Exam I Flashcards
What is required of an attack to be regarded as a cyber attack?
- The target is not a private person using a single computer.
- The attack happens on behalf of a nation state.
- The target suffers a substantial loss.
- The attacker is not acting alone but in a large coherent group.
- The target is not a private person using a single computer.
Denial of service is a term
- for a specific attack where the attacker modifies the responses from a www server to display HTTP 404.
- used of any situations where the user or a process is not granted the service he, she or it would be authorized to get.
- that refers to a service not being able to operate because of malicious requests.
- used mainly of such situations where a cracked service has been taken down for repair by administrators.
- that refers to a service not being able to operate because of malicious requests.
• What makes a denial of service attack (DoS) a distributed DoS?
- There are many hackers working in consort to gain access to the attacked service.
- The attacked server spreads the unavailability to a large community of other servers and services.
- The whole farm of load-balancing and resilience-providing computers are attacked to make the service unavailable.
- The attacking traffic comes to the server from several computers simultaneously.
- The attacking traffic comes to the server from several computers simultaneously.
• The term attack vector
- is just a more fancy way of referring to a particular attack that has happened.
- refers to the attacker’s point of view to the chain of protections that implement the defence-in-depth approach.
- refers to the method of an attack - one that happened or is possible.
- refers to the combination of all vulnerabilities that exist in a particular information system.
- refers to the method of an attack - one that happened or is possible.
• Confidentiality is one of the three basic goals (“C-I-A”) of information security,
- but it is hardly ever as important as integrity.
- and it is nearly always more important than availability.
- but it is usually not sufficient without integrity and availability.
- and lack of confidentiality would lead to similar problems as lack of either integrity or availability.
- but it is usually not sufficient without integrity and availability.
• The term script kiddie is used for certain types of attackers. What is typical of them from a defender’s perspective?
- Essentially similar scripts to several other attackers.
- Unpredictably modified scripts, which can therefore be particularly dangerous.
- They cannot be held liable because they are minors.
- Youth and incompetence, which is why their attacks are not very dangerous.
- Essentially similar scripts to several other attackers.
• Attackers that are called script kiddies are characterized by
- using scripts written by others.
- acting as apprentices and assistants to more experienced actors.
- underage and immature morality.
- installing malicious software on the machines of several other users from which the attack continues automatically.
- using scripts written by others.
• Identity theft
- happens when someone maliciously uses identifying data of another person.
- means that an attacker changes someones credentials at a service so that the victim is blocked out.
- is never a theft of identity alone; it also involves causing some loss or other disadvantage to the owner.
- can happen accidentally, i.e. someone can end up stealing someone else’s identity without intending to do so.
- happens when someone maliciously uses identifying data of another person.
• There are many digital entities that spread mainly by the forwarding action of people. Some of them are not direct risks to computing. How many of that kind of user-spread entities are in this list: spam, hoax, ransomware, meme virus, Nigerian letter, troll?
- 4
- 3
- 2
- 1
- 2
• All of the following attacks have some social aspect, but which description gives the best coverage for the concept of social engineering?
- Soliciting sensitive personal or organizational information by persuasive or masquerading emails.
- Inferring sensitive personal or organizational information from discarded papers and media together with public sources.
- Getting physically close and even familiar to people in order to see what they input as credentials to information systems.
- Exercising the art of influencing people to act against their security policy.
- Exercising the art of influencing people to act against their security policy.
• Successful impersonation means that
- an identity has been confiscated.
- a new identity has been assigned to a user.
- a new role has been assigned to a user.
- somebody/something has been cheated to act as if he/it is in contact with someone else than the attacker.
- somebody/something has been cheated to act as if he/it is in contact with someone else than the attacker.
• Malware that does not replicate, pretends to be performing a legitimate action, but does something else in the background is called
- a logic bomb.
- a trapdoor.
- a virus or a worm.
- a Trojan horse.
- a Trojan horse.
• What is a common feature of all malicious programs?
- They are capable of similar actions as other programs in their running environment.
- They are aimed at achieving some financial goal.
- They spread through vulnerabilities in software.
- They are aimed at one target, although they usually spread elsewhere.
- They are capable of similar actions as other programs in their running environment.
• A macro virus is malware that
- has a very large spread.
- runs its code from a large set of non-contiguous memory locations.
- spreads by masquerading itself as backward compatibility test code for software updates.
- runs on many different platforms (OS’s) because it is interpreted by its host program.
- runs on many different platforms (OS’s) because it is interpreted by its host program.
• There are many terms that mean some sort of showing or coming out of a covering. The term that is used to mean such kind of a vulnerability in an information system is
- revelation.
- unveiling.
- exposure.
- disclosure.
- exposure.
• What is the term used for an attack or error that causes data to be written in memory locations that are outside the allowed area?
- Stack bloat.
- Division by near-zero.
- Buffer overflow
- Flooding.
