701 Q&A Flashcards
(248 cards)
1
Q
NO.1 After performing an assessment, an analyst wants to provide a risk rating for the findings. Which of the following concepts should most likely be considered when calculating the ratings?
A
Impact and likelihood
2
Q
NO.2 A certificate vendor notified a company that recently invalidated certificates may need to be updated. Which of the following mechanisms should a security administrator use to determine whether the certificates installed on the company’s machines need to be updated?
A
CRL
3
Q
NO.3 The CIRT is reviewing an incident that involved a human resources recruiter exfiltrating sensitive company data. The CIRT found that the recruiter was able to use HTTP over port 53 to upload documents to a web server.
Which of the following security infrastructure devices could have identified and blocked this activity?
A
NGFW utilizing application inspection
4
Q
NO.4 A recent malware outbreak across a subnet included successful rootkit installations on many PCs, ensuring persistence by rendering remediation efforts ineffective. Which of the following would best detect the presence of a rootkit in the future?
A
EDR
5
Q
NO.5 Malware spread across a company’s network after an employee visited a compromised industry blog. Which of the following best describes this type of attack?
A
Watering-hole
6
Q
NO.6 A company hired a consultant to perform an offensive security assessment covering penetration testing and social engineering.
Which of the following teams will conduct this assessment activity?
A
Red
7
Q
NO.7 A software development manager wants to ensure the authenticity of the code created by the company. Which of the following options is the most appropriate?
A
Performing code signing on company-developed software
8
Q
NO.8 Which of the following would be used to detect an employee who is emailing a customer list to a personal account before leaving the company?
A
DLP (Data Loss Prevention)
9
Q
NO.9 An organization’s internet-facing website was compromised when an attacker exploited a buffer overflow. Which of the following should the organization deploy to best protect against similar attacks in the future?
A
WAF (Web Application Firewall)
10
Q
NO.10 Which of the following best practices gives administrators a set period to perform changes to an operational system to ensure availability and minimize business impacts?
A
Scheduled downtime
11
Q
NO.11 Which of the following security concepts is being followed when implementing a product that offers protection against DDoS attacks?
A
Availability
12
Q
NO.12 An organization experiences a cybersecurity incident involving a command-and-control server. Which of the following logs should be analyzed to identify the impacted host? (Choose two.)
A
Network
Firewall
13
Q
NO.13 Which of the following is used to quantitatively measure the criticality of a vulnerability?
A
CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System)
14
Q
NO.14 A security engineer needs to configure an NGFW to minimize the impact of the increasing number of various traffic types during attacks. Which of the following types of rules is the engineer the most likely to configure?
A
Behavioral-based
15
Q
NO.15 A company is discarding a classified storage array and hires an outside vendor to complete the disposal. Which of the following should the company request from the vendor?
A
Certification
16
Q
NO.16 An organization recently updated its security policy to include the following statement: Regular expressions are included in source code to remove special characters such as $, |, ;. &,`, and ? from variables set by forms in a web application. Which of the following best explains the security technique the organization adopted by making this addition to the policy?
A
Input validation
17
Q
NO.17 Which of the following vulnerabilities is associated with installing software outside of a manufacturer’s approved software repository?
A
Side loading
18
Q
NO.18 A systems administrator is changing the password policy within an enterprise environment and wants this update implemented on all systems as quickly as possible. Which of the following operating system security measures will the administrator most likely use?
A
Pushing GPO update
19
Q
NO.19 Which of the following is the most likely outcome if a large bank fails an internal PCI DSS compliance assessment?
A
Fines
20
Q
NO. 20 Which of the following would be the best way to block unknown programs from executing ?
A
Application allow list
21
Q
NO.21 A security analyst is reviewing alerts in the SIEM related to potential malicious network traffic coming from an employee’s corporate laptop. The security analyst has determined that additional data about the executable running on the machine is necessary to continue the investigation. Which of the following logs should the analyst use as a data source?
A
Endpoint
22
Q
NO.22 An administrator was notified that a user logged in remotely after hours and copied large amounts of data to a personal device.
Which of the following best describes the user’s activity?
A
Insider threat
23
Q
NO.23 A company tested and validated the effectiveness of network security appliances within the corporate network. The IDS detected a high rate of SQL injection attacks against the company’s servers, and the company’s perimeter firewall is at capacity. Which of the following would be the best action to maintain security and reduce the traffic to the perimeter firewall?
A
Set the appliance to IPS mode and place it in front of the company firewall.
24
Q
NO.25 Which of the following penetration testing teams is focused only on trying to compromise an organization using an attacker’s tactics?
A
Red
25
NO. 24 (PBQ) Hotspot Question: You are a security administrator investigating a potential infection on a network.
TOP ROW
PC#1 - Origin & Infected
PC#2 - Clean
PC#3 - Infected
BOTTOM ROW:
PC#1 Clean
PC#2 Infected
26
NO.26 Which of the following is the best way to **secure an on-site data center** against intrusion from an insider?
Access badge
27
NO.27 A security consultant needs secure, remote access to a client environment. Which of the following should the security consultant most likely use to gain access?
IPSec
28
NO.28 A security architect at a large, multinational organization is concerned about the complexities and overhead of **managing multiple encryption keys securely in a multicloud provider environment**. The security architect is looking for a solution with reduced latency to allow the incorporation of the organization's existing keys and to maintain consistent, **centralized control and management regardless of the data location**. Which of the following would best meet the architect's objectives?
HSMaaS
HSM as a Service (HSMaaS), Hardware security modules (HSMs) are fortified, tamper-resistant hardware components that produce, safeguard, and manage keys for encrypting and decrypting data and establishing digital signatures and certificates.
29
NO.29 Which of the following practices would be best to prevent an insider from introducing malicious code into a **company's development process**?
Peer review and approval
30
NO.30 Which of the following **describes the reason root cause analysis** should be conducted as part of incident response?
