Domain 7 -- Security Operations Flashcards
Give a list of tasks that should be performed by the security admin, not the network admin.
- Implements and maintains security devices and SW
- Carries out security assessments
- Creates and maintains user profiles and implements and maintains access control mechanisms
- Configures and maintains security labels in mandatory access control (MAC) environments
- Manages password policies
- Reviews audit logs
What kinds of questions do security admins need to ask themselves?
- Are users accessing information and peforming tasks that are not necessary for their job function?
- Are repetitive mistakes being made?
- Do too many users have rights and privileges to sensitive or restricted data or resources?
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What is a clipping level?
A clipping level is a baseline for violation activities before the activity is considered suspicious
IDS systems normally track activities and behavior patterns
Locks are considered _________ devices to intruders.
delaying
What type of lock is a basic padlock?
A ward lock.
It has a spring loaded with a notch cut in
What kind of lock has more pieces than a ward lock?
A tumbler lock
What are the three types of tumbler locks and what’s the difference between them?
- The pin tumbler lock is the most common
- Wafer tumbler lock – the round kind normally found in filing cabinets
- Does not afford much protection – easily circumvented
- Lever Tumbler lock
What is a cipher lock?
A cipher lock is a programmable lock that are keyless and use keypads.
- Can require a card to be swiped or a combo to be entered
- More expensive, but more functionality
What kinds of functionality is available on cipher locks?
- Door delay – alarm triggers if door is open for too long
- Key override – special combination can be enterred to over ride normal functions
- Master keying
- Hostage alarm
What are two important things to remember to do with combination locks?
- Change the combination periodically
- use random combination sequences
What are examples of device locks?
- Switch controls - cover on/off power switches
- Slot locks
- Port controls - blocks access to disk drives or unused serial or parallel ports
- Peripheral switch controls
- Cable traps (prevent removal of input/output devices by passing cables through a lockable unit
What are the three grades of locks available?
- Grade 1 – Commercial and industrial light use
- Grade 2 – Heavy duty residential / light duty commercial
- Grade 3 – Residential consumer
What are the three main categories of lock cylinders?
- Low security – No pick or drill resistance
- Medium security – some pick protection provided
- High security – pick resistance through many different mechanisms
What are two techniques for circumventing tumbler locks and how do they work?
- Raking –
- Lock bumping
- Need a bump key to make it work
Exam Tip
What are Electronic Access Control (EAC) tokens?
- Generic term to describe proximity authentication devices
- proximity readers
- programmable locks
- biomentric systems
What are the goals of External Boundary Protection Mechanisms?
- Control pedestrian and vehicle traffic flow
- Various levels of protection for different security zones
- Buffers and delaying mechanisms to protect against forced entry attempts
- Limit and control entry points
What controls can be used to provide external boundary protection?
- Access control mechanisms
- locks, keys, card systems, personnel awareness
- Physical barriers
- Fences, gates, walls, door windows, vents, vehicular barriers
- Intrusion detection
- Perimeter sensors, interior sensors, annunciation mechanisms
- Response
- Guards, local law enforcement
- Deterrents
- Signs, lighting, environmental design
Talk to me about fence height.
- 3-4 feet high only deter casual trespassers
- 6-7 feet high are considered too high to climb easily
- 8 feet high means that you are serious about protecting your property
What is PIDAS Fencing?
It stands for Perimeter Intrusion Detectionand Assessment System (PIDAS)
- has sensors
- Can detect if a person attempts to climb or cut fence
What is meant by glare protection for the security force?
It means that bright lights should be pointed towards the things that the guards have to observe (like gates) so that the security team is not fighting the light to do their job
What is standby lighting
It is lighting that can be configured to turn on or off at various times to give the appearance that faicilities are occupied.
What is an annunciator system?
They are products that can “listen” for noise or watch CCTV cameras or detect movement.
It makes it so the security guard doesn’t have to stare at a camera for 8 hours per day.
What are the sorts of things that physical IDS can trigger on?
