CSSLP Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional Question and Answers

An Information System Security Officer (ISSO) plays the role of a supporter. The responsibilities of an Information System Security Officer (ISSO) are as follows: Manages the security of the information system that is slated for Certification & Accreditation (C&A). Insures the information systems configuration with the agency's information security policy. Supports the information system owner/information owner for the completion of security-related responsibilities. Takes part in the formal configuration management process. Prepares Certification & Accreditation (C&A) packages. An Information System Security Engineer (ISSE) plays the role of an advisor. The responsibilities of an Information System Security Engineer are as follows:

Provides view on the continuous monitoring of the information system. Provides advice on the impacts of system changes. Takes part in the configuration management process. Takes part in the development activities that are required to implement system changes. Follows approved system changes.

In a ciphertext only attack, an attacker obtains encrypted messages that have been encrypted using the same encryption algorithm.

John will perform OS fingerprinting on the We-are-secure network. Fingerprinting is the easiest way to detect the Operating System (OS) of a remote system. OS detection is important because, after knowing the target system's OS, it becomes easier to hack into the system. The comparison of data packets that are sent by the target system is done by fingerprinting. The analysis of data packets gives the attacker a hint as to which operating system is being used by the remote system. There are two types of fingerprinting techniques as follows: 1.Active fingerprinting 2.Passive fingerprinting In active fingerprinting ICMP messages are sent to the target system and the response message of the target system shows which OS is being used by the remote system. In passive fingerprinting the number of hops reveals the OS of the remote system. Answer: D and B are incorrect. John should perform OS fingerprinting first, after which it will be easy to identify which services are running on the network since there are many services that run only on a specific operating system. After performing OS fingerprinting, John should perform networking mapping. Answer: C is incorrect. This is a pre-attack phase, and only after gathering all relevant knowledge of a network should John install a backdoor.

Only acceptance is appropriate for both positive and negative risk events. Often sharing is used for low probability and low impact risk events regardless of the positive or negative effects the risk event may bring the project. Acceptance response is a part of Risk Response planning process. Acceptance response delineates that the project plan will not be changed to deal with the risk. Management may develop a contingency plan if the risk does occur. Acceptance response to a risk event is a strategy that can be used for risks that pose either threats or opportunities. Acceptance response can be of two types: Passive acceptance: It is a strategy in which no plans are made to try or avoid or mitigate the risk. Active acceptance: Such responses include developing contingency reserves to deal with risks, in case they occur. Acceptance is the only response for both threats and opportunities. Answer: C is incorrect. Sharing is a positive risk response that shares an opportunity for all parties involved in the risk event. Answer: B is incorrect. Transference is a negative risk event that transfers the risk ownership to a third party, such as vendor, through a contractual relationship. Answer: D is incorrect. Mitigation is a negative risk event that seeks to lower the probability and/or impact of a risk event.

A penetration testing is a method of evaluating the security of a computer system or network by simulating an attack from a malicious source. The process involves an active analysis of the system for any potential vulnerabilities that may result from poor or improper system configuration, known or unknown hardware or software flaws, or operational weaknesses in process or technical countermeasures. This analysis is carried out from the position of a potential attacker, and can involve active exploitation of security vulnerabilities. Any security issues that are found will be presented to the system owner together with an assessment of their impact and often with a proposal for mitigation or a technical solution. The intent of a penetration test is to determine feasibility of an attack and the amount of business impact of a successful exploit, if discovered. It is a component of a full security audit. Answer: C is incorrect. A paper test is the least complex test in the disaster recovery and business continuity testing approaches. In this test, the BCP/DRP plan documents are distributed to the appropriate managers and BCP/DRP team members for review, markup, and comment. This approach helps the auditor to ensure that the plan is complete and that all team members are familiar with their responsibilities within the plan. Answer: D is incorrect. A walk-through test is an extension of the paper testing in the business continuity and disaster recovery process. In this testing methodology, appropriate managers and BCP/DRP team members discuss and walk through procedures of the plan. They also discuss the training needs, and clarification of critical plan elements. Answer: A is incorrect. A full operational test includes all team members and participants in the disaster recovery and business continuity process. This full operation test involves the mobilization of personnel. It restores operations in the same manner as an outage or disaster would. The full operational test extends the preparedness test by including actual notification, mobilization of resources, processing of data, and utilization of backup media for restoration.

