CYSA+ Chapter 5 Review Questions

Robert is finishing a draft of a proposed incident response policy for his organization. Who would be the most appropriate person to sign the policy? A. CEO B. Director of Security C. CIO D. CSIRT Leader

A - CEO. The incident response policy proviedes the CSIRT witht he authority needed to do their job. Therefore, it should be approved by the highest possible level of authority withint he organization, preferably the CEO.

Which one of the following is not an objective of the containment, eradication, and recovery phase of incident response? A. Detect an incident in progress B. Implement a containment strategy C. Identify the attackers D. Eradicate the effects of the incident

A - Detect an incident in progress. Detection of a potential incident occurs during the detection and analysis phase of incident response. The other activities listed are all objectives of the containment, eradication, and recovery phase.

Matt is concerned about the fact that log records from his organization contain conflicting timestamps due to unsynchronized clocks. What protocol can he use to synchronize clocks throughout the enterprise? A. NTP B. FTP C. ARP D. SSH

A - NTP. The Network Time Protocol (NTP) provides a common source of time information that allows the synchronizing of clocks throughout an enterprise.

Hank is responding to a security event where the CEO of his company had her laptop stolen. The laptop was encrypted but contained sensitive information about the company's employees. How should Hank classify the information impact of this security event? A. None B. Privacy Breach C. Proprietary Breach D. Integrity Loss

A - None. The event described in this scenario would not qualify as a security incident with measurable information impact. Although he laptop did contain information that may cause a privacy breach was avoided by the use of encryption to protect the contents of the laptop.

Which of the following document types would outline the authority of a CSIRT responding a security incident? A. Policy B. Procedure C. Playbook D. Baseline

A - Policy. An organization's incident response policy should contain a clear description of the authority assigned to the CSIRT while responding to an active security incident.

During what phase of the incident response process would an organization implement defenses designed to reduce the likelihood of a security incident? A. Preparation B. Detection and Analysis C. Containment, Eradication, and Recovery D. Post-Incident Activity

A - Preparation. Organizations should build solid, defense-in-depth approaches to cybersecurity during the preparation phase of the incident response process. The controls build during this phase sever to reduce the likelihood and impact of future incidents.

Which one of the following parties is not commonly the target of external communications during an incident? A. The Perpetrator B. Law Enforcement C. Vendors D. Information Sharing Partners

A - The Perpetrator. CSIRT members do not normally communicate directly with the perpetrator of a cybersecurity incident.

A man-in-the-middle attack is an example of what type of threat vector? A. Attrition B. Impersonation C. Web D. Email

B - Impersonation. An impersonation attack involves the replacement of something benign with something malicious.

What phase of the incident response process would include measures designed to limit the damage caused by an ongoing breach? A. Preparation B. Detection and Analysis C. Containment, Eradication, and Recovery D. Post-Incident Activity

C - Containment, Eradication, and Recovery. The containment protocols contained in this stage are designed to limit the damage caused by an ongoing security incident.

Renee is responding to a security incident that resulted in the unavailability of a website critical to her company's operations. She is unsure of the amount of time and effort that it will take to recover the website. How should Renee classify the recoverability effort? A. Regular B. Supplemented C. Extended D. Not Recoverable

C - Extended. Extended recoverability effort occurs when the time to recovery is unpredictable. In those cases, additional resources and outside help are typically needed.

Who is the best facilitator for a post-incident lessons-learned session? A. CEO B. CSIRT Leader C. Independent Facilitator D. First Responder

C - Independent Facilitator. Lessons-learned sessions are most effective when facilitated by an independent party who was not involved in the incident response effort.

Ben is working to classify the functional impact of an incident. The incident has disabled email service for approximately 30 percent of his organization's staff. How should Ben classify the functional impact of this incident according to the NIST scale? A. None B. Low C. Medium D. High

C - Medium. The definition of a medium functional impact is that the organization has lost the ability to provide a critical service to a subset of system users. That accurately describes the situation that Ben finds himself in. Assigning a low functional impact is only done when the organization can provide all critical services to all users at diminished efficiency. Assigning a high functional impact is only done if a critical service is not available to all users.

Tommy is the CSIRT team leader for his organization and is responding to a newly discovered security incident. What document is most likely to contain step-by-step instructions that he might follow in the early hours of the response effort? A. Policy B. Baseline C. Playbook D. Textbook

C - Playbook. Incident response playbooks contain detailed step-by-step instructions that guide the early response to a cybersecurity incident. Organizations typically have playbooks prepared for high-severity and frequently occurring incident types.

Karen is responding to a security incident that resulted from an intruder stealing files from a government agency. Those files contained unencrypted information about protected critical infrastructure. How should Karen rate the information impact of this loss? A. None B. Privacy Breach C. Proprietary Breach D. Integrity Loss

C - Proprietary Breach. In a proprietary breach, unclassified proprietary information is accessed or exfiltrated. Protected critical infrastructure information (PCII) is an example of unclassified proprietary information.

Alan is responsible for developing his organization's detection and analysis capabilities. He would like to purchase a system that can combine log records from multiple sources to detect potential security incidents. What type of system is best suited to meet Alan's security objective? A. IPS B. IDS C. SIEM D. Firewall

C - SIEM. A SIEM system correlates log entries from multiple sources and attempts to identify potential security incidents.

Which of the following is an example of an attrition attack? A. SQL Injection B. Theft of a Laptop C. User Installs File Sharing Software D. Brute-Force Password Attack

D - Brute-Force Password Attack. An attrition attack employs brute-force methods to compromise, degrade, or destroy systems, networks, or services.

Which one of the following is an example of a computer security incident? A. User accesses a secure file. B. Administrator changes a file's permission settings. C. Intruder breaks into a building. D. Former employee crashes a server.

D - Former employee crashes a server. A former employee crashing a server is an example of an actual violation of the availability of that system. An intruder breaking into a building may be a security event, but it is not necessarily a computer security event unless he or she performs some action affecting a computer system. A user accessing a secure file and an administrator changing a file permission settings are examples of security events but are not security incidents.

Which of the following elements is not normally found in an incident response policy? A. Performance measures for the CSIRT B. Definition of cybersecurity incidents C. Definition of roles, responsibilities, and levels of authority. D. Procedures for rebuilding systems

D - Procedures for rebuilding systems. Procedures for rebuilding systems are highly technical and would normally be included in a playbook or procedure document rather than an incident response policy.

Grace is the CSIRT team leader for a business unit within NASA, a federal agency. What is the minimum amount of time that Grace must retain incident handling records? A. Six Months B. One Year C. Two Years D. Three Years

D - Three Years. National Archives General Records Schedule (GRS) 24 requires that all federal agencies retain incident handling records for at least three years.

A cross-site scripting attack is an example of what type of threat vector? A. Impersonation B. Email C. Attrition D. Web

D - Web. A web attack is an attack executed from a website or web-based application.