CompTIA SY0-401 Online Practice Questions and Exam Preparation

CompTIA SY0-401 Online Questions & Answers

• Question 951:

  An IT security technician needs to establish host based security for company workstations. Which of the following will BEST meet this requirement?

  A. Implement IIS hardening by restricting service accounts.
  B. Implement database hardening by applying vendor guidelines.
  C. Implement perimeter firewall rules to restrict access.
  D. Implement OS hardening by applying GPOs.
  D. Implement OS hardening by applying GPOs.

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  Explanation: Hardening is the process of securing a system by reducing its surface of vulnerability. Reducing the surface of vulnerability typically includes removing or disabling unnecessary functions and features, removing or disabling unnecessary user accounts, disabling unnecessary protocols and ports, and disabling unnecessary services. This can be implemented using the native security features of an operating system, such as Group Policy Objects (GPOs).

• Question 952:

  The Chief Security Officer (CISO) at a multinational banking corporation is reviewing a plan to upgrade the entire corporate IT infrastructure. The architecture consists of a centralized cloud environment hosting the majority of data, small server clusters at each corporate location to handle the majority of customer transaction processing, ATMs, and a new mobile banking application accessible from smartphones, tablets, and the Internet via HTTP. The corporation does business having varying data retention and privacy laws. Which of the following technical modifications to the architecture and corresponding security controls should be implemented to provide the MOST complete protection of data?

  A. Revoke exiting root certificates, re-issue new customer certificates, and ensure all transactions are digitally signed to minimize fraud, implement encryption for data in-transit between data centers
  B. Ensure all data is encryption according to the most stringent regulatory guidance applicable, implement encryption for data in-transit between data centers, increase data availability by replicating all data, transaction data, logs between each corporate location
  C. Store customer data based on national borders, ensure end-to end encryption between ATMs, end users, and servers, test redundancy and COOP plans to ensure data is not inadvertently shifted from one legal jurisdiction to another with more stringent regulations
  D. Install redundant servers to handle corporate customer processing, encrypt all customer data to ease the transfer from one country to another, implement end-to-end encryption between mobile applications and the cloud.
  C. Store customer data based on national borders, ensure end-to end encryption between ATMs, end users, and servers, test redundancy and COOP plans to ensure data is not inadvertently shifted from one legal jurisdiction to another with more stringent regulations

• Question 953:

  When using PGP, which of the following should the end user protect from compromise? (Select TWO).

  A. Private key
  B. CRL details
  C. Public key
  D. Key password
  E. Key escrow
  F. Recovery agent
  A. Private key
  D. Key password

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  A: In PGP only the private key belonging to the receiver can decrypt the session key. PGP combines symmetric-key encryption and public-key encryption. The message is encrypted using a symmetric encryption algorithm, which requires a symmetric key. Each symmetric key is used only once and is also called a session key.

  D: PGP uses a passphrase to encrypt your private key on your machine. Your private key is encrypted on your disk using a hash of your passphrase as the secret key. You use the passphrase to decrypt and use your private key.

• Question 954:

  The IT department noticed that there was a significant decrease in network performance during the afternoon hours. The IT department performed analysis of the network and discovered this was due to users accessing and downloading music and video streaming from social sites. The IT department notified corporate of their findings and a memo was sent to all employees addressing the misuse of company resources and requesting adherence to company policy. Which of the following policies is being enforced?

  A. Acceptable use policy
  B. Telecommuting policy
  C. Data ownership policy
  D. Non disclosure policy
  A. Acceptable use policy

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  Acceptable use policy describes how employees are allowed to use company systems and resources, and the consequences of misuse.

• Question 955:

  Which of the following provides additional encryption strength by repeating the encryption process with additional keys?

  A. AES
  B. 3DES
  C. TwoFish
  D. Blowfish
  B. 3DES

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  Triple-DES (3DES) is a technological upgrade of DES. 3DES is still used, even though AES is the preferred choice for government applications. 3DES is considerably harder to break than many other systems, and it's more secure than DES. It increases the key length to 168 bits (using three 56-bit DES keys).

• Question 956:

  Which of the following MUST Matt, a security administrator, implement to verify both the integrity and authenticity of a message while requiring a shared secret?

  A. RIPEMD
  B. MD5
  C. SHA
  D. HMAC
  D. HMAC

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  HMAC (Hash-Based Message Authentication Code) uses a hashing algorithm along with a symmetric key. The hashing function provides data integrity, while the symmetric key provides authenticity.

• Question 957:

  Which of the following is used by the recipient of a digitally signed email to verify the identity of the sender?

  A. Recipient's private key
  B. Sender's public key
  C. Recipient's public key
  D. Sender's private key
  B. Sender's public key

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  When the sender wants to send a message to the receiver. It's important that this message not be altered. The sender uses the private key to create a digital signature. The message is, in effect, signed with the private key. The sender then sends the message to the receiver. The recipient uses the public key attached to the message to validate the digital signature. If the values match, the receiver knows the message is authentic. Thus the recipient uses the sender's public key to verify the sender's identity.

• Question 958:

  Purchasing receives an automated phone call from a bank asking to input and verify credit card information. The phone number displayed on the caller ID matches the bank. Which of the following attack types is this?

  A. Hoax
  B. Phishing
  C. Vishing
  D. Whaling
  C. Vishing

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  Vishing (voice or VoIP phishing) is an electronic fraud tactic in which individuals are tricked into revealing critical financial or personal information to unauthorized entities. Vishing works like phishing but does not always occur over the Internet

  and is carried out using voice technology. A vishing attack can be conducted by voice email, VoIP (voice over IP), or landline or cellular telephone.

  The potential victim receives a message, often generated by speech synthesis, indicating that suspicious activity has taken place in a credit card account, bank account, mortgage account or other financial service in their name. The victim is

  told to call a specific telephone number and provide information to "verify identity" or to "ensure that fraud does not occur." If the attack is carried out by telephone, caller ID spoofing can cause the victim's set to indicate a legitimate source,

  such as a bank or a government agency.

  Vishing is difficult for authorities to trace, particularly when conducted using VoIP. Furthermore, like many legitimate customer services, vishing scams are often outsourced to other countries, which may render sovereign law enforcement

  powerless. Consumers can protect themselves by suspecting any unsolicited message that suggests they are targets of illegal activity, no matter what the medium or apparent source. Rather than calling a number given in any unsolicited

  message, a consumer should directly call the institution named, using a number that is known to be valid, to verify all recent activity and to ensure that the account information has not been tampered with.

• Question 959:

  Ann a technician received a spear-phishing email asking her to update her personal information by clicking the link within the body of the email. Which of the following type of training would prevent Ann and other employees from becoming victims to such attacks?

  A. User Awareness
  B. Acceptable Use Policy
  C. Personal Identifiable Information
  D. Information Sharing
  C. Personal Identifiable Information

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  Personally identifiable information (PII) is a catchall for any data that can be used to uniquely identify an individual. This data can be anything from the person's name to a fingerprint (think biometrics), credit card number, or patient record. Employees should be made aware of this type of attack by means of training.

• Question 960:

  Ann, a security technician, is reviewing the IDS log files. She notices a large number of alerts for multicast packets from the switches on the network. After investigation, she discovers that this is normal activity for her network. Which of the following BEST describes these results?

  A. True negatives
  B. True positives
  C. False positives
  D. False negatives
  C. False positives

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  False positives are essentially events that are mistakenly flagged and are not really events to be concerned about.