To prevent future incidents of the same nature
31
NO.31 A security analyst scans a company's public network and **discovers a host is running a remote desktop** that can be used to access the production network. Which of the following **changes should the security analyst recommend**?
Setting up a VPN and placing the jump server inside the firewall
32
NO.32 A technician is opening ports on a firewall for a new system being deployed and **supported by a SaaS provider**. Which of the following is a risk in the new system?
Supply chain vendor
33
NO.33 A network manager wants to protect the company's VPN by implementing **multifactor authentication** that uses:
- Something you know
- Something you have
- Something you are
Password, authentication token, thumbprint
34
NO.34 An IT manager informs the entire help desk staff that only the IT manager and the help desk lead will have access to the administrator console of the help desk software. Which of the following security techniques is the IT manager setting up?
Least privilege
35
NO.35 Which of the following can be used to identify potential attacker **activities without affecting production servers**?
Honey pot
36
NO.36 An enterprise is trying to limit outbound DNS traffic originating from its internal network. Outbound DNS requests will only be allowed from one device with the IP address 10.50.10.25. Which of the following firewall ACLs will accomplish this goal?
Access list outbound permit 10.50.10.25 32 0.0.0.0/0 port 53
Access list outbound deny 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0/0 port 53
37
NO.37 A company's public-facing website, https://www.organization.com, has an IP address of 166.18.75.6. However, over the past hour the SOC has received reports of the site's homepage displaying incorrect information. A quick nslookup search shows https://www.organization.com is pointing to 151.191.122.115. Which of the following is occurring?
DNS spoofing
38
NO.38 A systems administrator uses a **key to encrypt** a message being sent to a peer in a different branch office. The peer then uses the same key to decrypt the message. Which of the following describes this example?
Symmetric
39
NO.39 Which of the following must be considered when designing a high-availability network? (Choose two).
Ease of recovery
Attack surface
40
NO.40 Which of the following would be most useful in determining whether the **long-term cost** to transfer a risk is less than the impact of the risk?
ALE (Annual Loss Expectancy)
41
NO.41An organization wants to limit potential impact to its log-in database in the event of a breach. Which of the following options is the security team most likely to recommend?
Hashing
42
NO.42 A network administrator is working on a project to deploy a load balancer in the company's cloud environment. Which of the following fundamental security requirements does this project fulfill?
Availability
43
NO.43 An organization wants to **ensure the integrity** of compiled binaries in the production environment. Which of the following security measures would best support this objective?
Code signing
44
NO.44 An attacker posing as the Chief Executive Officer **calls an employee and instructs** the employee to buy gift cards. Which of the following techniques is the attacker using?
Impersonating
45
NO.45 Which of the following can best protect against an employee inadvertently installing malware on a company system?
Application allow list
46
NO.46 A company **purchased cyber insurance** to address items listed on the risk register. Which of the following strategies does this represent?
Transfer
47
NO.48 Which of the following is the phase in the incident response process when a security analyst **reviews roles and responsibilities**?
Preparation
Preparation is the phase in the incident response process when a security analyst reviews roles and responsibilities, as well as the policies and procedures for handling incidents.
48
NO.47 A company must ensure sensitive **data at rest is rendered unreadable**. Which of the following will the company most likely use?
Encryption
49
NO.49 An organization disabled unneeded services and placed a *firewall in front of a business- critical legacy system*. Which of the following best describes the actions taken by the organization?
Compensating controls
50
NO.50 Which of the following is a primary security concern for a company **setting up a BYOD program**?
Jailbreaking
51
NO.51 An administrator assists the legal and compliance team with ensuring information about customer **transactions is archived for the proper time period**. Which of the following data policies is the administrator carrying out?
Retention
52
NO.52 An employee receives a **text message from an unknown** number claiming to be the company's Chief Executive Officer and asking the employee to purchase several gift cards. Which of the following types of attacks does this describe?
Smishing
53
NO.53 The local administrator account for a company's VPN appliance was unexpectedly used to log in to the remote management interface. Which of the following would have most likely prevented this from happening?
Changing the default password
54
NO.54 A company is redesigning its infrastructure and wants to **reduce the number of physical servers** in use. Which of the following architectures is best suited for this goal?
Virtualization
55
NO.55 A company is planning a disaster recovery site and needs to **ensure that a single natural disaster would not result in the complete loss of regulated backup data**. Which of the following should the company consider?
Geographic dispersion
Geographic dispersion is the practice of having backup data stored in different locations that are far enough apart to minimize the risk of a single natural disaster affecting both sites.
56
NO.57 Security controls in a data center are being reviewed to ensure data is properly protected and that human life considerations are included. Which of the following best describes how the controls should be set up?
Safety controls should fail open.
57
NO.56 A systems administrator is looking for **a low-cost application-hosting solution that is cloud- based**. Which of the following meets these requirements?
Serverless framework
58
NO.58 A security administrator identifies an application that is storing data using MD5. Which of the following best identifies the vulnerability likely present in the application?
Cryptographic
59
NO.59 A systems administrator receives the following alert from a file integrity monitoring tool: **The hash of the cmd.exe file has changed**.
The systems administrator checks the OS logs and notices that no patches were applied in the last two months. Which of the following most likely occurred?
A rootkit was deployed.
A rootkit is a type of malware that modifies or replaces system files or processes to hide its presence and activity.
60
NO.60 A company is decommissioning its physical servers and replacing them with an architecture that will reduce the number of individual operating systems. Which of the following strategies should the company use to achieve this security requirement?
Containerization
Containerization allows multiple applications to run in isolated environments on a single operating system, significantly reducing the overhead compared to running multiple virtual machines, each with its own OS.
61
NO.61 Which of the following most impacts an administrator's ability to address CVEs discovered on a server?
