Practice Exam #2

Your company does not have a well-trained, experienced IT staff and is reluctant to spend more money on training personnel (in recent company history, personnel have received training and then immediately quit the company to work for competitors). If senior management considers cloud migration, which deployment model would probably best suit their needs? A. Public B. Private C. Community D. Hybrid

A. A public cloud deployment would probably best meet the needs of a company without a robust, trained IT staff. The cloud provider will be responsible for the greatest degree of administration and maintenance compared to the other options. Options B, C, nor D would not be the optimal choices for a cloud deployment model in this case, because each of those requires personnel with more experience/training. Options B, C, and D are incorrect.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Management is interested in adopting an Agile development style. This will be typified by which of the following traits? A. Daily meetings B. A specific shared toolset C. Defined plans that dictate all efforts D. Addressing customer needs with an exhaustive initial contract

A. Agile development often involves daily meetings (called Scrums). Agile methodology spurns the use of specifi c tools and concrete planning; options B and C are incorrect. Agile also favors customer collaboration and prototyping instead of an elaborate contract mechanism; option D is incorrect.

A virtual network interface card (NIC) exists at Layer of the OSI model. A. 2 B. 4 C. 6 D. 8

A. All of the other options are incorrect. Option D is incorrect because there is no Layer 8 in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model.

Which of the following data storage types is most associated with software as a service (SaaS)? A. Content delivery network (CDN) B. Databases C. Volume storage D. Data warehousing

A. CDNs are often used in conjunction with SaaS services to deliver high-quality data of large sizes (often multimedia). Databases and data warehousing are typically associated with platform as a service (PaaS), where the provider owns and maintains the infrastructure and data management engine but the customer can install programs and interfaces to manipulate the data. Options B and D are incorrect. Volume storage is typically associated with infrastructure as a service (IaaS); option C is incorrect.

In which phase of the cloud secure data lifecycle should classifications and labels be assigned to data? A. Create B. Store C. Use D. Share

A. Data should be labeled and classifi ed as soon as it is created/collected. All the other options are incorrect.

Which of the following is probably most important to include i t n a data archiving policy? A. Data format and type B. Data classification C. Encryption procedures and standards D. Data audit and review processes

A. In order to use the archive for recovery (either on a large scale for contingency operations or for granular recovery as a means of data discovery), the data needs to be of a format and type that can be utilized by the organization's systems and environment. Saving data in the wrong format can be equivalent to losing the data. All the other options are important aspects of a data archiving policy but are not as important as option A (for instance, data that is not encrypted might pose a risk of loss, but data in the wrong format may not be recoverable at all).

If a company wanted to retain some of its own internal traditional hardware but use the cloud as a means of performing software testing functions, which service and deployment models should it probably use? A. PaaS, hybrid B. IaaS, private C. PaaS, community D. SaaS, hybrid

A. Platform as a service (PaaS) models are particularly useful for performing software testing because the customer can install and run their own programs across multiple OSs/systems. A hybrid model is used to describe a situation where ownership of the infrastructure is split between the provider and the customer. A software as a service (SaaS) or infrastructure as a service (IaaS) model would not be optimum for software testing; options B and D are incorrect. A community cloud model involves the joint ownership of infrastructure among many providers and customers; option C is not correct.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. The backend of the software will have the data structured in a way to optimize XML requests. Which API programming style should programmers most likely concentrate on for the frontend interface? A. Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) B. Representational state transfer (REST) C. Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) D. Data loss prevention or data leak protection (DLP)

A. SOAP is a web service programming format that requires the use of XML. REST relies more often on uniform resource identifi ers (URIs) than XML; option B is incorrect. SAML is a protocol for passing identity assertions over the Internet; option C is incorrect. DLP is a data egress monitoring tool; option D is incorrect.

A typical data loss prevention or data leak protection (DLP) tool can enhance the organization's efforts at accomplishing what legal task? A. Evidence collection B. Delivering testimony C. Criminal prosecution D. Enforcement of intellectual property rights

A. The data discovery facet of DLP solutions can aid an organization in gathering applicable evidence, especially in response to a legal request such as a subpoena (this is often termed e-discovery). Tools cannot deliver testimony; only people can testify. Option B is incorrect. DLP solutions do not perform prosecutorial work; that is the function of law enforcement agencies. Option C is incorrect. While DLP tools can locate intellectual

When a data center is configured such that the backs of the devices face each other and the ambient temperature in the work area is cool, it is called. A. Hot aisle containment B. Cold aisle containment C. Thermo-optimized D. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) modulated

A. This is a description of hot aisle containment. Cold aisle containment is a confi guration where the fronts of devices face each other. Option B is incorrect. Option C is not relevant in this context. Option C is incorrect. Option D does not describe the data center confi guration in the question. Option D is incorrect.

Disciplined cable management is crucial for cloud data centers because it provides greater assurance of only authorized lines operating in the environment and. A. Reduces unproductive heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) activity B. Reduces the risk of slip, trip, and fall hazards C. Greatly reduces the environmental footprint D. Ensures regulatory compliance

A. Unused or poorly managed cabling can impede effi cient air fl ow, increasing HVAC and energy costs and increasing the diffi culty of optimizing temperature. While it is possible that mismanaged cabling could cause slip/trip/fall hazards, this is much less common in modern data centers; option A is preferable in this case. Cabling does not really have much of an environmental footprint, so discipline applied to cabling won't affect the environment much, one way or the other; option C is incorrect. Regulators do not usually enforce cable management; option D is incorrect.

Fire suppression systems are often linked to a detection system. Common detection systems include all of the following except . A. Heat B. Pressure C. Flame D. Smoke

B. Pressure detection is not a common detection technology. All the other options are common fi re detection methods.

A company is considering a cloud migration to a platform as a service (PaaS) environment. Which of the following factors might make the company less likely to choose the cloud environment? A. The company wants to reduce overhead costs. B. The company operates proprietary software. C. The company hopes to reduce energy costs related to operation of a data center. D. The company is seeking to enhance its business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) capabilities.

