Security Principles Flashcards
Cybersecurity
The practice of protecting information-related assets against whatever threatens them.
Malware
A malicious or unwanted software designed to steal data or impair your computer’s performance.
Spam
The unsolicited emails or other electronic messages, with undesired or malicious content.
Phishing
The use of fake but official-looking messages to trick users into performing dangerous actions.
Spear phishing
A variant of phishing that targets specific people, such as members of an organization or even individual users.
Trojan horse
A type of malware that appears to be a harmless or useful program, like a game or even an anti-virus application.
PCI DSS
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a set of shared rules developed by the world’s major credit card companies and administered by the PCI Council.
Digital certificate
A file created and signed using special cryptographic algorithms.
What malware spreads without any human interaction?
Worm
What provides information regarding payment cards issued by major credit card vendors, and the customers that pay using those cards?
PCI
Name the European Union regulation which protects the privacy of individual data related to EU residents?
GDPR
In which type of attack does an attacker look for the discarded documents and other media in a target’s trash?
Dumpster diving
What defines a phishing attack?
Using fake but official-looking messages to trick users into performing dangerous actions
Sending unsolicited emails or other electronic messages, with undesired or malicious content is defined as ________ .
spam
What component ensures that information remains accurate and complete over its entire lifetime?
Integrity
What component of CIA triad ensures that the connectivity and performance are maintained at the highest possible level?
Availability
What type of encryption that uses the same key for both encryption and decryption?
Symmetric
The practice of defending computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks is known as _________.
cybersecurity
What is the CIA Triad?
The core of information security
CIA Triad: Confidentiality
Ensuring that information is viewable only by authorized users or systems, and is either inaccessible or unreadable to unauthorized users.
CIA Triad: Integrity
Ensuring that information remains accurate and complete over its entire lifetime. In particular, this means making sure that data in storage or transit can’t be modified in an undetected manner.
CIA Triad: Availability
Ensuring that information is always easily accessible to authorized users. This means making sure that connectivity and performance are maintained at the highest possible level.
What is Risk
The chance of harm coming to an asset. Risk measurements can incorporate any combination of the likelihood of harm, the impact it will have on the organization, and the cost of repairing the damage.
What is Threat
Anything that can cause harm to an asset. Threats can include attacks caused by malicious actors, but also human error, equipment malfunction, or natural disaster.
What is Vulnerability
Any weakness the asset has against potential threats. Vulnerabilities can be hardware, software, or human/organizational; likewise, they can represent errors or shortcomings in system design, or known trade-offs for desired features.
Threat: Malware
Malicious or unwanted software designed to steal data or impair your computer’s performance. Malware is especially dangerous on Windows PCs and other computers that can run arbitrary software, but can be found on other systems as well.
Threat: Network attacks
Hackers, malicious software, and other automated attacks can try to access your computer over the network to steal data, or implant malware. When your data is passing over the network, attackers can also try to intercept it, modify it, or even impersonate someone else on the other end of a connection.
Threat: Unauthorized users
A malicious or even negligent user getting access to your account can do damage directly, or just weaken other security measures to make your data more vulnerable. Unauthorized users might physically log into your computer, or remotely gain access to either it or your online accounts. Intruders often rely on social engineering, con artist techniques used to trick legitimate users into trusting them and giving up access. Malicious employees within the organization are especially dangerous, since they already have some access.
Vulnerability: Insecure technologies
Older hardware, software, and network protocols commonly have outdated security features or known vulnerabilities that make them unsafe against modern threats. Even newer technologies may simply not be designed for the security standards you need. If you must use these technologies, you should use extra controls to reduce risk.
Vulnerability: Weak configurations
Systems and software must be securely configured in order to minimize risk; many products with ample security features don’t have them all enabled by default, and even secure settings might be changed during maintenance or user activity. Additionally, operating systems and other critical software must receive regular security updates to patch newly discovered vulnerabilities. Out of compliance systems are a major source of vulnerability.
Vulnerability: Physical environment
Physical access to a computer, network, or storage device is a literal foot in the door to an intruder. Insecure physical environments let attackers bypass network-based access controls, implant malware directly, or simply make off with valuable equipment or data.