Patch availability
62
NO.62 A U.S.-based cloud-hosting provider wants to expand its data centers to new international locations. Which of the following should the hosting provider consider first?
Local data protection regulations
Local data protection regulations are the first thing that a cloud-hosting provider should consider before expanding its data centers to new international locations.
63
NO.63 Which of the following threat actors is the most likely to use large financial resources to attack critical systems located in other countries?
Nation-state
64
NO.64 An employee receives a text message that appears to have been sent by the payroll department and is asking for credential verification. Which of the following social engineering techniques are being attempted? (Choose two.)
Impersonation
Smishing
65
NO.65 Which of the following is the most common data loss path for an air-gapped network?
Removable devices
66
NO.66 To improve the security at a data center, a security administrator implements a CCTV system and posts several signs about the possibility of being filmed. Which of the following best describe these types of controls? (Select two).
Deterrent
Detective
67
NO.68 Which of the following best describes configuring devices to **log to an off-site location** for possible future reference?
Log aggregation
Archiving
Answer: A or C
68
NO.67 Which of the following is required for an organization to properly manage its restore process **in the event of system failure**?
DRP
A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a set of policies and procedures that aim to restore the normal operations of an organization in the event of a system failure, natural disaster, or other emergency.
69
NO.69 Which of the following would be best suited for **constantly changing environments**?
Containers
70
NO.70 An administrator discovers that some files on a database server were recently encrypted. The administrator sees from the security logs that the data was **last accessed by a domain user**. Which of the following best describes the type of attack that occurred?
Insider threat
71
NO.71 A company's legal department drafted sensitive documents in a SaaS application and wants to ensure the documents cannot be accessed by individuals in high-risk countries. Which of the following is the most effective way to limit this access?
Geolocation policy
A geolocation policy is a policy that restricts or allows access to data or resources based on the geographic location of the user or device.
72
NO.72 A penetration tester begins an engagement by performing port and service scans against the client environment according to the **rules of engagement**. Which of the following reconnaissance types is the tester performing?
Active
73
NO.73 Which of the following is a common source of **unintentional corporate credential leakage** in cloud environments?
Code repositories
Code repositories: Developers sometimes inadvertently include sensitive information, such as API keys, passwords, and other credentials, in their code.
74
NO.74 After a company was compromised, customers initiated a lawsuit. The company's attorneys have requested that the security team initiate a legal hold in response to the lawsuit. Which of the following describes the action the security team will most likely be required to take?
Retain any communications related to the security breach until further notice.
75
NO.75 Which of the following should a security administrator adhere to when setting up a new set of firewall rules?
Change management procedure
76
NO.76 During a penetration test, a vendor attempts to enter an unauthorized area using an access badge. Which of the following types of tests does this represent?
Physical
77
NO.77 A newly appointed board member with cybersecurity knowledge wants the **board of directors to receive a quarterly report** detailing the number of incidents that impacted the organization. The systems administrator is creating a way to present the data to the board of directors. Which of the following should the systems administrator use?
Dashboard
78
NO.78 Which of the following allows for the **attribution of messages** to individuals?
Non-repudiation
79
NO.79 Local guidelines require that all information systems **meet a minimum security baseline to be compliant**. Which of the following can security administrators use to assess their system configurations against the baseline?
Benchmarks
80
NO.80 Which of the following scenarios describes a possible **business email compromise attack**?
A service desk employee receives an email from the HR director asking for log-in credentials to a cloud administrator account.
81
NO.81 Which of the following is the most likely to be included as an element of communication in a security awareness program?
Reporting phishing attempts or other suspicious activities
82
NO.82 A company is developing a critical system for the government and **storing project information on a fileshare**. Which of the following describes how this data will most likely be **classified**? (Select two).
Confidential
Restricted
83
NO.83 Which of the following has been implemented when **a host-based firewall on a legacy Linux system** allows connections from only specific internal IP addresses?
Compensating control
84
NO.84 A company's marketing department collects, modifies, and stores sensitive customer data. The infrastructure team is responsible for securing the data while in transit and at rest. Which of the following **data roles describes the customer**?
Subject
85
NO.85 Which of the following should a systems administrator set up to increase the resilience of an application by **splitting the traffic** between two identical sites?
Load balancing
86
NO.86 A company is adding a clause to its AUP that states employees are not allowed to modify the operating system on mobile devices. Which of the following vulnerabilities is the organization addressing?
Jailbreaking
87
NO.87 After reviewing the following vulnerability scanning report:
Compensating controls exist.
88
NO.88 A security operations center determines that the malicious activity detected on a server is normal. Which of the following activities describes the act of ignoring detected activity in the future?
Tuning
89
NO.89 A data administrator is configuring authentication for a SaaS application and would like to **reduce the number of credentials employees need to maintain**. The company prefers to use domain credentials to access new SaaS applications. Which of the following methods would allow this functionality?
SSO
SSO stands for single sign-on, which is a method of authentication that allows users to access multiple applications or services with one set of credentials.
90
NO.90 A company is expanding its threat surface program and **allowing individuals to security test the company's internet-facing application**. The company will compensate researchers based on the vulnerabilities discovered. Which of the following best describes the program the company is setting up?
Bug bounty
91
NO.91 Which of the following is the most likely to be used to document risks, responsible parties, and thresholds?
Risk register
92
NO.92 A security administrator needs a method to secure data in an environment that includes some form of checks so that the administrator **can track any changes**. Which of the following should the administrator set up to achieve this goal?
FIM
FIM stands for File Integrity Monitoring, which is a method to secure data by detecting any changes or modifications to files, directories, or registry keys.
93
NO.93 Which of the following threat actors is the most likely to be hired by a foreign government to attack critical systems located in other countries?
Organized crime
94
NO.94 Which of the following factors are the most important to address when formulating a training curriculum plan for a **security awareness program**? (Select two).