B. A customer using proprietary software in a PaaS environment faces the risk that updates to the underlying OS(s) and/or hardware infrastructure will not be compatible with the customer's software and will affect productivity. Cloud migration can, however, aid in reducing overhead costs, including energy costs associated with operating a data center, and can enhance BC/DR capability through the provider's increased investment in redundancy and continuity.

You are the IT director for an automotive parts supply distribution service; your company wants to operate a production environment in the cloud. Your company wants to install its own software solutions in a managed environment to decrease the cost of purchasing and maintaining the hardware of a data center. You should most likely be considering a(n) offering. A. IaaS B. PaaS C. SaaS D. Hybrid

B. A platform as a service (PaaS) model will probably best suit your company's needs as it allows the customer (your company) to install software and load data onto a hardware infrastructure owned and operated by the provider. An infrastructure as a service (IaaS) solution may be viable for this situation, because it allows the same functionality, but it also requires the customer (your company) to install and maintain the OS(s) that run the software. In looking to decrease cost of investment and maintenance, the PaaS model is probably preferable. Option A is not as good as option B, in this case. A software as a service (SaaS) model does not allow the customer to install software; option C is incorrect. A hybrid cloud model usually requires the customer to maintain at least part of the hardware infrastructure; in accordance with the description of the situation in this question, option D is not as optimum as option B.

Your company operates under a high degree of regulatory scrutiny. Senior management wants to migrate to a cloud environment but is concerned that providers will not meet the company's compliance needs. Which deployment model would probably best suit the company's needs? A. Public B. Private C. Community D. Hybrid

B. A private cloud arrangement allows the customer to have greater control of the governance and policy within an environment. All the other options are cloud deployment models that allow the customer less control over the environment as a whole.

Your company operates in a highly competitive market, with extremely high-value data assets. Senior management wants to migrate to a cloud environment but is concerned that providers will not meet the company's security needs. Which deployment model would probably best suit the company's needs? A. Public B. Private C. Community D. Hybrid

B. A private cloud model can allow the customer to have the greatest assurance of confi dentiality compared to the other models. Options A, C, and D provide less confi dentiality than option B and are therefore incorrect.

Your organization is developing software for wide use by the public. You have decided to test it in a cloud environment, in a platform as a service (PaaS) model. Which of the following should be of particular concern to your organization for this situation? A. Vendor lock-in B. Backdoors C. Regulatory compliance D. High-speed network connectivity

B. Backdoors are a particularly prevalent risk in software development because programmers legitimately use backdoors for ease of use and speed of delivery but may mistakenly (or even purposefully) leave the backdoors in the software after development, creating a hidden and signifi cant vulnerability. All the other options should be concerns of any cloud customer, but they are not of specifi c or increased concern for this situation.

Which of the following management risks can make an organization's cloud environment unviable? A. Insider trading B. Virtual machine (VM) sprawl C. Hostile takeover D. Improper personnel selection

B. Because the cost of creating new instances in the cloud environment is transparent to many users/offi ces, there is a signifi cant likelihood that users/offi ces will create many new virtual machine (VM) instances without the knowledge/oversight of management. This can result in a very expensive surprise at the end of the payment period, when the organization receives the bill from the cloud provider. All the other options are management risks that do not have anything specifi c to do with the cloud environment and should not affect it/be affected by it.

Which of the following is characterized by a set maximum capacity? A. A secret-sharing-made-short (SSMS) bit-splitting implementation B. A tightly coupled cloud storage cluster C. A loosely coupled cloud storage cluster D. A public-key infrastructure

B. By defi nition, the tightly coupled cluster has a maximum capacity, whereas the loosely coupled cluster does not. The other options do not have a set maximum capacity and are therefore incorrect.

Typically, when raised flooring is used as an air plenum, air is directed through it. A. Warm B. Cold C. Bleed D. Exhaust

B. Cold air is usually put through raised fl ooring because warm air naturally rises and using the raised fl ooring to conduct warm air would require an unnecessary and ineffi cient expenditure of energy. All the other options are incorrect as they include warmer air.

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) servers in a network will provide the clients with all of the following except . A. A temporary IP address B. Encryption protocols C. A default gateway D. Time server synchronization

B. DHCP servers do not normally orchestrate encryption. All the other options are common functions of DHCP servers.

Which of the following activities can enhance the usefulness and abilities of a data loss prevention or data leak protection (DLP) solution? A. Perform emergency egress training for all personnel. B. Require data owners, stewards, and custodians to properly classify and label data at time of creation or collection. C. Require senior management to participate in all security functions, including initial, recurring, and refresher training. D. Display security guidance in a variety of formats, including a web page, banner, posters, and hard-copy material.

B. DLP tools can function better if appropriate and accurate classifi cation and labeling is applied throughout the environment and done on a consistent basis. All the other options are good aspects of a security program but not exactly germane to DLP function.

Data archiving can also provide what production capability? A. Enhanced database mechanisms B. Near-term data recovery C. New data-driven business workflows D. Greater management insight into productivity

B. Depending on the availability of the archive, it may be possible to use it to recover production data that has been accidentally or inadvertently deleted or destroyed. Archiving does not really offer any of the other benefi ts; when data is taken out of the production environment and put into long-term storage, the organization loses the capability to manipulate it and create new assets from it. Options A, C, and D are incorrect.

Which technology is most associated w t ith tunneling? A. IPSec B. GRE C. IaaS D. XML

B. Generic routing encapsulation (GRE) is a tunneling mechanism, specifi cally designed for the purpose. Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) may or may not involve tunneling. Option A is incorrect. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) may or may not use tunneling for remote access/ administration; option C is incorrect. Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a format for communicating data; option D is incorrect.

