple sites based on a user's intranet account? (Choose two.) A. Federation B. Identity proofing C. Password complexity D. Default password changes E. Password manager F. Open authentication

A. Federation / C. Password complexity