Threat vectors based on the industry in which the organization operates
Cadence and duration of training events
95
NO.95 During an investigation, an incident response team attempts to understand the source of an incident. Which of the following incident response activities describes this process?
Analysis
96
NO.96 A company requires hard drives to be **securely wiped** before sending decommissioned systems to recycling. Which of the following best describes this policy?
Sanitization
97
NO.97 Which of the following are cases in which an engineer should recommend the decommissioning of a network device? (Select two).
E. The device's encryption level cannot meet organizational standards.
F. The device is unable to receive authorized updates.
98
NO.98 department is **not using the company VPN** when accessing various company-related services and systems. Which of the following scenarios describes this activity?
Shadow IT
99
NO.99 A Chief Information Security Officer wants to monitor the company's servers for SQLi attacks and allow for comprehensive investigations if an attack occurs. The company uses SSL decryption to allow traffic monitoring. Which of the following strategies would best accomplish this goal?
Enabling full packet capture for traffic entering and exiting the servers
100
NO.100 Which of the following is used to **validate a certificate** when it is presented to a user?
OCSP (Online Certificate Status Protocol)
101
NO.101 A systems administrator works for a local hospital and needs to ensure **patient data** is protected and secure. Which of the following data classifications should be used to secure patient data?
Sensitive
102
NO.102 A security manager created new documentation to use in response to various types of security incidents. Which of the following is the next step the manager should take?
Conduct a tabletop exercise with the team.
103
NO.103 Which of the following describes the maximum allowance of accepted risk?
Risk threshold
104
NO.104 Which of the following exercises should an organization use to improve its incident response process?
Tabletop
105
NO.105 Which of the following describes a security alerting and monitoring tool that collects system, application, and network logs from multiple sources in a centralized system?
SIEM
106
NO.106 A company that is located in an area prone to hurricanes is developing a disaster recovery plan and looking at site considerations that allow the company to immediately continue operations. Which of the following is the best type of site for this company?
Hot
Hot site: Fully operational and can take over business operations almost immediately after a disaster. Cold site: A basic site with infrastructure in place but without hardware or data, requiring significant time to become operational.
107
NO.107 An organization maintains intellectual property that it wants to protect. Which of the following concepts would be most beneficial to add to the company's security awareness training program?
Insider threat detection
108
NO.108 A systems administrator is working on a defense-in-depth strategy and needs to **restrict activity from employees after hours**. Which of the following should the systems administrator implement?
Time-of-day restrictions
109
NO.109 A technician is deploying a new security camera. Which of the following should the technician do?
Conduct a site survey.
110
NO.110 Which of the following is classified as **high availability** in a cloud environment?
Load balancer
111
NO.111 An organization is building a single virtual environment that will host customer applications and data that require availability at all times. The data center that is hosting the environment will provide **generator power** and ISP services. Which of the following is the best solution to support the organization's requirement?
UPS
112
NO.112 A security administrator is reissuing a former employee's laptop. Which of the following is the best combination of data handling activities for the administrator to perform? (Choose two.)
Certification
Sanitization
113
NO.113 A hacker gained access to a system via a phishing attempt that was a direct result of a user clicking a suspicious link. The link laterally deployed ransomware, which laid dormant for multiple weeks, across the network. Which of the following would have **mitigated the spread**?
IPS (Intrusion Prevention System)
114
NO.114 A systems administrator set up a perimeter firewall but continues to notice suspicious connections between internal endpoints. Which of the following should be set up in order to mitigate the threat posed by the suspicious activity?
Host-based firewall
115
NO.115 Which of the following is most likely to be deployed to obtain and analyze attacker activity and techniques?
Honeypot
116
NO.116 Employees in the **research and development business** unit receive extensive training to ensure they understand how to best protect company data. Which of the following is the type of data these employees are most likely to use in day-to-day work activities?
Intellectual property
117
NO.117 An administrator has identified and fingerprinted specific files that will generate an alert if an attempt is made to email these files outside of the organization. Which of the following best describes the tool the administrator is using?
DLP
118
NO.118 **A client demands at least 99.99% uptime** from a service provider's hosted security services. Which of the following documents includes the information the service provider should return to the client?
SLA (Service Level Aggreement)
119
NO.119 Which of the following actions could a security engineer take to ensure workstations and servers are properly monitored for unauthorized changes and software?
Install endpoint management software on all systems.
120
NO.120 An enterprise has been experiencing attacks focused on exploiting vulnerabilities in older browser versions with well-known exploits. Which of the following security solutions should be configured to best provide the ability to monitor and block these known signature-based attacks?
IPS (Instrusion Prevention System)
121
NO.121 After a security awareness training session, a user called the IT help desk and reported a suspicious call. The suspicious caller stated that the Chief Financial Officer wanted credit card information in order to close an invoice. Which of the following topics did the user recognize from the training?
Social engineering
122
NO.122 An organization is leveraging a VPN between its headquarters and a branch location. Which of the following is the VPN protecting?
Data in transit
123
NO.123 An internet company has created a new collaboration application. To expand the user base, the company wants to implement an option that allows users to log in to the application with the credentials of other popular websites. Which of the following should the company implement?
SSO
124
NO.124 Which of the following **security control types** does an acceptable use policy best represent?
Preventive
125
NO.125 A company hired a security manager from outside the organization to lead security operations. Which of the following actions should the security manager **perform first in this new role**?
Review security policies.
126
NO.126 A company decided to reduce the cost of its annual cyber insurance policy by removing the coverage for ransomware attacks. Which of the following analysis elements did the company most likely use in making this decision?
ARO (Annual Rate of Occurence)
127
NO.127 Which of the following threat actors is the most likely to be **motivated by profit**?
Organized crime
128
NO.128 A company is planning to set up a SIEM system and assign an analyst to review the logs on a weekly basis. Which of the following types of controls is the company setting up?
