Operations and Incident Response (100 Questions & Answers)

You are a cybersecurity specialist working for a large corporation. You are tasked with finding potential vulnerabilities in your organization’s network infrastructure. Which of the following tools should you use to map out the network and identify live hosts, ports, and the services that those ports are offering?

Your organization has noticed an unusual amount of network traffic originating from an external IP address. You are tasked with gaining a better understanding of the potential threat. Which tool would be best suited to perform this task?

A company wants to improve its network security by implementing a device that can inspect and filter network traffic, detect and block malicious activities, and provide network visibility. Which of the following network appliances should the company use?

A company wants to improve its network security by implementing a device that acts as an intermediary between the internal network and external systems. It is used to access and manage systems in the internal network remotely while providing an additional layer of security. Which of the following network appliances should the company use?

You suspect that there might be an issue with a particular host within your network reaching your organization’s website. You need to figure out the path that the traffic takes through your network to the web server. Which tool is most appropriate to use in this situation?

A company wants to implement a network appliance that serves as a secure gateway for remote access to internal systems. It allows authorized users to connect remotely, providing a controlled entry point into the internal network. Which of the following network appliances should the company use?

As a cybersecurity analyst, you notice that a host within your network is experiencing difficulty accessing a specific server. To understand the routing path of packets from the host to the server, which tool would you use?

You are a cybersecurity analyst at a large corporation. You have been receiving reports of users getting redirected to a malicious site when they try to visit the company’s internal web server. To verify the DNS resolution for the web server’s domain, which tool should you use?

During an internal network security assessment, you have identified a suspicious subdomain associated with your company’s domain. To validate the DNS records of this subdomain and obtain more detailed information, which tool should you utilize?

You are a security analyst at a company and you are troubleshooting an issue on a specific Windows server. You need to determine the current IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway configured on the server. Which command should you run to quickly find this information?

You are a security analyst at a company and are troubleshooting a connectivity issue on a specific Linux server. You need to find out the current IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway configured on the server. Which command should you use?

A user is unable to access a server in your organization’s network. As an initial troubleshooting step, you decide to check if the server is reachable from the user’s workstation. Which command should you use?

One of the servers in your organization is experiencing intermittent network issues. You have been tasked to find the point of failure along the network path. Which command should you use?

You are a security analyst for a large corporation. You suspect that there might be a firewall misconfiguration on your network allowing TCP SYN traffic to some protected servers. Which tool would you use to craft packets and confirm your suspicions?

You have just taken over as the system administrator for a small company and suspect that there may be unauthorized connections to the company’s server. What command would be most useful for displaying all active connections and listening ports?

As a part of incident response in your organization, you want to create a basic listener to capture incoming connections for analysis. Which of the following tools is best suited for this task?

You have recently taken over as the network security administrator at a large organization. To assess the current state of network security, you first want to identify all the devices on the network. Which of the following tools is most appropriate for this purpose?

A security analyst in your organization suspects an internal host is acting as a Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) in Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing attacks. Which tool would be best used to confirm this suspicion?

A security analyst in your organization is investigating an incident where a malicious actor might have redirected traffic within your network to an unknown location. Which tool can the analyst use to verify the paths that packets take from the server to the network gateway?

Your organization’s security team suspects that one of the web servers may be vulnerable to an HTTP response splitting attack. Which tool can be used to interact with the HTTP headers and investigate this suspicion?

As a security professional, you are asked to gather information about potential targets for a penetration testing activity at a competitor’s company. Which tool can be used to harvest information such as subdomains, URLs, emails and employee names from different public sources?

Your organization wants to conduct a reconnaissance mission as part of a proactive measure to assess vulnerabilities in your web infrastructure. Which tool provides an automated process to gather information about domains, ports, vulnerabilities, and generates a comprehensive report?

In the course of an authorized penetration testing, you need to conduct a stealthy port scanning of a remote server without directly connecting to the server to avoid triggering any intrusion detection systems. Which of the following tools is best suited for this task?

As a security analyst, you have been assigned to perform reconnaissance on a target organization’s network. You specifically need to gather as much DNS (Domain Name System) information as possible, including the enumeration of DNS records and sub-domains. Which of the following tools would be the most suitable for this task?

Your organization is planning a thorough security audit of its network. As part of this audit, you have been tasked with identifying vulnerabilities that could be exploited by an attacker. Which of the following tools would be the most suitable for this task?

You work for a cybersecurity company and your client has just received a suspicious email with an attached file. They suspect it might contain malicious software. Which tool would be most appropriate to safely analyze this file without risking a network infection?