Integration testing is a software testing that seeks to verify the interfaces between components against a software design. Software components may be integrated in an iterative way or all together ("big bang"). Normally the former is considered a better practice since it allows interface issues to be localized more quickly and fixed. Integration testing works to expose defects in the interfaces and interaction between the integrated components (modules). Progressively larger groups of tested software components corresponding to elements of the architectural design are integrated and tested until the software works as a system. Answer: A is incorrect. Regression testing focuses on finding defects after a major code change has occurred. Specifically, it seeks to uncover software regressions, or old bugs that have come back. Such regressions occur whenever software functionality that was previously working correctly stops working as intended. Typically, regressions occur as an unintended consequence of program changes, when the newly developed part of the software collides with the previously existing code. Answer: D is incorrect. Unit testing refers to tests that verify the functionality of a specific section of code, usually at the function level. In an object-oriented environment, this is usually at the class level, and the minimal unit tests include the constructors and destructors. These types of tests are usually written by developers as they work on code (white-box style), to ensure that the specific function is working as expected. One function might have multiple tests, to catch corner cases or other branches in the code. Unit testing alone cannot verify the functionality of a piece of software, but rather is used to assure that the building blocks the software uses work independently of each other. Answer: C is incorrect. The black-box testing uses external descriptions of the software, including specifications, requirements, and design to derive test cases. These tests can be functional or non-functional, though usually functional. The test designer selects valid and invalid inputs and determines the correct output. There is no knowledge of the test object's internal structure. This method of test design is applicable to all levels of software testing: unit, integration, functional testing, system and acceptance. The higher the level, and hence the bigger and more complex the box, the more one is forced to use black box testing to simplify. While this method can uncover unimplemented parts of the specification, one cannot be sure that all existent paths are tested.

Chief Information Security Officer directs and coordinates implementations of the information security program. The governance roles and responsibilities are mentioned below in the table:

NIST has developed a suite of documents for conducting Certification & Accreditation (C&A). These documents are as follows: NIST Special Publication 800-37: This document is a guide for the security certification and accreditation of Federal Information Systems.

NIST Special Publication 800-53: This document provides a guideline for security controls for Federal Information Systems. NIST Special Publication 800-53A. This document consists of techniques and procedures for verifying the effectiveness of security controls in Federal Information System. NIST Special Publication 800-59: This document is a guideline for identifying an information system as a National Security System. NIST Special Publication 800-60: This document is a guide for mapping types of information and information systems to security objectives and risk levels.

Configuration identification is known as the decomposition process of a verification system into Configuration Items. Configuration identification is the process of identifying the attributes that define every aspect of a configuration item. A configuration item is a product (hardware and/or software) that has an end-user purpose. These attributes are recorded in configuration documentation and baselined. Baselining an attribute forces formal configuration change control processes to be effected in the event that these attributes are changed. Answer: D is incorrect. Configuration control is a procedure of the Configuration management. Configuration control is a set of processes and approval stages required to change a configuration item's attributes and to re-baseline them. It supports the change of the functional and physical attributes of software at various points in time, and performs systematic control of changes to the identified attributes. Configuration control is a means of ensuring that system changes are approved before being implemented. Only the proposed and approved changes are implemented, and the implementation is complete and accurate. Answer: A is incorrect. The configuration status accounting procedure is the ability to record and report on the configuration baselines associated with each configuration item at any moment of time. It supports the functional and physical attributes of software at various points in time, and performs systematic control of accounting to the identified attributes for the purpose of maintaining software integrity and traceability throughout the software development life cycle. Answer: C is incorrect. Configuration auditing is the quality assurance element of configuration management. It is occupied in the process of periodic checks to establish the consistency and completeness of accounting information and to validate that all configuration management policies are being followed. Configuration audits are broken into functional and physical configuration audits. They occur either at delivery or at the moment of effecting the change. A functional configuration audit ensures that functional and performance attributes of a configuration item are achieved, while a physical configuration audit ensures that a configuration item is installed in accordance with the requirements of its detailed design documentation.

The confidentiality service of a cryptographic system ensures that information will not be disclosed to any unauthorized person on a local network.

The change management system is comprised of several components that guide the change request through the process. When a change request is made that will affect the project scope. The Configuration Management System evaluates the change request and documents the features and functions of the change on the project scope.

Process redundancy permits software to run simultaneously on multiple geographically distributed locations, with voting on results. It prevents attacks in which an attacker can get physical control of a machine, insert unauthorized software, and alter data.