Detective
129
NO.129 A software developer released a new application and is distributing application files via the developer's website. Which of the following should the developer post on the website to allow users to verify the **integrity** of the downloaded files?
Hashes
130
NO.131 A company is working with a vendor to perform a penetration test. Which of the following **includes an estimate about the number of hours required to complete the engagement**?
SOW
131
NO.130 A security analyst is reviewing the source code of an application in order to identify misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. Which of the following kinds of analysis best describes this review?
Static
132
NO.132 A company would like to **provide employees with computers that do not have access to the internet in order to prevent information from being leaked to an online forum**. Which of the following would be best for the systems administrator to implement?
Air gap
133
NO.133 Which of the following most impacts an administrator's ability to address CVEs discovered on a server?
Patch availability
134
NO.134 Which of the following tasks is typically included in the BIA process?
Estimating the recovery time of systems
135
NO.135 An accounting clerk sent money to an attacker's bank account after receiving fraudulent instructions to use a new account. Which of the following would most likely prevent this activity in the future?
Updating processes for sending wire transfers
136
NO.136 The management team notices that new accounts that are set up manually do not always have correct access or permissions.
Which of the following **automation techniques** should a systems administrator use to streamline account creation?
User provisioning script
137
NO.137 Which of the following is the best reason to complete an **audit** in a banking environment?
Regulatory requirement
138
NO.138 A company prevented direct access from the database administrators' workstations to the network segment that contains database servers. Which of the following should a database administrator use to access the database servers?
Jump server
139
NO.139 A Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) wants to explicitly raise awareness about the increase of ransomware-as-a-service in a report to the management team. Which of the following best describes the threat actor in the CISO's report?
Organized crime
140
NO.140 A cyber operations team informs a security analyst about a new tactic malicious actors are using to compromise networks.
SIEM alerts have not yet been configured. Which of the following best describes what the security analyst should do to identify this behavior?
Threat hunting
141
NO.141 A business received a small grant to migrate its infrastructure to an off-premises solution. Which of the following should be considered first?
Security of architecture
142
NO.142 A company is planning to set up a SIEM system and assign an analyst to review the logs on a weekly basis Which of the following types of controls is the company setting up?
Detective
143
NO.143 A company is concerned about weather events causing damage to the server room and downtime. Which of the following should the company consider?
Geographic dispersion
144
NO.144 Which of the following provides the details about the **terms of a test** with a third-party penetration tester?
Rules of engagement
145
NO.145 A security engineer is implementing **FDE for all laptops** in an organization. Which of the following are the most important for the engineer to consider as part of the planning process? (Select two).
Key escrow
TPM presence
146
NO.146 In order to strengthen a password and prevent a hacker from cracking it, **a random string of 36 characters was added to the password**. Which of the following best describes this technique?
Salting
147
NO.147 A systems administrator is creating a script that would **save time and prevent human error** when performing account creation for a large number of end users. Which of the following would be a good use case for this task?
Orchestration
148
NO.148 Which of the following incident response activities ensures evidence is properly handled?
Chain of custody
149
NO.149 Which of the following is most likely associated with introducing vulnerabilities on a corporate network by the deployment of **unapproved software**?
Shadow IT
150
NO.150 A company is developing a business continuity strategy and needs to determine **how many staff members would be required to sustain the business in the case of a disruption**. Which of the following best describes this step?
Capacity planning
151
NO.151 Users at a company are reporting they are unable to access the URL for a new retail website because it is flagged as gambling and is being blocked. Which of the following changes would allow users to access the site?
Updating the categorization in the content filter
152
NO.152 Which of the following tools can assist with detecting an employee who has accidentally emailed a file containing a customer's PII?
DLP (Data Loss Prevention)
153
NO.153 Which of the following describes effective change management procedures?
Having a backout plan when a patch fails
154
NO.154 An employee fell for a phishing scam, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a company PC. The attacker scraped the PC's memory to find other credentials. Without cracking these credentials, **the attacker used them to move laterally through the corporate network**. Which of the following describes this type of attack?
Pass-the-hash
155
NO.155 Which of the following would help ensure a security analyst is able to **accurately measure the overall risk** to an organization when a new vulnerability is disclosed?
A full inventory of all hardware and software
156
NO.156 A technician wants to **improve the situational and environmental awareness** of existing users as they transition from remote to in-office work. Which of the following is the best option?
Modify the content of recurring training.
157
NO.157 A security administrator is deploying a DLP solution to prevent the exfiltration of **sensitive customer data**. Which of the following should the administrator do first?
Apply classifications to the data.
158
NO.158 Which of the following methods to secure credit card data is best to use when a requirement is to **see only the last four numbers** on a credit card?
Masking
159
NO.159 Which of the following vulnerabilities is exploited when an attacker **overwrites a register with a malicious address**?
Buffer overflow
160
NO.160 Which of the following is a hardware-specific vulnerability?
Firmware version
161
NO.161 Which of the following risk management strategies should an enterprise adopt first if a legacy application is critical to business operations and there are preventative controls that are not yet implemented?
Mitigate
162
NO.162 Visitors to a secured facility are required to check in with a photo ID and enter the facility through an access control vestibule Which of the following but describes this form of security control?
Physical
163
NO.163 An organization is building a new backup data center with cost-benefit as the primary requirement and RTO and RPO values **around two days**. Which of the following types of sites is the best for this scenario?
Cold
164
NO.164 A security analyst and the management team are reviewing the organizational performance of a recent phishing campaign. The user click-through rate exceeded the acceptable risk threshold, and the management team wants to reduce the **impact when a user clicks on a link** in a phishing message. Which of the following should the analyst do?
Update the EDR policies to block automatic execution of downloaded programs.
165
NO.165 A visitor plugs a laptop into a network jack in the lobby and is able to connect to the company's network. Which of the following **should be configured on the existing network infrastructure to best prevent this activity**?
