Harris Exam Flashcards
(121 cards)
Which of the following standards would be most useful to you in ensuring your information security management system follows industry best practices?
A. NIST SP 800-53
B. Six Sigma
C. ISO/IEC 27000 series
D. COSO IC
C. The ISO/IEC 27000 series is the only option that addresses best practices across the breadth of an ISMS. COSO IC and NIST SP 800-53 both deal with controls, which are a critical but not the only component of an ISMS.
OCTAVE, NIST SP 800-30, and AS/NZS ISO 31000 are different approaches to carrying out risk management within companies and organizations. What are the differences between these methods?
A. NIST SP 800-30 and OCTAVE are corporate based, while AS/NZS is international.
B. NIST SP 800-30 is IT based, while OCTAVE and AS/NZS ISO 31000 are corporate based.
C. AS/NZS is IT based, and OCTAVE and NIST SP 800-30 are assurance based.
D. NIST SP 800-30 and AS/NZS are corporate based, while OCTAVE is international.
B. NIST SP 800-30, Revision 1, “Guide for Conducting Risk Assessments,” is a U.S. federal standard that is focused on IT risks. OCTAVE is a methodology to set up a risk management program within an organizational structure. AS/NZS ISO 31000 takes a much broader approach to risk management. This methodology can be used to understand a company’s financial, capital, human safety, and business decisions risks. Although it can be used to analyze security risks, it was not created specifically for this purpose.
A company has an e-commerce website that carries out 60 percent of its annual revenue. Under the current circumstances, the annualized loss expectancy for a website against the threat of attack is $92,000. After implementing a new application-layer firewall, the new annualized loss expectancy would be $30,000. The firewall costs $65,000 per year to implement and maintain.
Which of the following describes the company’s approach to risk management?
A. Risk transference
B. Risk avoidance
C. Risk acceptance
D. Risk mitigation
D. Risk mitigation involves employing controls in an attempt to reduce either the likelihood or damage associated with an incident, or both. The four ways of dealing with risk are accept, avoid, transfer, and mitigate (reduce). A firewall is a countermeasure installed to reduce the risk of a threat.
The international standards bodies ISO and IEC developed a series of standards that are used in organizations around the world to implement and maintain information security management systems. The standards were derived from the British Standard 7799, which was broken down into two main pieces. Organizations can use this series of standards as guidelines, but can also be certified against them by accredited third parties.
Which of the following are incorrect mappings pertaining to the individual standards that make up the ISO/IEC 27000 series?
i. ISO/IEC 27001 outlines ISMS implementation guidelines, and ISO/IEC 27003 outlines the ISMS program’s requirements.
ii. ISO/IEC 27005 outlines the audit and certification guidance, and ISO/IEC 27002 outlines the metrics framework.
iii. ISO/IEC 27006 outlines the program implementation guidelines, and ISO/IEC 27005 outlines risk management guidelines.
iv. ISO/IEC 27001 outlines the code of practice, and ISO/IEC 27004 outlines the implementation framework.
A. i, iii
B. i, ii
C. ii, iii, iv
D. i, ii, iii, iv
D. Unfortunately, you will run into questions on the CISSP exam that will be this confusing, so you need to be ready for them. The proper mapping for the ISO/IEC standards are as follows:
- ISO/IEC 27001 ISMS requirements
- ISO/IEC 27002 Code of practice for information security management
- ISO/IEC 27003 Guideline for ISMS implementation
- ISO/IEC 27004 Guideline for information security management measurement and metrics framework
- ISO/IEC 27005 Guideline for information security risk management
- ISO/IEC 27006 Guidance for bodies providing audit and certification of information security management systems.
Todd wants to be able to prevent fraud from taking place, but he knows that some people may get around the types of controls he puts into place. In those situations he wants to be able to identify when an employee is doing something suspicious.
Which of the following incorrectly describes what Todd is implementing in this scenario and what those specific controls provide?
A. Separation of duties by ensuring that a supervisor must approve the cashing of a check over $3,500. This is an administrative control that provides preventive protection for Todd’s organization.
B. Rotation of duties by ensuring that one employee only stays in one position for up to three months at a time. This is an administrative control that provides detective capabilities.
C. Security awareness training, which is a preventive administrative control that can also emphasize enforcement.
D. Dual control, which is an administrative detective control that can ensure that two employees must carry out a task simultaneously.
D. Dual control is an administrative preventive control. It ensures that two people must carry out a task at the same time, as in two people having separate keys when opening the vault. It is not a detective control. Notice that the question asks what Todd is not doing. Remember that on the exam you need to choose the best answer. In many situations you will not like the question or the corresponding answers on the CISSP exam, so prepare yourself. The questions can be tricky, which is one reason why the exam itself is so difficult.