The Biba and Clark-Wilson access control models are used in the commercial sector. The Biba model is a formal state transition system of computer security policy that describes a set of access control rules designed to ensure data integrity. Data and subjects are grouped into ordered levels of integrity. The model is designed so that subjects may not corrupt data in a level ranked higher than the subject, or be corrupted by data from a lower level than the subject. The Clark-Wilson security model provides a foundation for specifying and analyzing an integrity policy for a computing system. Answer: D is incorrect. The Bell-LaPadula access control model is mainly used in military systems. Answer: B is incorrect. There is no such access control model as Clark-Biba.

Certification and accreditation (C&A) is a set of processes that culminate in an agreement between key players that a system in its current configuration and operation provides adequate protection controls. Certification and Accreditation (C&A or CnA) is a process for implementing information security. It is a systematic procedure for evaluating, describing, testing, and authorizing systems prior to or after a system is in operation. The C&A process is used extensively in the U.S. Federal Government. Some C&A processes include FISMA, NIACAP, DIACAP, and DCID 6/3. Certification is a comprehensive assessment of the management, operational, and technical security controls in an information system, made in support of security accreditation, to determine the extent to which the controls are implemented correctly, operating as intended, and producing the desired outcome with respect to meeting the security requirements for the system. Accreditation is the official management decision given by a senior agency official to authorize operation of an information system and to explicitly accept the risk to agency operations (including mission, functions, image, or reputation), agency assets, or individuals, based on the implementation of an agreed-upon set of security controls. Answer: D is incorrect. Risk management is a set of processes that ensures a risk-based approach is used to determine adequate, cost- effective security for a system. Answer: A is incorrect. Information assurance (IA) is the process of organizing and monitoring information-related risks. It ensures that only the approved users have access to the approved information at the approved time. IA practitioners seek to protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring confidentiality, integrity, authentication, availability, and non-repudiation. These objectives are applicable whether the information is in storage, processing, or transit, and whether threatened by an attack. Answer: B is incorrect. ISSE is a set of processes and solutions used during all phases of a system's life cycle to meet the system's information protection needs.

2Mosaic is a tool used for watermark breaking. It is an attack against a digital watermarking system. In this type of attack, an image is chopped into small pieces and then placed together. When this image is embedded into a web page, the web browser renders the small pieces into one image. This image looks like a real image with no watermark in it. This attack is successful, as it is impossible to read watermark in very small pieces. Answer: D is incorrect. Gifshuffle is used to hide message or information inside GIF images. It is done by shuffling the colormap. This tool also provides compression and encryption. Answer: B and A are incorrect. Active Attacks and Steg-Only Attacks are used to attack Steganography.

Exception management is a process in which experienced personnel and software tools are used to investigate, resolve, and handle process deviation, malformed data, infrastructure or connectivity issues. It increases the efficiency of business processes and contributes in the progress of business. Answer: C is incorrect. Configuration Management (CM) is an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) IT Service Management (ITSM) process. It tracks all of the individual Configuration Items (CI) in an IT system, which may be as simple as a single server, or as complex as the entire IT department. In large organizations a configuration manager may be appointed to oversee and manage the CM process. Answer: A is incorrect. Risk Management is used to identify, assess, and control risks. It includes analyzing the value of assets to the business, identifying threats to those assets, and evaluating how vulnerable each asset is to those threats. Risk Management is part of Service Design and the owner of the Risk Management is the Risk Manager. Risks are addressed within several processes in ITIL V3; however, there is no dedicated Risk Management process. ITIL V3 calls for "coordinated risk assessment exercises", so at IT Process Maps we decided to assign clear responsibilities for managing risks. Answer: D is incorrect. Change Management is used to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient handling of all changes. A change is "an event that results in a new status of one or more configuration items (CI's)" approved by management, cost effective, enhances business process changes (fixes) - with a minimum risk to IT infrastructure. The main aims of Change Management are as follows: Minimal disruption of services Reduction in back-out activities Economic utilization of resources involved in the change

The Phase 1 of DITSCAP C&A is known as Definition Phase. The goal of this phase is to define the C&A level of effort, identify the main C&A roles and responsibilities, and create an agreement on the method for implementing the security requirements. The Phase 1 starts with the input of the mission need. This phase comprises three process activities: Document mission need Registration Negotiation Answer: D is incorrect. Initial Certification Analysis is a Phase 2 activity.

