Resilience and Recovery

Question 1

Which of these statements about Hardware RAID Level 10 (a.k.a. RAID 1+0) are true:

A. Is referred to as stripe of mirrors, i.e., a combination of RAID 1 (disk striping) and RAID 0 (disk mirroring)

B. Is referred to as stripe of mirrors, i.e., a combination of RAID 1 (disk mirroring) and RAID 0 (disk striping)

Answer 1

B. Is referred to as stripe of mirrors, i.e., a combination of RAID 1 (disk mirroring) and RAID 0 (disk striping)

Question 2

COOP

Answer 2

COOP (Code-Oriented Programming)

A advanced exploitation technique that hijacks a program’s execution flow by reusing existing code fragments (“gadgets”) in unintended sequences. Unlike ROP (Return-Oriented Programming), COOP targets virtual function calls or indirect branches, making it stealthier against traditional memory protections. Mitigations include CFI, shadow stacks, and runtime monitoring.

Question 3

Which of the solutions listed below provides redundancy and fault tolerance by dividing tasks into smaller subtasks and distributing them across multiple systems to be executed simultaneously?

A. Load balancing
B. Multitasking
C. Clustering
D. Parallel processing

Answer 3

Parallel processing is a computing method where multiple processors execute tasks simultaneously to improve performance. It includes:

SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing): Multiple CPUs sharing memory.

SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data): One command affects many data points (used in GPUs).

MapReduce: Splits data across clusters (e.g., Hadoop).

Question 4

Which of the following terms refers to a backup strategy that relies on creating and maintaining copies of data in real-time or near real-time on a separate system?

A. Mirroring
B. Virtualisation
C. Journaling
D. Replication

Answer 4

Replication

The process of creating and maintaining redundant copies of data, systems, or resources to ensure availability, fault tolerance, and performance. Common in databases (MySQL replica sets), distributed systems (CDNs), and malware propagation. Strategies include:

Synchronous: All copies update instantly (strong consistency).

Asynchronous: Copies update later (faster but risk stale data).