Port security
166
NO.166 An organization is **required to maintain financial data records** for three years and customer data for five years. Which of the following data management policies should the organization implement?
Retention
167
NO.167 A security administrator would like to protect data on employees' laptops. Which of the following encryption techniques should the security administrator use?
Full disk
168
NO.168 An organization would like to **calculate the time needed to resolve** a hardware issue with a server.
Which of the following risk management processes describes this example?
Mean time to repair
Mean time to repair (MTTR) describes the time needed to resolve a hardware issue with a server.
169
NO.169 A company has begun labeling all laptops with asset inventory stickers and associating them with employee IDs. Which of the following security benefits do these actions provide? (Choose two.)
If a security incident occurs on the device, the correct employee can be notified.
Company data can be accounted for when the employee leaves the organization.
170
NO.170 A company's end users are reporting that they are unable to reach external websites. After reviewing the performance data for the DNS severs, the analyst discovers that the CPU, disk, and memory usage are minimal, but the **network interface is flooded with inbound traffic**. Network logs show only a small number of DNS queries sent to this server. Which of the following best describes what the security analyst is seeing?
Reflected denial of service
A reflected denial of service (RDoS) attack is a type of DDoS attack that uses spoofed source IP addresses to send requests to a third-party server, which then sends responses to the victim server.
171
NO.171 A manager receives an email that contains a link to receive a refund. After hovering over the link, the manager notices that the domain's URL points to a suspicious link. Which of the following security practices helped the manager to identify the attack?
End user training
172
NO.172 A systems administrator is advised that an external web server is not functioning property. The administrator reviews the following firewall logs containing traffic going to the web server:
Which of the following attacks is likely occurring?
DDoS
173
NO.173 One of a company's vendors sent an analyst a security bulletin that recommends a BIOS update. Which of the following vulnerability types is being addressed by the patch?
Firmware
174
NO.174 Several employees received a fraudulent text message from someone claiming to be the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The message stated:
"I'm in an airport right now with no access to email. I need you to buy gift cards for employee recognition awards. Please send the gift cards to following email address." Which of the following are the best responses to this situation? (Choose two).
Add a smishing exercise to the annual **company training**.
Issue a general **email warning** to the company.
175
NO.175 A healthcare organization wants to provide a web application that allows individuals to digitally report health emergencies. Which of the following is the most important consideration during development?
Availability
176
NO.176 Users at a company are reporting they are unable to access the URL for a new retail website because it is flagged as gambling and is being blocked. Which of the following changes would allow users to access the site?
Updating the categorization in the content filter
177
NO.178 Which of the following would be the best way to handle a critical business application that is running on a legacy server?
Segmentation
178
NO.179 A bank set up a new server that contains customers' PII. Which of the following should the bank use to make sure the **sensitive data is not modified**?
File integrity monitoring
179
NO.180 An organization is struggling with scaling issues on its VPN concentrator and internet circuit due to remote work. The organization is looking for a software solution that will allow it to reduce traffic on the VPN and internet circuit, while still providing encrypted tunnel access to the data center and monitoring of remote employee internet traffic. Which of the following will help achieve these objectives?
Deploying a SASE solution to remote employees
180
NO.181 A user is attempting to patch a critical system, **but the patch fails to transfer**. Which of the following access controls is most likely inhibiting the transfer?
Least privilege
181
NO.182 Which of the following are common VoIP-associated vulnerabilities? (Choose two).
A. SPIM
B. Vishing
182
NO.184 An administrator finds that all user workstations and servers are displaying a message that is associated with files containing an extension of .ryk. Which of the following types of infections is present on the systems?
Ransomware
183
NO.185 A company is required to use certified hardware when building networks. Which of the following best addresses the risks associated with procuring counterfeit hardware?
A thorough analysis of the supply chain
184
NO.186 Which of the following is the best way to consistently determine on a daily basis whether security settings on servers have been modified?
Automation
185
NO.187 Which of the following teams combines both offensive and defensive testing techniques to protect an organization's critical systems?
Purple
Purple is not a separate team, but rather a collaboration between the red team and the blue team.
186
NO.188 An administrator needs to perform server hardening before deployment. Which of the following steps should the administrator take? (Select two).
Disable default accounts.
Remove unnecessary services.
187
NO.189 A security analyst reviews domain activity logs and notices the following:
Which of the following is the best explanation for what the security analyst has discovered?
An attacker is attempting to brute force jsmith's account.
188
NO.190 Which of the following are the most likely vectors for the unauthorized or unintentional inclusion of vulnerable code in a software company's final software releases? (Choose two).
D. Included third-party libraries
E. Vendors/supply chain
189
NO.191 Which of the following is used to protect a computer from viruses, malware, and Trojans being installed and moving laterally across the network?
EDR
Endpoint detection and response (EDR) is a technology that monitors and analyzes the activity and behavior of endpoints, such as computers, laptops, mobile devices, and servers.
190
NO.192 An organization would like to **store customer data on a separate part of the network that is not accessible to users on the main corporate network**. Which of the following should the administrator use to accomplish this goal?
Segmentation
191
NO.193 A security practitioner completes a vulnerability assessment on a company's network and finds several vulnerabilities, which the operations team remediates. Which of the following should be done next?
Rescan the network.
192
NO.194 An enterprise is working with a third party and needs to allow access between the internal networks of both parties for a secure file migration. The solution needs to **ensure encryption is applied to all traffic** that is traversing the networks. Which of the following solutions should most likely be implemented?
IPSec
193
NO.195 After an audit, an administrator discovers all users have access to confidential data on a file server. Which of the following should the administrator use to restrict access to the data quickly?
Access control lists
194
NO.196 The marketing department **set up its own project management software without telling the appropriate departments**. Which of the following describes this scenario?
Shadow IT
195
NO.197 A systems administrator is working on a solution with the following requirements: - Provide a secure zone.
- Enforce a company-wide access control policy.