According to the scenario, you have searched all open ports of the we-are-secure server. Now you want to perform the next information-gathering step, i.e., passive OS fingerprinting. For this, you will use the P0f tool to accomplish the task. P0f is a passive OS fingerprinting tool that is used to identify the operating system of a target host simply by examining captured packets even when the device is behind a packet firewall. It does not generate any additional direct or indirect network traffic. P0f can also be used to gather various information, such as firewall presence, NAT use (for policy enforcement), existence of a load balancer setup, the distance to the remote system and its uptime, etc. Answer: C is incorrect. Nmap is used for active OS fingerprinting. Nmap is a free open-source utility for network exploration and security auditing. It is used to discover computers and services on a computer network, thus creating a "map" of the network. Just like many simple port scanners, Nmap is capable of discovering passive services. In addition, Nmap may be able to determine various details about the remote computers. These include operating system, device type, uptime, software product used to run a service, exact version number of that product, presence of some firewall techniques and, on a local area network, even vendor of the remote network card. Nmap runs on Linux, Microsoft Windows etc.Answer: A is incorrect. SuperScan is a TCP/UDP port scanner. It also works as a ping sweeper and hostname resolver. It can ping a given range of IP addresses and resolve the host name of the remote system.The features of SuperScan are as follows: It scans any port range from a built-in list or any given range. It performs ping scans and port scans using any IP range. It modifies the port list and port descriptions using the built in editor. It connects to any discovered open port using user-specified "helper" applications. It has the transmission speed control utility.

Answer: B is incorrect. NBTscan is a scanner that scans IP networks for NetBIOS name information. It sends a NetBIOS status query to each address in a supplied range and lists received information in human readable form. It displays IP address, NetBIOS computer name, logged-in user name and MAC address of each responded host. NBTscan works in the same manner as nbtstat, but it operates on a range of addresses instead of just one.

The configuration management system ensures that proposed changes to the project's scope are reviewed and evaluated for their affect on the project's product. Configuration Management System is a subsystem of the overall project management system. It is a collection of formal documented procedures used to identify and document the functional and physical characteristics of a product, result, service, or component of the project. It also controls any changes to such characteristics, and records and reports each change and its implementation status. It includes the documentation, tracking systems, and defined approval levels necessary for authorizing and controlling changes. Audits are performed as part of configuration management to determine if the requirements have been met. Answer: B is incorrect. The scope change control system focuses on reviewing the actual changes to the project scope. When a change to the project's scope is proposed, the configuration management system is also invoked. Answer: C is incorrect. The cost change control system is responsible for reviewing and controlling changes to the project costs. Answer: D is incorrect. Integrated change control examines the affect of a proposed change on the project as a whole.

The various types of internal tests performed on builds are as follows: Regression tests: It is also known as the verification testing. These tests are developed to confirm that capabilities in earlier builds continue to work correctly in the subsequent builds. Functional test: These tests emphasizes on verifying that the build meets its functional and data requirements and correctly generates each expected display and report. Performance tests: These tests are used to identify the performance thresholds of each build. Reliability tests: These tests are used to identify the reliability thresholds of each build.

The Compliance rule specifies the behaviors of the DRM implementation and any applications that are accessing the implementation. The compliance rule specifies the following elements: Definition of specific license rights Device requirements Revocation of license path or penalties when the implementation is not robust enough or noncompliant Answer: B is incorrect. Over- the- air provisioning is a mechanism to deploy MIDlet suites over a network. It is a method of distributing MIDlet suites. MIDlet suite providers install their MIDlet suites on Web servers and provide a hypertext link for downloading. A user can use this link to download the MIDlet suite either through the Internet microbrowser or through WAP on his device. Answer: C is incorrect. An access control is a system, which enables an authority to control access to areas and resources in a given physical facility, or computer-based information system. Access control system, within the field of physical security, is generally seen as the second layer in the security of a physical structure. It refers to all mechanisms that control visibility of screens, views, and data within Siebel Business Applications. Answer: A is incorrect. OS fingerprinting is a process in which an external host sends special traffic on the external network interface of a computer to determine the computer's operating system. It is one of the primary steps taken by hackers in preparing an attack.

The Phase 3 of DITSCAP C&A is known as Validation. The goal of Phase 3 is to validate that the preceding work has produced an IS that operates in a specified computing environment. The process activities of this phase are as follows: Continue to review and refine the SSAA Perform certification evaluation of the integrated system Develop recommendation to the DAA Certification and accreditation decision Answer: D is incorrect. System development is a Phase 2 activity.