Your organization has received a file that is believed to be modified maliciously and to contain sensitive data. As part of your incident response, which UNIX command-line tool would be the best to use to confirm whether the file content was indeed altered?

You’ve identified a suspicious file on a Windows system during a security incident. You suspect that the file might be involved in the incident. Which command-line tool can you use to confirm if the file has been recently modified?

A potential incident was reported concerning suspicious activity on a Linux server in your organization. You decide to investigate the server logs, which are quite large. Which command-line tool should you use to quickly view the beginning of the log file?

Your company’s Linux server has been running slow and you suspect a recent process may be the cause. To verify, you decide to check the process logs, which are extensive. Which command would be the most appropriate to quickly view the latest entries?

You suspect that a configuration file on your Linux server has been modified without authorization. You need to examine the entire contents of the file to identify any unauthorized changes. Which command-line tool should you use?

You are investigating a suspected compromise on a Windows server, and you need to examine the contents of a log file to identify any suspicious activity. Which command-line tool should you use?

You need to search for a specific pattern within a large text file on a Linux system. Which command-line tool should you use?

You suspect that a sensitive document on your Windows computer contains confidential information that needs to be redacted. Which command-line tool should you use to search for and replace specific patterns within the document?

You need to change the permissions of a file on a Unix-based system to allow the owner to read, write, and execute, while only allowing read and execute access for the group and read-only access for others. Which command-line tool should you use?

You have a script file on a Windows system that you want to make executable, allowing it to be run as a program. Which command-line tool should you use?

You want to log specific events and messages in a Linux system for troubleshooting and security analysis purposes. Which command-line tool should you use?

You are performing forensic analysis on a Windows system and need to record detailed information about user activities, including keystrokes and application usage. Which command-line tool should you use?

You need to automate a series of administrative tasks on a Linux system. Which tool or environment provides a scripting capability for automating these tasks?

You are working on a Windows system and need to automate repetitive tasks by creating a script. Which scripting environment or language would be suitable for this purpose?

You need to securely access a remote Linux server over a network connection and execute commands remotely. Which tool or protocol should you use?

You want to establish a secure and encrypted remote connection to a Windows server for administrative purposes. Which protocol or tool should you use?

You are working in a Windows environment and need to manage and automate administrative tasks using a command-line interface. Which tool should you use?

You are working in a Linux environment and need to automate a series of system administration tasks using a scripting language. Which tool should you use?

You need to test the security of an SSL/TLS connection and check for potential vulnerabilities. Which tool should you use?

You need to capture network traffic for analysis and troubleshooting purposes. Which tool should you use?

You want to replay captured network traffic to simulate a particular network scenario for testing purposes. Which tool should you use?

You need to replay captured network traffic on your network for performance testing. Which tool should you use?

You are troubleshooting network connectivity issues and need to capture network traffic for analysis. Which tool should you use?

You are conducting a forensic investigation and need to create a bit-by-bit image of a storage device for analysis. Which tool should you use?

During a forensic investigation, you suspect that a compromised system’s memory contains valuable evidence. Which tool should you use to capture the memory dump for analysis?

During a forensic investigation, you come across a suspicious hard drive image. You need to perform in-depth analysis, including examining the hex values of individual sectors and searching for specific patterns. Which tool should you use for this purpose?

During a forensic investigation, you need to create a forensic image of a suspect’s hard drive, including all the allocated and unallocated sectors. Which tool should you use for this purpose?

During a forensic investigation, you are analyzing a suspect’s computer system for evidence of malicious activities. You need to examine the system’s file system, registry entries, and user activity logs to identify any signs of unauthorized access or malicious software. Which tool should you use for this purpose?

You are performing a security assessment and need to test the vulnerability of a web application to determine if it is susceptible to common exploits. You want to use a framework that provides a wide range of pre-built exploits and automated testing capabilities. Which tool should you use for this purpose?

You suspect that a network device in your organization may have a known vulnerability that could be exploited by an attacker. You want to identify if the device is vulnerable and gather additional information about the vulnerability. Which tool should you use for this purpose?

You have been assigned to perform a security audit for a company and need to assess the strength of their user passwords. You want to use a tool that can systematically generate and test possible passwords based on various algorithms and dictionaries. Which tool should you use for this purpose?

As part of a penetration test, you have obtained a password hash from a compromised system and want to determine the plaintext password associated with it. Which tool should you use for this purpose?

