Q521. Joe, a security analyst, asks each employee of an organization to sign a statement saying that they understand how their activities may be monitored. Which of the following BEST describes this statement? (Select TWO).
A. Acceptable use policy
B. Risk acceptance policy
C. Privacy policy
D. Email policy
E. Security policy
Answer: A,C
Explanation:
Privacy policies define what controls are required to implement and maintain the sanctity of data privacy in the work environment. Privacy policy is a legal document that outlines how data collected is secured. It should encompass information regarding the information the company collects, privacy choices you have based on your account, potential information sharing of your data with other parties, security measures in place, and enforcement. Acceptable use policies (AUPs) describe how the employees in an organization can use company systems and resources, both software and hardware.
Q522. A database administrator receives a call on an outside telephone line from a person who states that they work for a well-known database vendor. The caller states there have been problems applying the newly released vulnerability patch for their database system, and asks what version is being used so that they can assist. Which of the following is the BEST action for the administrator to take?
A. Thank the caller, report the contact to the manager, and contact the vendor support line to verify any reported patch issues.
B. Obtain the vendor’s email and phone number and call them back after identifying the number of systems affected by the patch.
C. Give the caller the database version and patch level so that they can receive help applying the patch.
D. Call the police to report the contact about the database systems, and then check system logs for attack attempts.
Answer: A
Explanation:
Impersonation is where a person, computer, software application or service pretends to be someone or something it’s not. Impersonation is commonly non-maliciously used in client/server applications. However, it can also be used as a security threat.
In this question, the person making the call may be impersonating someone who works for a well-known database vendor. The actions described in this answer would mitigate the risk. By not divulging information about your database system and contacting the vendor directly, you can be sure that you are talking to the right people.
Q523. In order to maintain oversight of a third party service provider, the company is going to implement a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) system. This system is promising to provide overall security posture coverage. Which of the following is the MOST important activity that should be considered?
A. Continuous security monitoring
B. Baseline configuration and host hardening
C. Service Level Agreement (SLA) monitoring
D. Security alerting and trending
Answer: A
Explanation:
The company is investing in a Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) system to provide overall security posture coverage. This is great for testing the security posture. However, to be effective and ensure the company always has a good security posture, you need to monitor the security continuously.
Once a baseline security configuration is documented, it is critical to monitor it to see that this baseline is maintained or exceeded. A popular phrase among personal trainers is “that which gets measured gets improved.” Well, in network security, “that which gets monitored gets secure.” Continuous monitoring means exactly that: ongoing monitoring. This may involve regular measurements of network traffic levels, routine evaluations for regulatory compliance, and checks of network security device configurations.
Q524. During a server audit, a security administrator does not notice abnormal activity. However, a network security analyst notices connections to unauthorized ports from outside the corporate network. Using specialized tools, the network security analyst also notices hidden processes running. Which of the following has MOST likely been installed on the server?
A. SPIM
B. Backdoor
C. Logic bomb
D. Rootkit
Answer: D
Explanation:
A rootkit is a collection of tools (programs) that enable administrator-level access to a computer or computer network. Typically, a cracker installs a rootkit on a computer after first obtaining user-level access, either by exploiting a known vulnerability or cracking a password. Once the rootkit is installed, it allows the attacker to mask intrusion and gain root or privileged access to the computer and, possibly, other machines on the network. A rootkit may consist of spyware and other programs that: monitor traffic and keystrokes; create a "backdoor" into the system for the hacker's use; alter log files; attack other machines on the network; and alter existing system tools to escape detection. The presence of a rootkit on a network was first documented in the early 1990s. At that time, Sun and Linux operating systems were the primary targets for a hacker looking to install a rootkit. Today, rootkits are available for a number of operating systems, including Windows, and are increasingly difficult to detect on any network.
Q525. A security administrator discovers an image file that has several plain text documents hidden in the file. Which of the following security goals is met by camouflaging data inside of other files?
A. Integrity
B. Confidentiality
C. Steganography
D. Availability
Answer: C
Explanation:
Steganography is the process of concealing a file, message, image, or video within another file, message, image, or video. Note: The advantage of steganography over cryptography alone is that the intended secret message does not attract attention to itself as an object of scrutiny. Plainly visible encrypted messages, no matter how unbreakable will arouse interest, and may in themselves be incriminating in countries where encryption is illegal. Thus, whereas cryptography is the practice of protecting the contents of a message alone, steganography is concerned with concealing the fact that a secret message is being sent, as well as concealing the contents of the message.
Q526. Which of the following software allows a network administrator to inspect the protocol header in order to troubleshoot network issues?
A. URL filter
B. Spam filter
C. Packet sniffer
D. Switch
Answer: C
Explanation:
Every data packet transmitted across a network has a protocol header. To view a protocol header, you need to capture and view the contents of the packet with a packet sniffer.