The Industrial Property law and the Copyright law are the components of the Intellectual Property law.

The Code of Ethics Canons in (ISC)2 code of ethics are as follows: Protect society, the commonwealth, and the infrastructure. Act honorably, honestly, justly, responsibly, and legally. Provide diligent and competent service to principals. Advance and protect the profession.

The various categories of root cause analysis (RCA) are as follows: Safety-based RC A. It consists of plans from the health and safety areas. Production-based RCA. It integrates quality control paradigms. Process-based RCA. It integrates business processes. Failure-based RCA. It integrates failure analysis processes as employed in engineering and maintenance. Systems-based RCA. It integrates the methods from risk and systems analysis.

A disaster recovery plan is a complete statement of reliable actions to be taken before, during, and after a disruptive event that causes a considerable loss of information systems resources. The chief objective of a disaster recovery plan is to provide an organized way to make decisions if a disruptive event occurs. Disaster recovery planning is a subset of a larger process known as business continuity planning and should include planning for resumption of applications, data, hardware, communications (such as networking), and other IT infrastructure. A business continuity plan (BCP) includes planning for non-IT related aspects such as key personnel, facilities, crisis communication, and reputation protection, and should refer to the disaster recovery plan (DRP) for IT-related infrastructure recovery/continuity. Answer: D is incorrect. Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is the creation and validation of a practiced logistical plan for how an organization will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical (urgent) functions within a predetermined time after a disaster or extended disruption. The logistical plan is called a business continuity plan. Answer: B is incorrect. The Continuity Of Operation Plan (COOP) refers to the preparations and institutions maintained by the United States government, providing survival of federal government operations in the case of catastrophic events. It provides procedures and capabilities to sustain an organization's essential. COOP is the procedure documented to ensure persistent critical operations throughout any period where normal operations are unattainable. Answer: A is incorrect. A contingency plan is a plan devised for a specific situation when things could go wrong. Contingency plans are often devised by governments or businesses who want to be prepared for anything that could happen. Contingency plans include specific strategies and actions to deal with specific variances to assumptions resulting in a particular problem, emergency, or state of affairs. They also include a monitoring process and "triggers" for initiating planned actions. They are required to help governments, businesses, or individuals to recover from serious incidents in the minimum time with minimum cost and disruption.

According to the scenario, Samantha is using the ping flood attack. In a ping flood attack, an attacker sends a large number of ICMP packets to the target computer using the ping command, i.e., ping -f target_IP_address. When the target computer receives these packets in large quantities, it does not respond and hangs. However, for such an attack to take place, the attacker must have sufficient Internet bandwidth, because if the target responds with an "ECHO reply ICMP packet" message, the attacker must have both the incoming and outgoing bandwidths available for communication. Answer: A is incorrect. In a smurf DoS attack, an attacker sends a large amount of ICMP echo request traffic to the IP broadcast addresses. These ICMP requests have a spoofed source address of the intended victim. If the routing device delivering traffic to those broadcast addresses delivers the IP broadcast to all the hosts, most of the IP addresses send an ECHO reply message. However, on a multi- access broadcast network, hundreds of computers might reply to each packet when the target network is overwhelmed by all the messages sent simultaneously. Due to this, the network becomes unable to provide services to all the messages and crashes. Answer: D is incorrect. In a teardrop attack, a series of data packets are sent to the target computer with overlapping offset field values. As a result, the target computer is unable to reassemble these packets and is forced to crash, hang, or reboot. Answer: B is incorrect. In a land attack, the attacker sends a spoofed TCP SYN packet in which the IP address of the target is filled in both the source and destination fields. On receiving the spoofed packet, the target system becomes confused and goes into a frozen state. Now-a-days, antivirus can easily detect such an attack.

Security controls are safeguards or countermeasures to avoid, counteract, or minimize security risks. The following are the types of security controls for information systems, that can be employed by an organization: 1.System-specific controls: These types of security controls provide security capability for a particular information system only. 2.Common controls: These types of security controls provide security capability for multiple information systems. 3.Hybrid controls: These types of security controls have features of both system-specific and common controls. Answer: C is incorrect. It is an invalid control.