Your organization is decommissioning several old hard drives and wants to ensure that the data on them is completely irrecoverable. Which tool should you use to sanitize the hard drives effectively?

Your organization is upgrading its computer systems and needs to securely erase sensitive data from the old solid-state drives (SSDs) before disposal. Which tool should you use for this purpose?

In an organization, why is it important to have an incident response plan?

What is the significance of regularly testing and updating an incident response plan?

Why is it important to have well-defined policies, processes, and procedures for the incident response process?

What is the role of incident response policies, processes, and procedures in maintaining consistency during incident handling?

Why is it important to have well-defined policies, processes, and procedures for the incident response process during the preparation phase?

How do well-defined policies, processes, and procedures contribute to the effective coordination of incident response activities during the preparation phase?

Why is it important to have well-defined policies, processes, and procedures for the incident response process during the identification phase?

How do well-defined policies, processes, and procedures contribute to the effective identification of security incidents during the incident response process?

Why is it important to have well-defined policies, processes, and procedures for the incident response process during the containment phase?

How do well-defined policies, processes, and procedures contribute to the effective containment of security incidents during the incident response process?

Why is it important to have well-defined policies, processes, and procedures for the incident response process during the eradication phase?

How do well-defined policies, processes, and procedures contribute to the effective eradication of security incidents during the incident response process?

Why is it important to have well-defined policies, processes, and procedures for the incident response process during the recovery phase?

Why is it important to conduct lessons learned sessions as part of the incident response process?

What is the main benefit of conducting lessons learned sessions as part of the incident response process?

Why is it important to conduct exercises as part of the incident response process?

What is the primary purpose of conducting tabletop exercises as part of the incident response process?

What is the primary objective of conducting walkthroughs as part of the incident response process?

What is the main benefit of conducting walkthroughs as part of the incident response process?

Which of the following best describes the purpose of conducting simulations as part of incident response exercises?

Which of the following best describes the purpose of using an attack framework in incident response?

In incident response, what is the primary purpose of utilizing the MITRE ATT&CK framework?

What is a key benefit of incorporating the MITRE ATT&CK framework into incident response processes?

In incident response, what is the primary purpose of utilizing the Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis?

Which phase of the Cyber Kill Chain framework focuses on delivering the actual exploit to the target system?

What is the primary purpose of using the Cyber Kill Chain framework in incident response?

During an incident response process, which stakeholder is responsible for coordinating with external law enforcement agencies?

Which stakeholder is responsible for managing internal communications during an incident response process?

During an incident response process, which component of the communication plan defines the target audience for incident notifications?

Which component of the communication plan outlines the preferred methods and channels for incident communication?

During a disaster recovery process, which component of the disaster recovery plan defines the recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) for critical systems?

In the event of a major disruption to business operations, which component of the business continuity plan is responsible for coordinating the recovery efforts and ensuring the continuity of critical business functions?

During a security incident, an organization’s incident response team is called upon to investigate and mitigate the incident. What is the primary role of the incident response team in this scenario?

An incident response team is conducting an investigation into a suspected data breach in an organization. What is the primary objective of the incident response team in this scenario?

An organization is reviewing its retention policies as part of its incident response strategy. What is the primary benefit of well-defined retention policies in incident response?

During a security assessment, a vulnerability scan was performed on a network infrastructure. The scan generated a report that identified several vulnerabilities and their associated severity levels. Which of the following data sources would provide the most relevant information to support the investigation of these vulnerabilities?

A security analyst is investigating a critical vulnerability that was identified during a recent vulnerability scan. The vulnerability scan output indicates that the vulnerable system is running an outdated operating system with known security vulnerabilities. To gather additional information for the investigation, which of the following data sources should the analyst consult?

During a routine security monitoring review, a security analyst notices unusual network traffic patterns indicating potential unauthorized access attempts. To gather more information about the incident, the analyst decides to consult the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) dashboard. Which of the following data sources would be available on the SIEM dashboard to support the investigation?

During a security incident investigation, a security analyst notices a series of suspicious events involving privileged user accounts. To gain more insights into the activities performed by the privileged users, the analyst decides to analyze the SIEM dashboard. Which of the following data sources would provide relevant information about the privileged user activities on the SIEM dashboard?

During a security incident investigation, a security analyst notices suspicious network activity on a specific segment of the network. To gain more visibility into the network traffic and identify potential security threats, the analyst refers to the SIEM dashboard. Which of the following data sources within the SIEM dashboard is responsible for collecting and aggregating network traffic data?