Which of the following attack vectors is new to the cloud environment and was not typically found in on-premises, legacy environments? A. Distributed denial of service (DDoS) B. Guest escape C. Internal threats D. Inadvertent disclosure

B. Guest escape is a prevailing threat in a virtualized, multitenant cloud environment and was not commonly found in traditional environments (those environments were typically not virtualized and did not serve more than one customer, the owning organization). All the other threats are currently faced by cloud customers but also existed in the traditional environment.

Data archiving can be required for regulatory compliance as a legal mandate. What other business function is also often tied to archiving? A. Marketing B. Business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) C. Personnel development D. Intellectual property protection

B. Having a suitable backup, away from the main production environment, allows the organization to recover from contingency operations that have interrupted or affected the production environment. All the other options are not benefi ts directly associated with data archiving.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Your company has, and wishes to retain, ISO 27034 certification. For every new application it creates, it will also have to create a(n) . A. Organizational normative framework (ONF) B. Application normative framework (ANF) C. Intrinsic normative framework (INF) D. Service Organization Control (SOC) 3 report

B. ISO 27034 compliance requires an ANF for every application within the organization. Under 27034, the organization only needs one ONF, of which every ANF is a subset. Option A is incorrect. There is no INF. The term is a distractor; option C is incorrect. SOC 3 reports are for the Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) standard, not ISO 27034; option D is incorrect.

Which of the following architecture frameworks was designed for service delivery entities, from the perspective of how they serve customers? A. SABSA (Sherwood Applied Business Security Architecture) B. ITIL C. COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies) D. TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework)

B. ITIL was specifi cally designed to address service delivery entities (in particular, British telecommunications providers), and how they provide service to their customers. SABSA is a means of looking at security capabilities from a business perspective; option A is incorrect. COBIT is designed for all types of business, regardless of their purpose; option C is incorrect. TOGAF is a means to incorporate security architecture with the overall business architecture; option D is incorrect.

There are two general types of smoke detectors. One type uses a light source to detect the presence of particulate matter resulting from a fire, and the other uses . A. Electric pulses B. Small amounts of radioactive material C. Fiber-optic mechanisms D. A water-pressure plate

B. Ionization-based smoke detectors use trace amounts of a radionuclide (often americium) to detect the presence of particulate matter in the detection chamber when smoke particles interrupt the constant electric current. Neither type uses the techniques described in the other options, as they are all incorrect answers.

FM-200 has all the following properties except . A. It is colorless B. It leaves a faint chemical residue after use C. It is liquid when stored D. It is nonconducive

B. One of the properties that makes it desirable for fi re suppression in a data center is that FM-200 does not leave a residue. All the other options are true statements about FM-200.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Previous releases have shipped with major flaws that were not detected in the testing phase; leadership wants to avoid repeating that problem. What tool, technique, or technology might you suggest to aid in identifying programming errors? A. Vulnerability scans B. Open source review C. Service Organization Control (SOC) audits D. Regulatory review

B. Open source review can detect fl aws that a structured testing method might not. Vulnerability scans will only detect known problems, not programming defects that have not yet been identifi ed; option A is incorrect. Neither SOC audit nor regulatory review have anything to do with fi nding software fl aws; options C and D are incorrect.

Which cloud data storage technique involves encrypting a data set, then splitting the data into pieces, splitting the key into pieces, then signing the data pieces and key pieces and distributing them to various cloud storage locations? A. RAID B. Secret sharing made short (SSMS) C. Homomorphic encryption D. Asymmetric encryption

B. Option A is incorrect because RAID is a storage virtualization technology, used in traditional environments, that combines physical disks components into one or more logical units. Homomorphic encryption is a theoretical conversion of data into ciphertext that can be analyzed as if it were in its original form. Option C is incorrect. Option D is incorrect because it uses public and private key pairs to encrypt and decrypt data.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Which cloud service or deployment model would probably best suit your needs? A. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) B. Platform as a service (PaaS) C. Software as a service (SaaS) D. Community

B. PaaS is optimum for software testing as it allows the software to run across multiple platforms/OSs. All the other options are service/deployment models that are not as optimum for software testing as PaaS.

Secure Shell (SSH) tunneling can include all of the following services except. A. Remote log-on B. Content filtering C. Port forwarding D. Command execution

B. SSH does not offer content fi ltering. It does offer all the services listed in the other options.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a session encryption tool that uses encryption to create a session key. A. Symmetric, symmetric B. Asymmetric, symmetric C. Asymmetric, asymmetric D. Symmetric, asymmetric

B. TLS uses asymmetric encryption to create a symmetric session key.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Management is interested in adopting an Agile development style. When you explain what impact this will have, you note that may be decreased by this option. A. Speed of development B. Thoroughness of documentation C. Availability of prototypes D. Customer collaboration

B. The Agile method reduces the dependence and importance of documentation in favor of functioning software versions. All the other options are elements that will most likely be increased by transitioning to an Agile model.

Which process artifact aids an organization in determining the critical assets and functions that need to continue operations during a business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) contingency? A. Service Organization Control (SOC) 2, Type 2 B. Business impact analysis (BIA) C. Qualitative risk analysis report D. Annual loss expectancy (ALE) calculation

B. The BIA lists the assets of the organization and states their importance, value, and criticality. This can easily be used for BC/DR planning purposes. The SOC is an audit report; this does not aid in BC/DR planning. Option A is incorrect. The risk analysis and ALE calculation are used to select reasonable and cost-effective controls suitable for the environment; this does not aid in BC/DR efforts. Options C and D are incorrect.

Which of the following is not a common federation technology? A. WS-Federation B. OWASP C. OpenID D. OAuth

B. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a volunteer organization that devises standards and solutions for web application development. All the other options are common federation technologies.