NIST has developed a suite of documents for conducting Certification & Accreditation (C&A). These documents are as follows: 1.NIST Special Publication 800-37: This document is a guide for the security certification and accreditation of Federal Information Systems. 2.NIST Special Publication 800-53: This document provides a guideline for security controls for Federal Information Systems. 3.NIST Special Publication 800-53A. This document consists of techniques and procedures for verifying the effectiveness of security controls in Federal Information System. 4.NIST Special Publication 800-59: This document provides a guideline for identifying an information system as a National Security System. 5.NIST Special Publication 800-60: This document is a guide for mapping types of information and information systems to security objectives and risk levels.

The mission and business process level is the Tier 2. It addresses risks from the mission and business process perspective. It is guided by the risk decisions at Tier 1. The various Tier 2 activities are as follows: It defines the core missions and business processes for the organization. It also prioritizes missions and business processes, with respect to the goals and objectives of the organization. It defines the types of information that an organization requires, to successfully execute the stated missions and business processes. It helps in developing an organization-wide information protection strategy and incorporating high-level information security requirements. It specifies the degree of autonomy for the subordinate organizations.

In private cloud, the cloud infrastructure is operated exclusively for an organization. The private cloud infrastructure is administered by the organization or a third party, and exists on premise and off premise. In community cloud, the cloud infrastructure is shared by a number of organizations and supports a particular community. The community cloud infrastructure is administered by the organizations or a third party and exists on premise or off premise. Answer: B is incorrect. In public cloud, the cloud infrastructure is administered by an organization that sells cloud services. Answer: C is incorrect. In hybrid cloud, the cloud infrastructure is administered by both, i.e., an organization and a third party.

In 2003, NIST developed a new Certification & Accreditation (C&A) guideline known as FIPS 199. FIPS 199 is a standard for security categorization of Federal Information and Information Systems. It defines three levels of potential impact: Low: It causes a limited adverse effect. Medium: It causes a serious adverse effect. High: It causes a severe adverse effect.

A business impact analysis (BIA) is a crisis management and business impact analysis technique that identifies those threats that can impact the business continuity of operations. Such threats can be either natural or man-made. The BIA team should have a clear understanding of the organization, key business processes, and IT resources for assessing the risks associated with continuity. In the BIA team, there should be senior management, IT personnel, and end users to identify all resources that are to be used during normal operations. Answer: B is incorrect. Risk analysis is the science of risks and their probability and evaluation in a business or a process. It is an important factor in security enhancement and prevention in a system. Risk analysis should be performed as part of the risk management process for each project. The outcome of the risk analysis would be the creation or review of the risk register to identify and quantify risk elements to the project and their potential impact. Answer: A is incorrect. The functional analysis process is used for converting system requirements into a comprehensive function standard. Verification is the result of the functional analysis process, in which the fundamentals of a system level functional architecture are defined adequately to allow for synthesis in the design phase. The functional analysis breaks down the higher-level functions into the lower level functions. Answer: D is incorrect. Requirements analysis encompasses the tasks that go into determining the needs or conditions to meet for a new or altered product, taking account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the various stakeholders.

Trusted computing base (TCB) refers to hardware, software, controls, and processes that cause a computer system or network to be devoid of malicious software or hardware. Maintaining the trusted computing base (TCB) is essential for security policy to be implemented successfully. Answer: D is incorrect. Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) is a standard-based protocol that provides the highest level of VPN security. IPSec can encrypt virtually everything above the networking layer. It is used for VPN connections that use the L2TP protocol. It secures both data and password. IPSec cannot be used with Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP). Answer: A is incorrect. The Common data security architecture (CDSA) is a set of layered security services and cryptographic framework. It deals with the communications and data security problems in the emerging Internet and intranet application space. It presents an infrastructure for building cross-platform, interoperable, security-enabled applications for client-server environments. Answer: B is incorrect. An application programming interface (API) is an interface implemented by a software program which enables it to interact with other software. It facilitates interaction between different software programs similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers. An API is implemented by applications, libraries, and operating systems to determine their vocabularies and calling conventions, and is used to access their services. It may include specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and protocols used to communicate between the consumer and the implementer of the API.