- Reduce the scope of threats.
Which of the following is the systems administrator setting up?
Zero Trust
196
NO.198 A client asked a security company to provide a document outlining the project, the cost, and the completion time frame. Which of the following documents should the company provide to the client?
SOW
197
NO.199 A security analyst is reviewing the following logs:
Which of the following attacks is most likely occurring?
Password spraying
198
NO.200 A company is experiencing a web services outage on the public network. The services are up and available but inaccessible. **The network logs show a sudden increase in network traffic that is causing the outage**. Which of the following attacks is the organization experiencing?
DDoS
199
NO.201 A company has decided to move its operations to the cloud. It wants to utilize technology that will prevent users from downloading company applications for personal use, restrict data that is uploaded, and **have visibility into which applications are being used across the company**. Which of the following solutions will best meet these requirements?
A CASB
A Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) would best meet the requirements stated in the scenario. CASBs can provide visibility into which cloud applications are being used across a company, restrict data that is uploaded to the cloud, and prevent unauthorized downloading of company applications for personal use.
200
NO.202 A systems administrator would like to deploy a change to a production system. Which of the following must the administrator submit to **demonstrate that the system can be restored** to a working state in the event of a performance issue?
Backout plan
201
NO.203 Which of the following would most likely mitigate the impact of an extended power outage on a company's environment?
UPS
202
NO.204 Which of the following automation use cases would best enhance the security posture of an organization by rapidly updating permissions when employees leave a company?
Disabling access
203
NO.205 An administrator finds that all user workstations and servers are displaying a message that is associated with files containing an extension of .ryk. Which of the following types of infections is present on the systems?
Ransomware
204
NO.206 Which of the following agreement types defines the time frame in which a vendor needs to respond?
SLA (Service Level Aggreement)
205
NO.207 During the onboarding process, an employee needs to create a password for an intranet account.
The **password must include ten characters, numbers, and letters, and two special characters**.
Once the password is created, the company will **grant the employee access to other company- owned websites based on the intranet profile**. Which of the following access management concepts is the company most likely using to safeguard intranet accounts and grant access to multiple sites based on a user's intranet account? (Select two).
A. Federation
C. Password complexity
Federation is an access management concept that allows users to authenticate once and access multiple resources or services across different domains or organizations. Federation relies on a trusted third party that stores the user's credentials and provides them to the requested resources or services without exposing them. Password complexity is a security measure that requires users to create passwords that meet certain criteria, such as length, character types, and uniqueness. Password complexity can help prevent brute-force attacks, password guessing, and credential stuffing by making passwords harder to crack or guess.
206
NO.208 A systems administrator wants to prevent users from being able to access data based on their responsibilities. The administrator also wants to apply the required access structure via a simplified format. Which of the following should the administrator apply to the site recovery resource group?
RBAC
207
NO.209 An engineer needs to find a solution that creates an added layer of security by preventing unauthorized access to internal company resources. Which of the following would be the best solution?
Jump server
208
NO.210 Which of the following would be the best ways to ensure only authorized personnel can access a secure facility? (Select two).
C. Badge access
D. Access control vestibule
209
NO.211 An organization wants a third-party vendor to do a penetration test that targets a specific device.
The organization has **provided basic information about the device**. Which of the following best describes this kind of penetration test?
Partially known environment
A partially known environment is a type of penetration test where the tester has some information about the target, such as the IP address, the operating system, or the device type.
210
NO.212 After a security incident, a systems administrator asks the company to buy a **NAC platform**. Which of the following attack surfaces is the systems administrator trying to protect?
Wired
211
NO.213 An engineer moved to another team and is unable to access the new team's shared folders while still being able to access the shared folders from the former team. After opening a ticket, the engineer discovers that the account was never moved to the new group. Which of the following access controls is most likely causing the lack of access?
Role-based
212
NO.214 Which of the following is a common source of unintentional corporate credential leakage in cloud environments?
Code repositories
213
NO.215 While troubleshooting a firewall configuration, a technician determines that a "deny any" policy should be added to the bottom of the ACL. The technician updates the policy, but the new policy causes several company servers to become unreachable.
Which of the following actions would prevent this issue?
Testing the policy in a non-production environment before enabling the policy in the production network
214
NO.216 Which of the following is used to add extra complexity before using a one-way data transformation algorithm?
Salting
215
NO.217 During a security incident, the security operations team identified sustained network traffic from a malicious IP address: 10.1.4.9. A security analyst is creating an inbound firewall rule to block the IP address from accessing the organization's network. Which of the following fulfills this request?
access-list inbound deny ip source 10.1.4.9/32 destination 0.0.0.0/0
Explanation:
/32 would cover all possible subnets, & their communicating devices within the IP range, & destination 0.0.0.0/0 would cover the gateway surface of your network.
216
NO.218 An employee clicked a link in an email from a payment website that asked the employee to update contact information. The employee entered the log-in information but received a "page not found" error message. Which of the following types of social engineering attacks occurred?
Phishing
217
NO.219 A security analyst receives alerts about an internal system sending a **large amount of unusual DNS queries to systems on the internet over short periods of time during non-business hours**.
Which of the following is most likely occurring?
Data is being exfiltrated.
218
NO.220 A small business uses kiosks on the sales floor to display product information for customers. A security team **discovers the kiosks use end-of-life operating systems**. Which of the following is the security team most likely to document as a security implication of the current architecture?
Patch availability
219
NO.221 Which of the following describes the process of concealing code or text inside a graphical image?
Steganography
220
NO.222 A company's web filter is configured to scan the URL for strings and deny access when matches are found. Which of the following search strings should an analyst employ to prohibit access to non-encrypted websites?
http://
Explanation:
http:// is an insecure protocol running on port 80 that uses unencrypted traceable data for communication on uncertified, & unprotected websites. It is indicated that you are on one of these insecure websites by a warning, or lack of padlock in your web search URL.