- Buffer overflow
• The term zero-day applies for instance to
- DRM protection that is broken and published before the media, e.g. a game, is launched.
- the beginning of the “life” of an identity thief under the new identity.
- a vulnerability in software not yet exploited but found and kept secret by a malicious party.
- an attack where a user of a limited-time-free trial version of software can keep his computer on the same day for an unlimited length of time.
- a vulnerability in software not yet exploited but found and kept secret by a malicious party.
• Which of the following fits most poorly to the concept of a bot network?
- Users of machines on the bot network have agreed to work with the network administrator.
- The machines on the bot network have a remote access program.
- Bot network machines are rarely owned by the same organization.
- A bot network can be used to implement a denial of service attack.
- Users of machines on the bot network have agreed to work with the network administrator.
• Man in the middle is an attack type where
- a process captures system calls, modifies them, sends them to the OS kernel, and likewise filters the responses to the calling procedure.
- the attacker or his process relays modified messages between two unknowing communication parties.
- a cryptographic algorithm is broken at about a square root of effort by working both from the start and end toward the middle.
- a process listens to a program’s system calls and their responses, and sends the divulged sensitive data to the attacker.
- the attacker or his process relays modified messages between two unknowing communication parties.
• A botnet is
- a network used solely for internal communications.
- a group of dispersed, compromised machines controlled remotely for illicit purposes.
- a complete network built for the same purpose as single “honeypot” computers.
- a tool for automating security alerts in a corporate network.
- a group of dispersed, compromised machines controlled remotely for illicit purposes.
• Information assurance is sometimes considered a wider term than information security. On the other hand, assurance is just part of information security, namely
- a synonym for authentication.
- a synonym for accountability.
- evidence that security mechanisms are efficient.
- the level up to which risk management has been able to transfer information security risks.
- evidence that security mechanisms are efficient.
• Authentication is the
- assertion of a unique identity.
- process of defining the resources and type of access a user needs.
- decision by management that a user should be given access to a system.
- process of verifying an identity.
- process of verifying an identity.
• The objective of Availability is to make information accessible by protecting it from some but not all of these: (i) denial of service, (ii) fire, (iii) flood, (iv) unauthorized transaction, (v) unreadable backup tape. How many of these are excluded?
- 4
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 1
• Which of the following couplings best defines risk?
- Threat & vulnerability
- Threat & breach of security
- Vulnerability & attack
- Vulnerability & lack of protection
- Threat & vulnerability
• Access control means
- a method to block connections to an information system from the network.
- principles concerning how to allocate access rights to users.
- measures, usually automatic, taken to decide whether access to a resource must be granted or denied, based on a policy.
- the entirety of identification, authentication, access decision and then either blocking or enabling access.
- measures, usually automatic, taken to decide whether access to a resource must be granted or denied, based on a policy.
• The security goal Accountability lies outside the ordinary C-I-A triad, but it is reasonable to say that Accountability is close to the combination of Authenticity with
- I
- A
- C and A
- C
- I
• Assume “S.” stands for “Security”, and count how many of the following 7 terms mean roughly the same as S. control in the field of information security: S. mechanism, S. model, S. policy, S. service, protection, countermeasure, safeguard.
- 3
- 4
- 6
- 5
- 5
• The strategy of forming layers of protection around an asset or facility is known as
- cascade zoning.
- defence-in-depth.
- secured perimeter.
- onion thresholding.
- defence-in-depth.
• Non-repudiation as a security objective means that
- one of the parties to the contract has tried to disclaim the information, but it has been possible to prove that it was a mistake.
- accidental or intentional changes to the data after their acceptance can be corrected.
- the information (e.g., contract) to which it relates has been understood and accepted.
- the person to whom the information relates has no grounds for claiming that there is no connection.
- the person to whom the information relates has no grounds for claiming that there is no connection.
• Non-repudiation is
- a special security goal.
- an attack against privacy.
- the term used for cancelling some of a user’s rights in an information system.
- the time shortly before a public key certificate expires and a new one should be ordered.
- a special security goal.
• Which counts as two factor authentication?
- A hard token and a smart card.
- A user name and a PIN.
- A password and a PIN.
- A PIN and a hard token.
- A PIN and a hard token.
• What is the term used for such collections of data that a person can use to prove his or her identity?
- attributes
- certificates
- shared secrets
- credentials
- credentials
• Decisions on who can access certain data, like documents or databases, are best made by
- data owner.
- senior management.
- application developers.
- administrators responsible for the user database.
- data owner.
• Shared secret is an InfoSec term that usually refers to
- a result of protocols like IKE (Internet Key Exchange) of IPsec.
- personal sensitive data that cannot be only private but must be known to someone else, too, than the owner.
- the random bit sequences that two parties send to a trusted server for the purpose of authenticating each other.
- the commands and passwords that allow a backdoor entry to an information system by a group of hackers.
- a result of protocols like IKE (Internet Key Exchange) of IPsec.