Which of the following is an audit report on the design of an organization's controls? A. Service Organization Control (SOC) 1 B. SOC 2, Type 1 C. SOC 3 D. SOC 4

B. The SOC 2 ,Type 1 audit reviews management's selection of controls for the organization's environment. The SOC 1 audit reviews the accuracy and correctness of the organization's fi nancial reporting. Option A is incorrect. The SOC 3 is an attestation of an audit. Option C is incorrect. There is no SOC 4 report. Option D is incorrect.

You are the security manager for a company that is considering cloud migration to an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) environment. You are assisting your company's IT architects in constructing the environment. Which of the following options do you recommend? A. Unrestricted public access B. Use of a Type I hypervisor C. Use of a Type II hypervisor D. Enhanced productivity without encryption

B. The Type I hypervisor is preferable, as it offers less attack surface. All the other options increase risk and should not be recommended.

You are performing an audit of the security controls used in a cloud environment. Which of the following would best serve your purpose? A. The business impact analysis (BIA) B. A copy of the virtual machine (VM) baseline configuration C. The latest version of the company's financial records D. A Service Organization Control (SOC) 3 report from another (external) auditor

B. The baseline confi guration can be used as a template of controls applied throughout the environment. The BIA and fi nancial records may offer an auditor insight into asset valuation/risk but will not provide meaningful data for a control audit. Options A and C are incorrect. The SOC 3 report is only an attestation by an auditor that an audit has taken place; it does not provide any useful information about security controls.

Which mechanism best aids to ensure that the cloud c t ustomer receives dependable, consistent performance in the cloud environment? A. Audits B. Service-level agreement (SLA) C. Regulators D. Training

B. The service-level agreement creates fi nancial incentive for the cloud provider to meet the customer's needs on a consistent basis. Audits and regulators might help this effort, somewhat, by ensuring that the provider adheres to certain mandates and standards, but these are less convincing (and occur after the fact of delivery) than profi t motive. Options A and C are incorrect. Training does not really aid the efforts described in the question; option D is incorrect.

A cloud provider conducting scheduled maintenance of the environment should do all the following except . A. Notify any customers who may be affected B. Require reverification of all user accounts C. Follow approved change-management procedures and processes D. Confirm that remaining resources are sufficient to manage the minimum load as dictated by service-level agreements (SLAs)

B. This action is pointless and excessive; the option is a distractor. All the other options are actions the cloud provider should undertake when conducting scheduled maintenance.

A host-based firewall in a virtualized cloud environment might have aspects of all the following types of controls except. A. Administrative B. Deterrent C. Corrective D. Preventive

B. This is a complicated question and requires a signifi cant amount of understanding of control types. A fi rewall uses aspects of administrative controls. The fi rewall policy is a set of rules that dictate the type of traffi c and source/destination of that traffi c. Option A is incorrect. Firewalls can be set to change activity in reaction to detected threats, which is a corrective action; option C is incorrect. Firewall rules can also prevent certain kinds of traffi c/access; option D is incorrect. However, the effect of a deterrent control is the result of its perception by someone who might engage in wrongdoing—unless it is perceived, the control is not really a deterrent. Most fi rewalls don't function in that manner; they are transparent to both legitimate users and attackers. Option B is therefore correct.

Which theoretical technology would allow superposition of physical states to increase both computing capacity and encryption keyspace? A. All-or-nothing-transform with Reed-Solomon (AONT-RS) B. Quantum computing C. Filigree investment D. Sharding

B. This is a description of quantum computing. Option A is incorrect because it refers to a data transformation. Option C is a made up term and is therefore incorrect. Option D is incorrect because it is a data dispersion term.

Which of the following is a file server that provides data access to multiple, heterogeneous machines and users on the network? A. Storage area network (SAN) B. Network-attached storage (NAS) C. Hardware security module (HSM) D. Content delivery network (CDN)

B. This is the description of a NAS device. A SAN typically presents storage devices to users as attached/mounted drives. Option A is incorrect. An HSM is designed for encryption generation and management; option C is incorrect. A CDN typically replicates multimedia content at multiple, geographically diverse locations to ensure high quality for recipients. Option D is incorrect.

Data loss prevention or data leak protection (DLP) solutions typically involve all of the following aspects except. A. Data discovery B. Tokenization C. Monitoring D. Enforcement

B. Tokenization is not typically an aspect of DLP solutions. All the other options are.

In general, a cloud business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) solution will be than a physical solution. A. Slower B. Less expensive C. Larger D. More difficult to engineer

B. Typically, the cost of using the cloud for contingency operations will be much less than creating a physical alternate operating site. Usually, a cloud solution may also be faster and easier to engineer than a physical solution; options A and D are incorrect. "Larger," in this context, has no meaning, because the "size" of the cloud is a misnomer; option C is incorrect.

Your company uses a managed cloud service provider to host the production environment. The provider has notified you, along with several other of the provider's customers, that an engineer working for the provider has been using administrative access to steal sensitive data and has been selling it to your competitors. Some of this sensitive data included personally identifiable information (PII) related to your employees. Your company's general counsel informs you that there are at least three jurisdictions involved that have laws requiring data breach notification for PII. Who has legal liability for the costs involved with making the required notifications? A. The cloud provider B. Your company C. The Internet service provider (ISP) D. Your regulators

B. Under current laws, the owner of the PII is legally responsible for data breach notifi cations, regardless of the circumstances of the breach; in this case, your company is the PII owner. All the other options are incorrect because those entities are not the owner of the PII.

