Free CompTIA CAS-005 Practice Exam with Questions & Answers

The data provided shows that all companies have SIEM systems, but they differ in their implementation of UEBA, DLP, ISAC membership, and TIP integration. The key metric to evaluate is the effectiveness in detecting and responding to attacks, as shown by the "Time to Detect" and "Time to Respond" columns. Company 1, which is an ISAC member, has the fastest detection (10 minutes) and response (20 minutes) times. Company 3, which is not an ISAC member, has slower detection (12 minutes) and response (24 minutes) times, despite having UEBA and TIP integration. Company 2, which lacks TIP integration but is an ISAC member, has the slowest times (20 minutes to detect, 40 minutes to respond). This suggests that ISAC membership correlates with faster detection and response, likely due to access to shared threat intelligence.

According to the CompTIA SecurityX CAS-005 objectives (Domain 2: Security Operations, 2.2), Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs) are critical for enabling organizations to share real-timethreat intelligence within their industry. ISACs provide access to actionable intelligence, best practices, and coordinated response strategies, which are essential for defending against sophisticated attacks targeting critical infrastructure like the energy sector. The lack of ISAC membership (Company 3) limits access to this intelligence, hindering proactive defense and response capabilities. While UEBA, DLP, and TIP integration are valuable, they are more focused on internal monitoring, data protection,and individual threat intelligence feeds, respectively, and do not provide the same industry-wide collaboration as an ISAC.

A proxy-based Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) is chosen primarily for its ability to block unapproved applications and services. Here’s why:

Application and Service Control: Proxy-based CASBs can monitor and control the use of applications and services by inspecting traffic as it passes through the proxy. This allows the organization to enforce policies that block unapproved applications and services, ensuring compliance with security policies.

Visibility and Monitoring: By routing traffic through the proxy, the CASB can provide detailed visibility into user activities and data flows, enabling better monitoring and threat detection.

Real-Time Protection: Proxy-based CASBs can provide real-time protection against threats by analyzing and controlling traffic before it reaches the end user, thus preventing the use of risky applications and services.

D. STIX (Structured Threat Information eXpression): STIX is a standardized language for representing threat information in a structured and machine-readable format. It facilitates the sharing ofthreat intelligence by ensuring that data is consistent and can be easily understood by all parties involved.

E. TAXII (Trusted Automated eXchange of Indicator Information): TAXII is a transport mechanism that enables the sharing of cyber threat information over a secure and trusted network. It works in conjunction with STIX to automate the exchange of threat intelligence among organizations.

Other options:

A. CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platform): This focuses on securing cloud workloads and is not directly related to threat intelligence sharing.

B. YARA: YARA is used for malware research and identifying patterns in files, but it is not a platform for sharing threat intelligence.

C. ATT&CK: This is a knowledge base of adversary tactics andtechniques but does not facilitate the sharing of threat intelligence data.

F. JTAG: JTAG is a standard for testing and debugging integrated circuits, not related to threat intelligence.

In the given scenario, the security engineer is likely examining login activities and their associated geolocations. This type of analysis is aimed at identifying unusual login patterns that might indicate an impossible travel scenario. An impossible travel scenario is when a single user account logs in from geographically distant locations in a short time, which is physically impossible. By assessing login activities using geolocation, the engineer can tune alerts to identify and respond to potential security breaches more effectively.

A.Creating a secondary, immutable storage array and updating it with live data on a continuous basis: An immutable storage array ensures that data, once written, cannot be altered or deleted. This greatly reduces the risk of backup compromise and provides resilience against ransomware attacks, as the ransomware cannot modify or delete the backup data. Maintaining multiple copies of production data with an immutable storage solution ensures data integrity and compliance with the requirement for multiple copies.

Other options:

B. Utilizing two connected storage arrays and ensuring the arrays constantly sync: While this ensures data redundancy, it does not provide protection against ransomware attacks, as both arrays could be compromised simultaneously.

C. Enabling remote journaling on the databases: This ensures real-time transaction mirroring but does not address the requirement for reducing the risk of backup compromise or resilience to ransomware.

D. Setting up anti-tampering on the databases: While this helps ensure data integrity, it does not provide a comprehensive backup solution that meets all the specified requirements.

The best way to prevent application-focused attacks for a platform-as-a-service solution with a web-based front end is to create Web Application Firewall (WAF) policies for relevant programming languages. Here's why:

Application-Focused Attack Prevention: WAFs are designed to protect web applications by filtering and monitoring HTTP traffic between a web application and the Internet. They help prevent attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other application-layer attacks.

Customizable Rules: WAF policies can be tailored to the specific programming languages and frameworks used by the web application, providing targeted protection based on known vulnerabilities and attack patterns.

Real-Time Protection: WAFs provide real-time protection, blocking malicious requests before they reach the application, thereby enhancing the security posture of the platform.

Understanding Business Impact Analysis (BIA):

ABIA assesses the effects of disruptionsto an organization's operations.

It helpsprioritize resourcesbased on the potential impact ofdowntime, compliance issues, and critical processes.

Why Options B, C, and F are Correct:

B (Applicable contract obligations)→ Many companies havelegal and compliance obligationsregarding downtime, availability, and SLAs. This information helps determine whatrisk levelsare acceptable.

C (Costs associated with downtime)→ BIA quantifies the financial impact of system failures. Knowinglost revenue, regulatory fines, and recovery costshelps in planning.

F (Critical processes)→ Identifyingcore business processesallows an organization toprioritize recoveryeffortsandmaintain operational continuity.

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

A (Inventory details)→ While useful for asset management, it doesnot directly impact business continuity planning.

D (Network diagrams)→ These help in security architecture but arenot directly related to the financial/business impact analysis.

E (Contingency plans)→ BIA isperformed before contingency planningto identifywhat needs protection.

The sshd_config file is the main configuration file for the OpenSSH server. To disable weak CBC (Cipher Block Chaining) ciphers for SSH connections, the security engineer should modify the sshd_config file to update the list of allowed ciphers. This file typically contains settings for the SSH daemon, including which encryption algorithms are allowed.

By editing the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and updating the Ciphers directive, weak ciphers can be removed, and only strong ciphers can be allowed. This change ensures that the SSH server does not use insecure encryption methods.

For SSDs,incinerationis considered the most secure method of physical destruction, ensuring no data remanence. SSDs store data differently compared to traditional spinning disks, making degaussing ineffective. Overwriting and formatting may not reliably erase all storage cells due to wear-leveling technologies. Shredding may work if the granularity is extremely fine, but incineration guarantees complete destruction beyond recovery.

The log shows an AXFR (zone transfer) query, which exposed internal DNS records, aiding lateral movement. Let’s evaluate:

A. Disabling DNS zone transfers:AXFR allows full DNS zone data to be transferred. Disabling it externally prevents attackers from mapping internal networks, directly mitigating this issue per CAS-005’s security operations focus.

B. Restricting to UDP/53:AXFR uses TCP/53, so this wouldn’t stop it.

C. DNSmasking:Obscures records but isn’t a standard term for this fix.