Vulnerability: User behaviour
Humans are one of the big weak links in any security system. Insufficient training can lead users to take actions that harm assets directly or just create security vulnerabilities; even experienced users can get sloppy or just make mistakes. Malicious insiders are a big risk, but so are social engineers who trick well-meaning users into risky behavior.
Vulnerability: Weak documentation
Every aspect of cybersecurity relies on having security-related information at the ready, and without it you may never know you’ve got a security problem until it’s too late. This includes training materials, configuration data, policies and procedures, and logs of user access and system activities. Security documentation must itself be secured, so it doesn’t become a roadmap for an attacker.
Social engineering attacks: Shoulder surfing
Watching someone who is viewing or entering sensitive information, or eavesdropping on confidential conversations. It’s easy to think of this as being literally over the shoulder, but people have been caught using binoculars or hidden cameras to steal passwords or ATM PINs. Shoulder surfing is especially a danger for employees doing work-related communications on mobile devices in public places.
Social engineering attacks: Dumpster diving
Hunting for discarded documents and other media in a target’s trash, looking for information. The most obvious target is confidential information that’s valuable in itself, or security-related information that can be used to compromise the system, but it’s not all that’s valuable. Schedules, policy manuals, and personal information can also be used to launch further social engineering attacks.
Social engineering attacks: Piggybacking / Tailgating
Getting into a secure area by tagging along right behind someone who has legitimate access, with or without their knowledge. A tailgater might join a crowd of authorized people that aren’t individually checked, or even get a careless but polite person to hold a locked door open after entering.
Social engineering attacks: Phone impersonation
Impersonating an authority figure or another relevant person over the phone and requesting sensitive information. This can be done in person, but the phone makes it harder to verify identity or spot suspicious elements. Help desk workers and other customer-facing employees are especially vulnerable to this, since they’re trained to be friendly and helpful but might not be trained about what not to reveal.
Social engineering attacks: Spam
Sending unsolicited emails or other electronic messages, with undesired or malicious content. Spam can be harmless noise, commercial advertisement, fraud attempts, or a way of delivering malware. Malicious spam uses social engineering to get users to read and act on it, and even the least harmful varieties generate network traffic and distract users.
Social engineering attacks: Phishing
Using fake but official-looking messages to trick users into performing dangerous actions. Often phishing attacks are distributed via spam email: a common method is to claim to be a bank or legitimate online service, with a link to log into their website. The link actually leads to a fake page maintained by the attacker, even if it looks genuine at first glance. In truth, it either contains malware, or tricks users into entering their credentials or some other personal information.
Social engineering attacks: Spear phishing
A variant of phishing that targets specific people, such as members of an organization or even individual users. Compared to a generic phishing message that could target almost anyone, a spear phishing attempt has personal or at least organizational information the attacker was able to gain beforehand and incorporate into the message. Spear phishing is an especially dangerous technique because those personal details can make even experienced users let their guard down and assume the attacker is a legitimate entity they should respond to.
Malware: Virus
Malware attached to an infected file, usually an executable program but possibly as a script inside a data file like an office document. The virus is harmless just sitting there on the drive, but when a user runs the program it becomes active. Then it can perform attacks, which very commonly include infecting other programs, corrupting data, or emailing itself to other users. Viruses were the first common malware, so sometimes “virus” gets used as a catch-all term.
Malware: Worm
Malware that spreads without any human interaction. By using system vulnerabilities it can replicate itself, spread to other systems, and run itself there. This makes worms capable of rapidly spreading through a network unassisted. Rapidly spreading worms can do damage just by the system resources they consume, but the most serious have malicious functions as well.
Malware: Trojan horse
Malware that appears to be a harmless or useful program, like a game or even an anti-virus application. It doesn’t reproduce, outside of just tricking unwary users into installing it normally. Once it’s running, its malicious functions take over. It might still be invisible to the end user, causing nothing more than system slowdowns or hidden vulnerabilities. Frequently a trojan will be attached to an email, masquerading as a useful file, funny video, or some other harmless program.