A sniffer (packet sniffer) is a tool that intercepts data flowing in a network. If computers are connected to a local area network that is not filtered or switched, the traffic can be broadcast to all computers contained in the same segment. This doesn’t generally occur, since computers are generally told to ignore all the comings and goings of traffic from other computers. However, in the case of a sniffer, all traffic is shared when the sniffer software commands the Network Interface Card (NIC) to stop ignoring the traffic. The NIC is put into promiscuous mode, and it reads communications between computers within a particular segment. This allows the sniffer to seize everything that is flowing in the network, which can lead to the unauthorized access of sensitive data. A packet sniffer can take the form of either a hardware or software solution. A sniffer is also known as a packet analyzer.
Q527. Which of the following describes purposefully injecting extra input during testing, possibly causing an application to crash?
A. Input validation
B. Exception handling
C. Application hardening
D. Fuzzing
Answer: D
Explanation:
Fuzzing is a software testing technique that involves providing invalid, unexpected, or random data to as inputs to a computer program. The program is then monitored for exceptions such as crashes, or failed validation, or memory leaks.
Q528. A software company has completed a security assessment. The assessment states that the company should implement fencing and lighting around the property. Additionally, the assessment states that production releases of their software should be digitally signed. Given the recommendations, the company was deficient in which of the following core security areas? (Select TWO).
A. Fault tolerance
B. Encryption
C. Availability
D. Integrity
E. Safety
F. Confidentiality
Answer: D,E
Explanation:
Aspects such as fencing, proper lighting, locks, CCTV, Escape plans Drills, escape routes and
testing controls form part of safety controls.
Integrity refers to aspects such as hashing, digital signatures, certificates and non-repudiation – all
of which has to do with data integrity.
Q529. A network analyst received a number of reports that impersonation was taking place on the network. Session tokens were deployed to mitigate this issue and defend against which of the following attacks?
A. Replay
B. DDoS
C. Smurf
D. Ping of Death
Answer: A
Explanation:
A replay attack (also known as playback attack) is a form of network attack in which a valid data transmission is maliciously or fraudulently repeated or delayed. This is carried out either by the originator or by an adversary who intercepts the data and retransmits it, possibly as part of a masquerade attack by IP packet substitution (such as stream cipher attack).
For example: Suppose Alice wants to prove her identity to Bob. Bob requests her password as proof of identity, which Alice dutifully provides (possibly after some transformation like a hash function); meanwhile, Eve is eavesdropping on the conversation and keeps the password (or the hash). After the interchange is over, Eve (posing as Alice) connects to Bob; when asked for a proof of identity, Eve sends Alice's password (or hash) read from the last session, which Bob accepts thus granting access to Eve.
Countermeasures: A way to avoid replay attacks is by using session tokens: Bob sends a one-time token to Alice, which Alice uses to transform the password and send the result to Bob (e.g. computing a hash function of the session token appended to the password). On his side Bob performs the same computation; if and only if both values match, the login is successful. Now suppose Eve has captured this value and tries to use it on another session; Bob sends a different session token, and when Eve replies with the captured value it will be different from Bob's computation. Session tokens should be chosen by a (pseudo-) random process. Otherwise Eve may be able to pose as Bob, presenting some predicted future token, and convince Alice to use that token in her transformation. Eve can then replay her reply at a later time (when the previously predicted token is actually presented by Bob), and Bob will accept the authentication. One-time passwords are similar to session tokens in that the password expires after it has been used or after a very short amount of time. They can be used to authenticate individual transactions in addition to sessions. The technique has been widely implemented in personal online banking systems. Bob can also send nonces but should then include a message authentication code (MAC), which Alice should check. Timestamping is another way of preventing a replay attack. Synchronization should be achieved using a secure protocol. For example Bob periodically broadcasts the time on his clock together with a MAC. When Alice wants to send Bob a message, she includes her best estimate of the time on his clock in her message, which is also authenticated. Bob only accepts messages for which the timestamp is within a reasonable tolerance. The advantage of this scheme is that Bob does not need to generate (pseudo-) random numbers, with the trade-off being that replay attacks, if they are performed quickly enough i.e. within that 'reasonable' limit, could succeed.
Q530. An online store wants to protect user credentials and credit card information so that customers can store their credit card information and use their card for multiple separate transactions.
Which of the following database designs provides the BEST security for the online store?
A. Use encryption for the credential fields and hash the credit card field
B. Encrypt the username and hash the password
C. Hash the credential fields and use encryption for the credit card field
D. Hash both the credential fields and the credit card field
Answer: C
Explanation:
Hashing refers to the hash algorithms used in cryptography. It is used to store data, such as hash tables. One main characteristic of hashing is that the algorithm must have few or no collisions – in hashing two different inputs does not give the same output. Thus the credential fields should be hashed because anyone customer will have a unique credit card number/identity and since they will use their credit cards for many different transactions, the credit card field should be encrypted only, not hashed.