You are the IT director for an automotive parts supply distribution service; your company wants to operate a production environment in the cloud. In reviewing provider options, management considers an offer from Cloud Services Corp., who has contracts with several cloud providers and data centers and has offered to tailor a package of services for your company's needs. In this case, Cloud Services Corp. is considered a. A. Cloud provider B. Cloud customer C. Cloud reseller D. Cloud database

C. A cloud reseller is a fi rm that contracts with both cloud providers and customers in order to arrange custom services. The cloud provider(s), in this case, would be those entities selling services to Cloud Services Corp. Option A is incorrect. The cloud customer, in this case, would be your company. Option B is incorrect. No aspect of the question describes a cloud database specifi cally. Option D is incorrect.

Your company operates in a highly cooperative market, with a high degree of information sharing between participants. Senior management wants to migrate to a cloud environment but is concerned that providers will not meet the company's collaboration needs. Which deployment model would probably best suit the company's needs? A. Public B. Private C. Community D. Hybrid

C. A community cloud entails all participants to have some degree of ownership and responsibility for the cloud environment; this is the preferred model for cooperative ownership and collaboration among a group with a shared interest/goal.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Management is interested in adopting an Agile development style. In order for this to happen, the company will have to increase the involvement of . A. Security personnel B. Budget and finance representatives C. Members of the user group D. Senior management

C. Agile requires interaction between developers and personnel who will use the software. All the other options are not essential roles in Agile development.

You are the security manager for a retail company that is considering cloud migration to a public, software as a service (SaaS) solution both for your current internal production environment (an on-premises data center) and to host your e-commerce presence. Which of the following is a new concern you should bring up to senior management for them to consider before the migration? A. Regulatory compliance for your credit card processing transactions B. Inadvertent disclosure by internal (company) personnel C. Data disclosure through insufficiently isolated resources D. Malicious intrusion by external entities

C. Because of the multitenant nature of public cloud services, processes and resources that are not properly isolated may create a situation where data could be disclosed to other cloud customers (neighboring tenants). This is a new threat that may result from the migration. All the other options are existing threats in the company's current environment.

What is the business advantage of shifting from capital expenditure in an on-premises environment to the operating expenditures of a cloud environment? A. Reduces the overall cost B. Reduces tax exposure C. Reduces cash flow risks D. Increases profit

C. By spreading costs over time, a business can reduce the risk that there will be a lack of money at any given time, impacting operations. A shift from a capital expenditure scheme to an operational expenditure arrangement does not necessarily mean that overall costs decrease; in fact, costs might very likely increase because the sum of the OpEx installments may total more than the CapEx would have been. Option A is incorrect. CapEx usually reduces tax exposure because it allows for depreciation of assets, whereas OpEx does not. Option B is not correct. Whether the business uses CapEx or OpEx fi nancing does not necessarily increase or decrease profi t. Option D is incorrect.

Which of the following is not typically included as a basic phase of the software t development lifecycle (SDLC)? A. Define B. Design C. Describe D. Develop

C. Describe is not a common phase in the SDLC; the software should be described in the Defi ne phase. All the other options are common phases of the SDLC.

What is the most important input to the software development lifecycle (SDLC)? A. Senior management direction B. Legislation/regulation C. Investor oversight D. Business requirements

D. Business requirements are paramount because they incorporate the elements of all the other options as well as additional inputs.

FM-200 has all the following properties except . A. It's nontoxic at levels used for fire suppression B. It's gaseous at room temperature C. It may deplete the earth's ozone layer D. It does not leave a film or coagulant after use

C. FM-200 is used as a replacement for older Halon systems specifi cally because it (unlike Halon) does not deplete the ozone layer. All the other options are true statements about FM-200 used in fi re suppression.

Raised flooring can serve as both an air plenum and . A. A convenient location for RAID arrays B. Cool storage for data center personnel meals C. A conduit for running cable D. Disaster shelter locations

C. Ideally, raised fl ooring should be used for no other purpose because any objects in that location would impede airfl ow. Therefore, options A, B, and D are incorrect because they defeat the purpose of the raised fl ooring design.

During a cost-benefit analysis, your company determines that it spends a disproportionate amount of money on software licensing and administration. Which cloud model may best help your company to reduce these costs? A. IaaS B. PaaS C. SaaS D. Hybrid

C. In a software as a service (SaaS) model, the cloud provider is tasked with acquiring and managing the software licenses; the scale of a cloud provider's operations can allow them to reduce the per-seat cost of software considerably. The customer is still responsible for some software licensing and maintenance activities (and therefore costs) in infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) models; options A and B are incorrect. A hybrid deployment usually entails the customer maintaining some infrastructure elements, and that usually would also include software licensing requirements. Option D is incorrect.

Which of the following is not included in the Open W t eb Application Security Project (OWASP) Top Ten web application security threats? A. Injection B. Cross-site scripting C. Internal theft D. Sensitive data exposure

C. Internal theft is not listed in the OWASP Top Ten, probably because the list concerns web application security, not security overall. All the other options are included in the OWASP Top Ten.

You are the security officer for a company operating a production environment in the cloud. Your company's assets have a high degree of sensitivity and value, and your company has decided to retain control and ownership of the encryption key management system. In order to do so, your company will have to have which of the following cloud service/deployment models? A. Public B. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) C. Hybrid D. Software as a service (SaaS)

C. Managing the encryption keys on-premises necessitates some elements of a hybrid cloud model; the key management is done on-premises, and the production takes place in the cloud. A public cloud arrangement would preclude the customer hosting the key management system on its premises; option A is incorrect. The service model is slightly irrelevant to where the key management system is located; whereas customer-hosted key management is usually associated with an SaaS model, it is not strictly required. Options B and D are incorrect.