Software Assurance Acquisition process defines the level of confidence that software is free from vulnerabilities. It is designed into the software or accidentally inserted at anytime during its lifecycle, and the software works in a planned manner. According to the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security Acquisition and Outsourcing Working Group, the Software Assurance Acquisition process contains the following phases: 1.Planning 2.Contracting 3.Monitoring and acceptance 4.Follow-on

The principle duties performed by the BIOS during POST (power-on-self-test) are as follows: It verifies the integrity of the BIOS code itself. It discovers size and verifies system memory. It discovers, initializes, and catalogs all system hardware. It delegates control to other BIOS if it is required. It provides a user interface for system's configuration. It identifies, organizes, and selects boot devices. It executes the bootstrap program. Answer: F is incorrect. The BIOS does not interrupt the execution of all running programs.

It is the evaluation and acceptance phase of the SDLC, which meets the following audit objectives: System and data are validated. System meets all user requirements. System meets all control requirements Answer: D is incorrect. During the initiation phase, the need for a system is expressed and the purpose of the system is documented. Answer: C is incorrect. During the definition phase, users' needs are defined and the needs are translated into requirements statements that incorporate appropriate controls. Answer: B is incorrect. During the programming and training phase, the software and other components of the system are faithfully incorporated into the design specifications. Proper documentation and training are provided in this phase.

The various DoD policy series are as follows:

Exception handling is a computer hardware mechanism or programming language construct that handles the occurrence of events. These events occur during the software execution process and interrupt the instruction flow. Exception handling performs the specific activities for managing the exceptional events.

There are three goals of risk management as follows: Identifying the risk Assessing the impact of potential threats Finding an economic balance between the impact of the risk and the cost of the countermeasure Answer: C is incorrect. Identifying the accused does not come under the scope of risk management.

Quantitative risk analysis is the process of numerically analyzing the effect of identified risks on overall project objectives. It is performed on risk that have been prioritized through the qualitative risk analysis process. Answer: A is incorrect. This is actually the definition of qualitative risk analysis. Answer: B is incorrect. While somewhat true, this statement does not completely define the quantitative risk analysis process. Answer: C is incorrect. This is not a valid statement about the quantitative risk analysis process. Risk response planning is a separate project management process.

Mandatory Access Control (MAC) is a model that uses a predefined set of access privileges for an object of the system. Access to an object is restricted on the basis of the sensitivity of the object and granted through authorization. Sensitivity of an object is defined by the label assigned to it. For example, if a user receives a copy of an object that is marked as "secret", he cannot grant permission to other users to see this object unless they have the appropriate permission. Answer: B is incorrect. DAC is an access control model. In this model, the data owner has the right to decide who can access the data. Answer: A is incorrect. Role-based access control (RBAC) is an access control model. In this model, a user can access resources according to his role in the organization. For example, a backup administrator is responsible for taking backups of important data. Therefore, he is only authorized to access this data for backing it up. However, sometimes users with different roles need to access the same resources. This situation can also be handled using the RBAC model. Answer: C is incorrect. There is no such access control model as Policy Access Control.

SIEM product has a graphical user interface (GUI) which is used in analysis for identifying potential problems and reviewing all available data that are associated with the problems. A graphical user interface (GUI) is a type of user interface that allows people to interact with programs in more ways than typing commands on computers. The term came into existence because the first interactive user interfaces to computers were not graphical; they were text- and-keyboard oriented and usually consisted of commands a user had to remember and computer responses that were infamously brief. A GUI offers graphical icons, and visual indicators, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text navigation to fully represent the information and actions available to a user. The actions are usually performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements.

Security constraint is a type of declarative security, which specifies the protection of web content. It also specifies access privileges to a collection of resources by using the URL mapping. A deployment descriptor is used to define the security constraint. Security constraint includes the following elements: Web resource collection Authorization constraint User data constraint Answer: A is incorrect. Code Access Security (CAS), in the Microsoft .NET framework, is Microsoft's solution to prevent untrusted code from performing privileged actions. When the CLR (common language runtime) loads an assembly it will obtain evidence for the assembly and use this to identify the code group that the assembly belongs to. A code group contains a permission set (one or more permissions). Code that performs a privileged action will perform a code access demand, which will cause the CLR to walk up the call stack and examine the permission set granted to the assembly of each method in the call stack. The code groups and permission sets are determined by the administrator of the machine who defines the security policy. Answer: D is incorrect. Access Management is used to grant authorized users the right to use a service, while preventing access to non- authorized users. The Access Management process essentially executes policies defined in IT Security Management. It is sometimes also referred to as Rights Management or Identity Management. It is part of Service Operation and the owner of Access Management is the Access Manager. Access Management is added as a new process to ITIL V3. The sub-processes of Access Management are as follows: Maintain Catalogue of User Roles and Access Profiles Manage User Access Requests Answer: C is incorrect. Configuration Management (CM) is an Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) IT Service Management (ITSM) process. It tracks all of the individual Configuration Items (CI) in an IT system, which may be as simple as a single server, or as complex as the entire IT department. In large organizations a configuration manager may be appointed to oversee and manage the CM process.