The term used to denote a potential cause of an unwanted incident, which may result in harm to a system or organization is
A. Vulnerability
B. Exploit
C. Threat
D. Attacker
C. The question provides the definition of a threat in ISO/IEC 27000. The term attacker (option D) could be used to describe a threat agent that is, in turn, a threat, but use of this term is much more restrictive. The best answer is a threat.
Which of the following has an incorrect definition mapping?
i. Civil (code) law: Based on previous interpretations of laws
ii. Common law: Rule-based law, not precedent-based
iii. Customary law: Deals mainly with personal conduct and patterns of behavior
iv. Religious law: Based on religious beliefs of the region
A. i, iii
B. i, ii, iii
C. i, ii
D. iv
C. The following has the proper definition mappings:
i. Civil (code) law: Rule-based law, not precedent-based
ii. Common law: Based on previous interpretations of laws
iii. Customary law: Deals mainly with personal conduct and patterns of behavior
iv. Religious law: Based on religious beliefs of the region
The effect of data aggregation on classification levels is best described by which of the following?
A. Data classification standards apply to all the data within an organization.
B. Aggregation is a disaster recovery technique with no effect on classification.
C. A low-classification aggregation of data can be deconstructed into higher-classification data items.
D. Items of low-classification data combine to create a higher-classification set.
D. Data aggregation can become a classification issue whenever someone can combine data items and end up with a higher-classification aggregate. For instance, a person’s name, address, phone number, or date of birth are normally not PII by themselves. However, when combined, they do become PII under the definition of most jurisdictions with applicable laws.
The data owner is most often described by all of the following except
A. Manager in charge of a business unit
B. Ultimately responsible for the protection of the data
C. Financially liable for the loss of the data
D. Ultimately responsible for the use of the data
C. The data owner is the manager in charge of a specific business unit, and is ultimately responsible for the protection and use of a specific subset of information. In most situations, this person is not financially liable for the loss of his or her data.
If different user groups with different security access levels need to access the same information, which of the following actions should management take?
A. Decrease the security level on the information to ensure accessibility and usability of the information.
B. Require specific written approval each time an individual needs to access the information.
C. Increase the security controls on the information.
D. Decrease the classification label on the information.
C. If data is going to be available to a wide range of people, more granular security should be implemented to ensure that only the necessary people access the data and that the operations they carry out are controlled. The security implemented can come in the form of authentication and authorization technologies, encryption, and specific access control mechanisms.
Who is ultimately responsible for making sure data is classified and protected?
A. Data owners
B. Users
C. Administrators
D. Management
D. The key to this question is the use of the word “ultimately.” Though management can delegate tasks to others, it is ultimately responsible for everything that takes place within a company. Therefore, it must continually ensure that data and resources are being properly protected.
Which of the following is not addressed by the data retention policy?
A. What data to keep
B. For whom data is kept
C. How long data is kept
D. Where data is kept
B. The data retention policy should address what data to keep, where to keep it, how to store it, and for how long to keep it. The policy is not concerned with “for whom” the data is kept.
What is the final step in authorizing a system for use in an environment?
A. Certification
B. Security evaluation and rating
C. Accreditation
D. Verification
C. Certification is a technical review of a product, and accreditation is management’s formal approval of the findings of the certification process. This question asked you which step was the final step in authorizing a system before it is used in an environment, and that is what accreditation is all about.
What feature enables code to be executed without the usual security checks?
A. Temporal isolation
B. Maintenance hook
C. Race conditions
D. Process multiplexing
B. Maintenance hooks get around the system’s or application’s security and access control checks by allowing whoever knows the key sequence to access the application and most likely its code. Maintenance hooks should be removed from any code before it gets into production.
If a component fails, a system should be designed to do which of the following?
A. Change to a protected execution domain
B. Change to a problem state
C. Change to a more secure state
D. Release all data held in volatile memory
C. The state machine model dictates that a system should start up securely, carry out secure state transitions, and even fail securely. This means that if the system encounters something it deems unsafe, it should change to a more secure state for self-preservation and protection.
In secure computing systems, why is there a logical form of separation used between processes?
A. Processes are contained within their own security domains so each does not make unauthorized accesses to other processes or their resources.
B. Processes are contained within their own security perimeter so they can only access protection levels above them.
C. Processes are contained within their own security perimeter so they can only access protection levels equal to them.
D. The separation is hardware and not logical in nature.
A. Processes are assigned their own variables, system resources, and memory segments, which make up their domain. This is done so they do not corrupt each other’s data or processing activities.
Pete is a new security manager at a financial institution that develops its own internal software for specific proprietary functionality. The financial institution has several locations distributed throughout the world and has bought several individual companies over the last ten years, each with its own heterogeneous environment. Since each purchased company had its own unique environment, it has been difficult to develop and deploy internally developed software in an effective manner that meets all the necessary business unit requirements. Which of the following best describes a standard that Pete should ensure the software development team starts to implement so that various business needs can be met?
A. ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010
B. Common Criteria
C. ISO/IEC 43010
D. ISO/IEC 15408
A. ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 is an international standard that outlines specifications for system architecture frameworks and architecture languages. It allows for systems to be developed in a manner that addresses all of the stakeholder’s concerns.
Which of the following is an incorrect description pertaining to the common components that make up computer systems?
i. General registers are commonly used to hold temporary processing data, while special registers are used to hold process-characteristic data as in condition bits.
ii. A processor sends a memory address and a “read” request down an address bus and a memory address and a “write” request down an I/O bus.
iii. Process-to-process communication commonly takes place through memory stacks, which are made up of individually addressed buffer locations.
iv. A CPU uses a stack return pointer to keep track of the next instruction sets it needs to process.
A. i
B. i, ii
C. ii, iii
D. ii, iv
D. A processer sends a memory address and a “read” request down an address bus. The system reads data from that memory address and puts the requested data on the data bus. A CPU uses a program counter to keep track of the memory addresses containing the instruction sets it needs to process in sequence. A stack pointer is a component used within memory stack communication processes. An I/O bus is used by a peripheral device.
Mark is a security administrator who is responsible for purchasing new computer systems for a co-location facility his company is starting up. The company has several time-sensitive applications that require extensive processing capabilities. The co-location facility is not as large as the main facility, so it can only fit a smaller number of computers, which still must carry the same processing load as the systems in the main building. Which of the following best describes the most important aspects of the products Mark needs to purchase for these purposes?
A. Systems must provide symmetric multiprocessing capabilities and virtualized environments.
B. Systems must provide asymmetric multiprocessing capabilities and virtualized environments.
C. Systems must provide multiprogramming multiprocessing capabilities and virtualized environments.
D. Systems must provide multiprogramming multiprocessing capabilities and symmetric multiprocessing environments.
B. When systems provide asymmetric multiprocessing, this means multiple CPUs can be used for processing. Asymmetric indicates the capability of assigning specific applications to one CPU so that they do not have to share computing capabilities with other competing processes, which increases performance. Since a smaller number of computers can fit in the new location, virtualization should be deployed to allow for several different systems to share the same physical computer platforms.
Which of the following best describes an item the software development team needs to address to ensure that drivers cannot be loaded in an unauthorized manner?
A. Improved security kernel processes
B. Improved security perimeter processes
C. Improved application programming interface processes
D. Improved garbage collection processes
A. If device drivers can be loaded improperly, then either the access control rules outlined within the reference monitor need to be improved upon or the current rules need to be better enforced through the security kernel processes. Only authorized subjects should be able to install sensitive software components that run within ring 0 of a system.
John has been told that one of the applications installed on a web server within the DMZ accepts any length of information that a customer using a web browser inputs into the form the web server provides to collect new customer data. Which of the following describes an issue that John should be aware of pertaining to this type of vulnerability?
A. Application is written in the C programming language.
B. Application is not carrying out enforcement of the trusted computing base.
C. Application is running in ring 3 of a ring-based architecture.
D. Application is not interacting with the memory manager properly.
A. The C language is susceptible to buffer overflow attacks because it allows for direct pointer manipulations to take place. Specific commands can provide access to low-level memory addresses without carrying out bounds checking.
Which option best describes the difference between HMAC and CBC-MAC?
A. HMAC creates a message digest and is used for integrity; CBC-MAC is used to encrypt blocks of data for confidentiality.
B. HMAC uses a symmetric key and a hashing algorithm; CBC-MAC uses the first block for the checksum.
C. HMAC provides integrity and data origin authentication; CBC-MAC uses a block cipher for the process of creating a MAC.
D. HMAC encrypts a message with a symmetric key and then puts the result through a hashing algorithm; CBC-MAC encrypts the whole message.
C. In an HMAC operation, a message is concatenated with a symmetric key and the result is put through a hashing algorithm. This provides integrity and system or data authentication. CBC-MAC uses a block cipher to create a MAC, which is the last block of ciphertext.
What is an advantage of RSA over DSA?
A. It can provide digital signature and encryption functionality.
B. It uses fewer resources and encrypts faster because it uses symmetric keys.
C. It is a block cipher rather than a stream cipher.
D. It employs a one-time encryption pad.
A. RSA can be used for data encryption, key exchange, and digital signatures. DSA can be used only for digital signatures.
What is used to create a digital signature?
A. The receiver’s private key
B. The sender’s public key
C. The sender’s private key
D. The receiver’s public key
C. A digital signature is a message digest that has been encrypted with the sender’s private key. A sender, or anyone else, should never have access to the receiver’s private key.