You are the security director for a call center that provides live support for customers of various vendors. Your staff handles calls regarding refunds, complaints, and the use of products customers have purchased. To process refunds, your staff will have access to purchase information, determine which credit card the customer used, and identify specific elements of personal data. How should you best protect this sensitive data and still accomplish the purpose? A. Encrypt the data while it is at rest but allow the call center personnel to decrypt it for refund transactions. B. Encrypt the data while call center personnel are performing their operations. C. Mask the data while call center personnel are performing their operations. D. Have the call center personnel request the pertinent information from the customer for every refund transaction.

C. Masking the data (such as replacing the majority of the credit card number with Xs, leaving only the last four digits in view) should suffi ce for the purpose; it allows the call center personnel to determine which card was used in the sale but does not reveal the card number to the call center. Encrypting the data in storage but allowing call center personnel to decrypt it creates a vast opportunity for fraud and abuse; option A is incorrect. Encrypting the data while the call center is trying to make the refund would be counterproductive; the call center personnel would be unable to determine which card gets the refund. Option B is incorrect. Relying on the customer to provide the correct card number invites inaccuracy and exposes the transaction to fraud; option D is not correct.

Which of the following is an open source cloud-based software project characterized by a toolset that includes components called Nova, Neutron, Heat, Ironic, and Cinder? A. OWASP B. OAuth C. OpenStack D. Mozilla

C. OpenStack is an open source project for creating cloud environments regardless of hardware brand. Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is an open source web application development project and does not involve the use of any of the tools mentioned in the question. Option A is incorrect. OAuth is a set of standards for identity federation. Option B is incorrect. Mozilla is a company that produces and administers open source software such as the Firefox web browser. Option D is incorrect.

Which theoretical technique would allow encrypted data to be manipulated without decrypting it first? A. RAID B. Secret sharing made short (SSMS) C. Homomorphic encryption D. Asymmetric encryption

C. Option A is incorrect because RAID is a storage virtualization technology, used in traditional environments, that combines physical disks components into one or more logical units. SSMS involves encrypting a data set, then splitting the data into pieces, splitting the key into pieces, then signing the data pieces and key pieces and distributing them to various cloud storage locations. Option B is incorrect. Option D is incorrect because it uses public and private key pairs to encrypt and decrypt data.

You are the IT director for an automotive parts supply distribution service; your company wants to operate a production environment in the cloud. Management has expressed a concern that any cloud provider the company chooses will have your company at a disadvantage—that your company will be at great risk because the provider will have your data and operational capability, and that the provider could hold the data "hostage" in order to raise the price of the service dramatically at the end of the contract term. To address management's concerns, you should try to find a cloud offering that places a great deal of emphasis on the trait of cloud computing. A. Resource pooling B. Scalability C. Portability D. Metered service

C. Portability is the aspect of cloud computing that describes the ability to move data and operations away from a given cloud provider (either to another cloud provider or to an on-premise solution). All the other options are aspects of cloud computing but do not aid in addressing the concerns described in the question.

50. Which phase of the business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) process can result in a second disaster? A. Event anticipation B. Creating BC/DR plans and policy C. Return to normal operations D. Incident initiation

C. Returning to normal operations can result in a second disaster if the conditions created by the initial disaster (which created the need to run the BC/DR plan) have not fully been addressed/resolved. An inadvertent initiation of the plan can result in a disaster, but that would only be one disaster, not two; for instance, if senior management got faulty information during the event anticipation phase and decided to switch to contingency operations, but there was no actual causative event, that would be a single disaster. Options A and D are incorrect. The act of planning and crafting policy cannot take the form of a disaster. Option B is incorrect.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Which of the following tools, technologies, or techniques may be very useful for your purposes? A. Data loss prevention or data leak protection (DLP) B. Digital rights management (DRM) C. Sandboxing D. Web application firewall (WAF)

C. Sandboxing allows software to be run in an isolated environment, which can aid in error detection. Software testing should not include raw production data, so there is no purpose for using DLP and DRM solutions; options A and B are incorrect. The WAF is used to fi lter web traffi c; in the testing environment, there should not be any live traffi c going to the software. Option D is incorrect.

In a virtualized environment, suspended virtual machine (VM) instances at rest are subject to increased risk because. A. There is no way to encrypt instances at rest B. Insider threats are greater for data storage locations than processing locations C. The instances are saved as image snapshots and highly portable D. They are unprotected unless multifactor authentication is required

C. Saved virtual instances are simply inert fi les, and they are very easy to copy and move. Encryption may be applied to data at rest (even VM snapshots); option A is incorrect. Insider threats within the cloud data center probably pose just as much risk to the storage nodes as the processing nodes; option B is incorrect. Option D is incorrect.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting a customer-facing production environment. Many of your end users are located in the European Union (EU) and will provide personal data as they use your software. Your company will not be allowed to use a cloud data center in which of the following countries? A. Argentina B. Israel C. South Korea D. Switzerland

C. South Korea does not currently have a federal privacy law that conforms to EU legislation. All the other options are countries that do.

In order for American companies to process personal data belonging to European Union (EU) citizens, they must comply with the Privacy Shield program. The program is administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the . A. U.S. State Department B. Fish and Wildlife Service C. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) D. Federal Communication Commission (FCC)

C. The FTC is the local U.S. enforcement arm for most Privacy Shield activity. All the other options are U.S. government agencies not involved with Privacy Shield.

What is the current European Union (EU) privacy legislation that restricts dissemination of personal data outside the EU? A. The EU Data Directive B. Privacy Shield C. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) D. Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX)

C. The GDPR is the current prevailing EU privacy data legislation. It replaced the Data Directive. Privacy Shield is the program under which entities in non-adhering countries can still be allowed to process the personal data of EU citizens. SOX is an American law.