Abbreviated interview consists of informal and ad hoc interviews. Answer: D is incorrect. Substantial interview consists of informal and structured interviews. Answer: A is incorrect. Comprehensive interview consists of formal and structured interviews. Answer: B is incorrect. There is no such type of interview in NIST SP 800-53A.

Web resource collection is a set of URL patterns and HTTP operations that define all resources required to be protected. It is a security constraint element summarized in the Java Servlet Specification v2.4. The Web resource collection includes the following elements: URL patterns HTTP methods Answer: B is incorrect. An authorization constraint includes role names. Answer: C is incorrect. A user data constraint includes transport guarantees.

Penetration testing is a method of evaluating the security of a computer system or network by simulating an attack from a malicious source, known as a Black Hat Hacker, or Cracker. The process involves an active analysis of the system for any potential vulnerabilities that may result from poor or improper system configuration, known and/or unknown hardware or software flaws, or operational weaknesses in process or technical countermeasures. This analysis is carried out from the position of a potential attacker, and can involve active exploitation of security vulnerabilities. Any security issues that are found will be presented to the system owner together with an assessment of their impact and often with a proposal for mitigation or a technical solution. The intent of a penetration testing is to determine feasibility of an attack and the amount of business impact of a successful exploit, if discovered. It is a component of a full security audit. Answer: A, B, and D are incorrect. Implementing NIDS and HIDS and configuring firewall to block unauthorized traffic are not examples of penetration testing.

BCP is a strategy to minimize the consequence of the instability and to allow for the continuation of business processes. The goal of BCP is to minimize the effects of a disruptive event on a company, and is formed to avoid interruptions to normal business activity. Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is the creation and validation of a practiced logistical plan for how an organization will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical (urgent) functions within a predetermined time after a disaster or extended disruption. The logistical plan is called a business continuity plan. Answer: B is incorrect. A contingency plan is a plan devised for a specific situation when things could go wrong. Contingency plans are often devised by governments or businesses who want to be prepared for anything that could happen. Contingency plans include specific strategies and actions to deal with specific variances to assumptions resulting in a particular problem, emergency, or state of affairs. They also include a monitoring process and "triggers" for initiating planned actions. They are required to help governments, businesses, or individuals to recover from serious incidents in the minimum time with minimum cost and disruption. Answer: C is incorrect. Disaster recovery planning is a subset of a larger process known as business continuity planning and should include planning for resumption of applications, data, hardware, communications (such as networking), and other IT infrastructure. A business continuity plan (BCP) includes planning for non-IT related aspects such as key personnel, facilities, crisis communication, and reputation protection, and should refer to the disaster recovery plan (DRP) for IT-related infrastructure recovery/continuity. Answer: A is incorrect. The Continuity Of Operation Plan (COOP) refers to the preparations and institutions maintained by the United States government, providing survival of federal government operations in the case of catastrophic events. It provides procedures and capabilities to sustain an organization's essential. COOP is the procedure documented to ensure persistent critical operations throughout any period where normal operations are unattainable.

FISMA and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) require all general support systems and major applications to be fully certified and accredited before they are put into production. General support systems and major applications are also referred to as information systems and are required to be reaccredited every three years. Answer: A is incorrect. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), is a measurement standards laboratory which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce. The institute's official mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve quality of life. Answer: C is incorrect. The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) are publicly announced standards developed by the United States federal government for use by all non-military government agencies and by government contractors. Many FIPS standards are modified versions of standards used in the wider community (ANSI, IEEE, ISO, etc.). Some FIPS standards were originally developed by the U.S. government. For instance, standards for encoding data (e.g., country codes), but more significantly some encryption standards, such as the Data Encryption Standard (FIPS 46-3) and the Advanced Encryption Standard (FIPS 197). In 1994, NOAA (Noaa) began broadcasting coded signals called FIPS (Federal Information Processing System) codes along with their standard weather broadcasts from local stations. These codes identify the type of emergency and the specific geographic area (such as a county) affected by the emergency.