• One of the tasks of a certification authority is
- to maintain a database of those private and public keys, the correspondence of which it has certified.
- to calculate the corresponding public key at the request of a certified customer who provides a new private key.
- to update the certificates that have been revalidated, to accommodate a new expiry date.
- to publish a list of revoked certificates or provide a service that returns the certificate status.
- to publish a list of revoked certificates or provide a service that returns the certificate status.
• Challenge-response is a protocol between two parties A and B such that
- A challenges B with an easy-to-check computational task that anyone can do but which takes time to solve.
- A challenges B with a task that supposedly only a human user can answer.
- A and B receive a random challenge from the other party and then use a shared secret to calculate a response which acts as a mutual authenticator and session key.
- A challenges B to respond with something that no one else than A - and possibly B itself - would be able to produce.
- A challenges B to respond with something that no one else than A - and possibly B itself - would be able to produce.
• A digital signature is made with
- symmetric cryptography.
- a message authentication code.
- a public key certificate.
- a hash function and an asymmetric cryptoalgorithm.
- a hash function and an asymmetric cryptoalgorithm.
• At what phase of a product’s life cycle is it likely to be most expensive to improve security?
- implementation
- rapid prototyping
- testing
- design
- implementation
• What does a firewall prevent from functioning in the way they were intended to?
- ports
- IP-addresses
- protocols
- packets
- packets
• What security concept is violated by the following: One person in the finance department is able to insert vendors to the vendor database and subsequently pay to the vendors?
- Well-formed transactions
- Least privilege
- Separation of duties
- Database normalization
- Separation of duties
• Steganography is
- a special branch of cryptographic hash functions.
- an art of embedding data into a larger quantity of other data.
- an obsolete method of protecting secret messages.
- synonymous to digital watermarking.
- an art of embedding data into a larger quantity of other data.
• Which of the following statements is true?
- Printing on paper is not a serious method to back up data.
- Removable flash memories are suitable as backup media.
- Backups are useless if copies are made only once a week.
- The method of incremental copies in backup means the same as making consecutive full copies.
- Removable flash memories are suitable as backup media.
• It is important to have an off-site backup copy of files to
- improve accessibility of files from other locations.
- speed up the process of accessing files at any time.
- reduce the possibility of data theft.
- prevent the loss of data in the event of a fire.
- prevent the loss of data in the event of a fire.
• All of the following may be needed to repair broken integrity, but what is the most concrete concept?
- detection
- policy
- proactivity
- redundancy
- redundancy
• If you are a EU citizen and your personal data has been unduly disclosed by a service in EU,
- you must still sue the company running the service in order to get any compensation.
- the GDPR stipulates a formula for a compensation the responsible company must pay to you.
- the responsible company may have to pay a fine of millions of euros.
- nobody will be held responsible if the data has been leaked through hacking and the attacker is not caught.
- the responsible company may have to pay a fine of millions of euros.
• The central meaning of data protection is in protecting
- the secret information of individuals.
- the information that individuals disclose to different data collectors.
- the information companies provide to various data collectors.
- the confidential information of companies.
- the information that individuals disclose to different data collectors.
• GDPR defines several roles with respect to a person’s personal data, but not the role of data
- subject.
- object.
- controller.
- processor.
- object.
• The European Union has enacted General Data Protection Regulation that mainly covers
- the exchange of data between the EU and countries outside the EU.
- the duties of organizations when they handle data from individuals.
- the rules for encrypting and authenticating data when it is communicated between organizations or between individuals and organizations.
- the rights and duties that EU citizens have with respect to their private data.
- the duties of organizations when they handle data from individuals.
• Payment card industry data security standard, PCI-DSS
- is included in GDPR.
- is the equivalent of GDPR in the USA.
- is, as its name says, a standard created by an industry branch.
- is not related to GDPR by purpose or origin.
- is, as its name says, a standard created by an industry branch.
• When studying anonymity as a security goal it is natural to define it to have different degrees depending on
- the country where you reside.
- what data should not be disclosed and by whom.
- what data should not be disclosed and to whom.
- the age of the person whose anonymity is in question.
- what data should not be disclosed and to whom.
• Privacy is synonymous to
- secrecy.
- anonymity.
- none of these.
- privilege.
- none of these.
• Pseudonym is
- a general term that refers to various sorts of aliases in filesystems and databases.
- a part of an impersonation attack.
- a human-readable indirection to a username in an information system.
- an artificial name that replaces the real name of a user.
- an artificial name that replaces the real name of a user.
• Copyright is originally a property of
- an artefact.
- the creators of an artefact.
- the publisher of an artefact.
- the buyer of an artefact.
- the creators of an artefact.
• One purpose of DRM is
- to provide access control to digital media for protection of copyrights.
- to prevent production and distribution of software that can break copy protections of media files.
- to promote equal-opportunity rights to digital contents, in opposition to digital divide.
- to maintain a directory of copyrights and their delegations.
- to provide access control to digital media for protection of copyrights.