You are the security manager for a bookkeeping firm that is considering moving to a cloud-based production environment. In selecting a cloud provider, your company is reviewing many criteria. One of these is enhancing the company's business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) capabilities. You want to ensure that the cloud provider you select will allow for migration to an alternate provider in the event of contingencies. The provider you choose should be able to support a migration to an alternate provider within. A. 24 hours B. 1 hour C. Your company's recovery time objective (RTO) D. Your company's recovery point objective (RPO)

C. The RTO is the measure of time after an interruption at which the company needs to resume critical functions; any service migration must take place within that time. RTOs vary for every organization; there is no set answer for all organizations. Options A and B might be correct for a given organization but incorrect in the general case because it's impossible to know an organization's RTO without knowing more about the organization. The RPO is a measure of data that can be lost, not time; option D is incorrect.

Which of the following is not usually suitable for inclusion in a service-level agreement (SLA) for managed cloud services? A. Service availability B. Number of users and virtual machines C. Background checks for provider personnel D. Amount of cloud storage

C. The SLA won't typically include direct mention of the sorts of personnel security measures undertaken by the cloud provider. This may be mentioned, obliquely, in another part of the contract (that is, there may be some language that states that the provider is responsible for ensuring the trustworthiness of its personnel), but it is not a useful SLA element. All the other options are excellent items to include in an SLA.

The destruction of a cloud customer's data can be required by all of the following except. A. Statute B. Regulation C. The cloud provider's policy D. Contract

C. The cloud provider cannot typically require the destruction of the customer's data simply because of its own (provider's) policy. If this is an aspect of the contract between the provider and customer, that is another issue (and listed as another option in this question). The other options are all sources that may dictate the customer's destruction of data.

To optimize airflow within a data center according to industry standards, a raised floor used as an air plenum must have at least of clearance. A. One foot B. One meter C. 24 inches D. 30 inches

C. The industry standard is 24 inches. All the other options are incorrect.

Which of the following business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) testing methodologies is least intrusive? A. Walk-through B. Simulation C. Tabletop D. Full test

C. The tabletop testing method is the least intrusive type of BC/DR test. All the other options are BC/DR testing methods that are more intrusive.

Which common characteristic of the cloud data center also serves customer business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) needs? A. Multitenancy B. Virtualization C. Redundancy D. Software-defined networking

C. The ubiquitous redundancy of systems and capabilities within most cloud data centers not only serves the provider's requirement to meet customer service-level agreements but also enhances the data center's (and the customer's) resistance to disasters and interruptions. All the other options are characteristics of a cloud data center, but they don't serve much BC/DR purpose; option C is the best choice.

In a virtualized cloud environment, the management plane is usually responsible for provisioning virtual machine instances with all of the following resources except. A. CPU B. Memory C. User interface D. Permanent storage

C. The user interface to the virtualized instance can be handled by a variety of mechanisms, but it is not the function of the management plane. All the other options are resources provisioned to the virtual machine(s) by the management plane.

Which of the following is not a core principle included in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) privacy guidelines? A. The individual must have the ability to refrain from sharing their data. B. The individual must have the ability to correct errors in their data. C. The individual must be able to request a purge of their data. D. The entity holding the data must secure it.

C. This is an aspect of the current European Union (EU) legislation, known colloquially as "the right to be forgotten"—it is not an aspect of the OECD principles. All the other options are included in the OECD principles.

You are the security officer for a cloud deployment. In order to secure data in transit, you can choose to implement all of the following techniques and technologies except . A. DNSSEC B. TLS C. IDS/IPS D. IPSec

C. This question is challenging because it requires some abstract thought and all answers seem correct at fi rst glance. Intrusion detection systems (IDSs) and intrusion prevention systems (IPSs) do not secure data; they detect attack activity. Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) protects data in transit by reducing the risk of DNS poisoning; Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) reduce the risk of eavesdropping and interception of data.

Which of the following can be included in the cloud security architecture as a means to identify and reject hostile SQL commands? A. Web application firewall (WAF) B. Application programming interface (API) gateway C. Data loss prevention or data leak protection (DLP) D. Database activity monitor (DAM)

D. A DAM can recognize and block malicious SQL traffi c. A WAF is a Layer 7 fi rewall that understands hostile HTTP traffi c. Option A is incorrect. An API gateway fi lters API traffi c. Option B is incorrect. DLP solutions are used for egress monitoring, not incoming SQL commands. Option C is incorrect.

Your company maintains an on-premises data center for daily production activities but wants to use a cloud service to augment this capability during times of increased demand (cloud bursting). Which deployment model would probably best suit the company's needs? A. Public B. Private C. Community D. Hybrid

D. A hybrid model, where ownership fl uctuates between exclusive control of the customer (private) and provider (public) only during times of increased demand, is almost a textbook description of this arrangement and translates very well for cloud-bursting techniques.

A company wants to absolutely minimize their involvement in administration of IT; which combination of cloud service model and deployment should it consider? A. IaaS, private B. PaaS, private C. SaaS, private D. SaaS, public

D. A software as a service (SaaS) model reduces customer involvement more than the other models; a public cloud deployment likewise reduces customer participation in ownership and maintenance of infrastructure. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) models require the customer to participate in some administration of the environment; options A and B are incorrect. A private cloud entails customer involvement in at least the detailing of governance of the environment; option C is incorrect.

72. All of the following techniques are used in OS hardening except . A. Removing default accounts B. Disallowing local save of credentials C. Removing unnecessary services D. Preventing all administrative access

D. Administrative access may be limited but not prevented. All the other options are common steps of OS hardening.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Management is interested in adopting an Agile development style. This will be typified by which of the following traits? A. Reliance on a concrete plan formulated during the Define phase B. Rigorous, repeated security testing C. Isolated programming experts for specific functional elements D. Short, iterative work periods

D. Agile development is usually organized in relatively short iterations of effort, between a week and a month in duration. Dependence on planning is directly contrary to Agile methodology; option A is incorrect. In Agile, prototyping is favored over testing; option B is incorrect. Agile relies on cooperative development instead of stovepiped expertise; option C is incorrect.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting a customer-facing production environment. Many of your end users are located in the European Union (EU) and will provide personal data as they use your software. Your company will not be allowed to use a cloud data center in which of the following countries? A. Japan B. Australia C. Belgium D. Chile

D. Chile does not currently have a federal privacy law that conforms to EU legislation. All the other options are countries that do (Belgium is in the EU).