221
NO.223 Which of the following risks can be mitigated by HTTP headers?
XSS
HTTP headers such as Content Security Policy (CSP) and X-XSS-Protection can be configured to prevent the execution of malicious scripts in the context of a web page. XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)
222
NO.224 A security team is reviewing the findings in a report that was delivered after a third party performed a penetration test. One of the findings indicated that a web application form field is vulnerable to cross-site scripting. Which of the following application security techniques should the security analyst recommend the developer implement to prevent this vulnerability?
Input validation
Input validation is a technique that checks the user input for any malicious or unexpected data before processing it by the web application.
223
NO.225 A company wants to verify that the software the company is deploying came from the vendor the company purchased the software from. Which of the following is the best way for the company to confirm this information?
Validate the code signature.
224
NO.226 Which of the following security controls is most likely being used when a **critical legacy server is segmented into a private network**?
Compensating
When a critical legacy server is segmented into a private network, the security control being used is compensating.
225
NO.227 A newly identified network access vulnerability has been found in the OS of legacy IoT devices.
Which of the following would best mitigate this vulnerability quickly?
Segmentation
226
NO.229 Which of the following enables the use of an input field to run commands that can view or manipulate data?
SQL injection
227
NO.228 Which of the following security concepts is the best reason for permissions on a human resources fileshare to follow the principle of least privilege?
Confidentiality
228
NO.230 Which of the following roles, according to the shared responsibility model, is responsible for securing the company's database in an IaaS model for a cloud environment?
Client
229
NO.231 An administrator is reviewing a single server's security logs and discovers the following;
Which of the following best describes the action captured in this log file?
Brute-force attack
230
NO.232 Which of the following security concepts is accomplished with the installation of a **RADIUS server**?
AAA
Explanation:
The installation of a RADIUS server (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) is primarily associated with the security concept of AAA, which stands for Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting.
231
NO.233 A security analyst is investigating an application server and discovers that software on the server is behaving abnormally. The software normally runs batch jobs locally and does not generate traffic, but the process is now generating outbound traffic over random high ports. Which of the following vulnerabilities has likely been exploited in this software?
Memory injection
232
NO.234 After conducting a vulnerability scan, a systems administrator notices that one of the identified vulnerabilities is not present on the systems that were scanned. Which of the following describes this example?
False positive
Explanation:
A false positive occurs when a vulnerability scan identifies a vulnerability that is not actually present on the systems that were scanned. This means that the scan has incorrectly flagged a system as vulnerable.
False positive: Incorrectly identifies a vulnerability that does not exist on the scanned systems.
False negative: Fails to identify an existing vulnerability on the system.
True positive: Correctly identifies an existing vulnerability.
True negative: Correctly identifies that there is no vulnerability.
233
NO.235 A security administrator is configuring fileshares. The administrator removed the default permissions and added permissions for only users who will need to access the fileshares as part of their job duties. Which of the following best describes why the administrator performed these actions?
Least privilege
234
NO.236 An analyst is evaluating the implementation of **Zero Trust principles** within the data plane. Which of the following would be most relevant for the analyst to evaluate?
Secured zones
235
NO.237 During a recent breach, employee credentials were compromised when a service desk employee issued an MFA bypass code to an **attacker who called and posed as an employee**. Which of the following should be used to prevent this type of incident in the future?
Identity proofing
236
NO.238 Which of the following involves an attempt to take advantage of database misconfigurations?
SQL injection
237
NO.239 Which of the following describes the category of data that is **most impacted when it is lost**?
Critical
238
NO.240 A technician needs to apply a high-priority patch to a production system. Which of the following steps should be taken first?
Create a change control request.
239
NO.241 After a recent ransomware attack on a company's system, an administrator reviewed the log files.
Which of the following control types did the administrator use?
Detective
Explanation:
Detective controls are security measures that are designed to identify and monitor any malicious activity or anomalies on a system or network. They can help to discover the source, scope, and impact of an attack, and provide evidence for further analysis or investigation.
240
NO.242 An administrator notices that several users are logging in from suspicious IP addresses. After speaking with the users, the administrator determines that the employees were not logging in from those IP addresses and resets the affected users' passwords. Which of the following should the administrator implement to prevent this type of attack from succeeding in the future?
Multifactor authentication
241
NO.243 After a recent vulnerability scan, a security engineer needs to harden the routers within the corporate network. Which of the following is **the most appropriate to disable**?
Web-based administration
242
NO.244 A bank insists all of its vendors must prevent data loss on stolen laptops. Which of the following strategies is the bank requiring?
Encryption at rest
243
NO.245 A security analyst needs to harden access to a network. One of the requirements is to authenticate users with **smart cards**. Which of the following should the analyst enable to best meet this requirement?
EAP-TLS
Explanation:
EAP-TLS is a strong and secure authentication method that involves the use of digital certificates, typically stored on smart cards, for user authentication.
244
NO.246 Which of the following should a systems administrator use to ensure an easy deployment of resources within the cloud provider?
Infrastructure as code
Explanation:
Infrastructure as code (IaC) is a method of using code and automation to manage and provision cloud resources, such as servers, networks, storage, and applications.
245
NO.247 A company needs to provide administrative access to internal resources while minimizing the traffic allowed through the security boundary. Which of the following methods is most secure?
Implementing a bastion host
246
NO.248 A security analyst is investigating an alert that was produced by endpoint protection software. The analyst determines this event was a false positive triggered by an employee who attempted to download a file. Which of the following is the most likely reason the download was blocked?
A misconfiguration in the endpoint protection software
247
NO.249 A security analyst locates a potentially malicious video file on a server and needs to identify both the creation date and the file's creator. Which of the following actions would most likely give the security analyst the information required?
Query the file's metadata.
Explanation:
Metadata is data that describes other data, such as its format, origin, creation date, author, and other attributes.
248