- Beams of light
- Sounds and vibrations
- Motion
- Different kinds of fields
- microwave, ultrasonic, electrostatic
- Electrical circuit
What are some of the most important things to keep in mind regarding Intrusion Detection systems?
- They are expensive and require human intervention
- Require redundanct power and emergency power backup
- They can be linked to a centralized security system
- They should have a failsafe configuration, which defaults to activiated
- They should detect and be resistant to tampering
Exam Tip:
Because the use of guard dogs introduces significant risks to human safety, exam answers that include dogs are likely to be ___________.
incorrect
Audit and access logs are ______________, not preventative.
detective
What are examples of internal physical security controls?
- Work area separation
- Personnel badges that must be worn in the building
- Roving guards that look for violations and unauthorized personnel
What’s the definition of provisioning for the CISSP exam?
- the set of all activities required to provide one or more new information services to a user or group of users.
- Provisioning must be done securely
What’s the best way to track hardware to know that you’ve got everything you’re supposed to be tracking?
Get monitorying software that detects devices on the network.
What are the key things to do in order to track software properly?
- Application whitelisting
- Using gold masters
- Enforcing the principle of least privilege
- Automated scanning
What is the Asset Management Cycle?
- Business Case
- Acquisition
- Operation and Maintenance (O&M)
- Retirement
What is configuration management as it relates to the CISSP exam?
Configuration managementis the process of establishing and maintaining consistent baselines on all of our systems
What’s the difference between Change Management and Configuration Management?
Change management is a business process.
- concerned with changing features of system being developed
- IT and security people are not usually in charge of change management (though they are involved in it)
Configuration management is an operational process
- Example is how to configure software
- Information security usually leads in configuration management
What are the steps in the Change Control Process?
- Request for a change to take place
- Approval of the change
- Documentation of the change
- Tested and presented
- Implementation
- Report Change to management
What’s the difference between:
- System reboot
- Emergency system restart
- System cold start
- System reboot – takes place after the system shuts itself down in a controlled manner in response to a kernel failure
- Emergency system restart – takes place after a system failure happends in an uncontrolled manner
- System Cold Start – takes place when an unexpected kernel or media failure happends and the regular recovery procedure cannot recover the system to a more consistent state
What are the three steps to take after a system crash?
- Enter into single user or safe mode
- Fix issue and recover files
- Validate critical files and operations
Name 4 things you should do while recovering a system
- Protect the boot sequence (C:, A:, D:) – make sure that a hacker can’t get the system to boot from a drive that you don’t want it to boot from
- Do not allow bypassing of writing actions to system logs
- Do not allow system forced shutdowns – only admins should have the ability to shut systems down.
- Do not allow outputs to be rerouted
What are steps that should be part of any Change Control Policy?
- Request for a Change to take place
- Approval of the change
- Documentation of the Change
- Tested and Presented
- Implementation
- Report Change to management
What is a critical element of any change plan?
A backout plan
What’s the difference between:
- System reboot
- Emergency system restart
- System cold start
- System Reboot - Takes place after the system has shut itself down in a controlled manner in response to a kernel failure
- Emergency system restart- takes place after a system failure happens in an uncontrolled manner
- System Cold Start takes place when an unexpected kernel or media failure happens and the regular recovery procedure cannot recover the system to a more consistent state
What are some key guidelines for remote systems administration?
- Require a VPN connection protected with 2-factor authentication
- Commands and data should not take place in cleartext
- Strong authentication should be in place for any administrative activities
- Truly critical systems should be administered locally, rather than remotely
- Only a small number of administrators should be able to carry out remote functionality
What’s the difference between MTBF and MTTF?
- MTBF - Mean Time Between Failures assumes that a device is repairable
- MTTF – Mean Time to Failure – means that the device is not repairable
What does MAID stand for?
Massive Array of Inactive Disks
Similar idea to RAID, but with the intent to replace tape drives / tape libraries.
Disks spin up and are powered on only when needed.