In a cloud environment, prior to putting a node into maintenance mode, all of the following actions should be taken except . A. Prevent any new users from logging on or creating any new instances B. Migrate any existing guest virtual machines (VMs) to another node C. Disable alerts from host-based intrusion detection systems (IDSs), intrusion prevention systems (IPSs), or firewalls D. Disable logging functions and tools

D. During maintenance mode, all maintenance activities should still be logged and tracked. All the other actions are recommended for a cloud node entering maintenance mode.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Management has decided that the company will deploy encryption, data loss prevention or data leak protection (DLP), and digital rights management (DRM) in the cloud environment for additional protection. When consulting with management, you explain that these tools will most likely reduce . A. External threats B. Internal threats C. Software vulnerabilities D. Quality of service

D. Every additional security measure might reduce a potential threat but defi nitely will reduce productivity and quality of service. There is always an overhead cost of security.

Which of the following is not a typical physical access control mechanism in the cloud t data center? A. Cage locks B. Video surveillance C. Rack locks D. Fire suppression

D. Fire suppression systems are physical control mechanisms commonly found in cloud data centers but are not an element of access control. All the other options are common physical access control mechanisms in a cloud data center.

Which of the following techniques is n ot recommended for privileged user management? A. Increased password/phrase complexity B. More frequent password/phrase changes C. More detailed background checks D. Less detailed audit trail

D. If anything, the audit trail for privileged users should be more detailed than that for regular users. All the other options are recommended techniques for privileged user management.

Which of the following cloud environment accounts should only be granted on a temporary basis? A. Remote users B. Senior management C. Internal users D. External vendors

D. If external vendors need access to the cloud environment, that access should only be granted on an extremely limited and temporary basis. All the other options are common cloud access types and don't necessarily need to be limited in duration.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting a customer-facing production environment. Many of your end users are located in the European Union (EU) and will provide personal data as they use your software. Your company will not be allowed to use a cloud data center in which of the following countries? A. Canada B. Singapore C. France D. Kenya

D. Kenya does not currently have a federal privacy law that conforms to EU legislation. All the other options are countries that do (France is in the EU).

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. Previous releases have shipped with major flaws that were not detected in the testing phase; leadership wants to avoid repeating that problem. It is important to prevent from being present during the testing. A. Senior management B. Marketing department personnel C. Finance analysts D. Programmers who worked on the software

D. Programmers have a vested interest in, and a specifi c perspective of, software they create. They can unduly infl uence testing outcomes, even unintentionally. It is best to prevent programmers from attending testing of software they helped create. All the other options are personnel who do not need to be present but will not necessarily cause undue infl uence of the testing process.

You are the security manager for a software development firm. Your company is interested in using a managed cloud service provider for hosting its testing environment. You recommend the use of STRIDE threat modeling to assess potential risks associated with the software. Which of the following is not addressed by STRIDE? A. External parties presenting false credentials B. External parties illicitly modifying information C. Participants able to deny a transaction D. Users unprepared for secure operation by lack of training

D. STRIDE does not address user security training. All the other options are aspects addressed by the STRIDE model.

Which security principle dictates that encryption key management and storage should be isolated from the data encrypted with those keys? A. Least privilege B. Two-person integrity C. Compartmentalization D. Separation of duties

D. Separation of duties dictates that one person/entity cannot complete an entire transaction alone. In the case of encryption, a single entity should not be able to administer the issuing of keys, encrypt the data, and store the keys, because this could lead to a situation where that entity has the ability to access or take encrypted data. All the other options are security principles but are not intrinsically applicable to the concept of storing encryption keys away from encrypted data.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) created the Trusted Cloud Initiative (TCI) to define principles of cloud computing that providers should strive for in order to foster a clear understanding of the cloud marketplace and to enhance that market. Which of the following is not one of the CSA's TCI fundamental principles? A. Delegate or federate access control when appropriate. B. Ensure the [trusted cloud] architecture is resilient, elastic, and flexible. C. Ensure the [trusted cloud] architecture addresses and supports multiple levels of protection. D. Provide economical services to all customers, regardless of point of origin.

D. The TCI does not, specifi cally, require cost-effectiveness of cloud services. All the other options are principles detailed in the TCI.

Who is the entity identified by personal data? A. The data owner B. The data processor C. The data custodian D. The data subject

D. The data subject is the person who is identifi ed by personal data. All the other options are other privacy-data-related roles.

In order for an organization to determine if its backup solution is adequate for meeting the recovery point objective (RPO), what must be done? A. Conduct full backups at least daily. B. Use a data mirroring solution. C. Put all backups in the cloud. D. Practice a restore from backup.

D. There is no way to know if the backup actually serves the purpose until the organization tests a restoration. The other options are all backup options but do not actually demonstrate whether the backup is suitable for the business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) requirements.

In which phase of the cloud secure data lifecycle does data leave the production environment and go into long-term storage? A. Store B. Use C. Share D. Archive

D. This action defi nes the archive phase. All the other options are incorrect.

You are the IT director for an automotive parts supply distribution service; your company wants to operate a production environment in the cloud. As you consider possible providers, you are careful to check that they each offer the essential traits of cloud computing. These include all of the following except. A. Broad network access B. Metered service C. On-demand self-service D. Automatic anti-malware and intrusion prevention

D. While many cloud providers will offer these services (as well as many others), they are not defi ning characteristics of cloud computing. All the other options are defi ning characteristics of cloud computing.