Free Paloalto Networks Practitioner Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 5

Multitenancy is a key characteristic of the public cloud, and an important risk. Although public cloud providers strive to ensure isolation between their various customers, the infrastructure and resources in the public cloud are shared. Inherent risks in a shared environment include misconfigurations, inadequate or ineffective processes and controls, and the “noisy neighbor” problem (excessive network traffic, disk I/O, or processor use can negatively impact other customers sharing the same resource). In hybrid and multicloud environments that connect numerous public and/or private clouds, the delineation becomes blurred, complexity increases, and security risks become more challenging to address.

DevSecOps takes the concept behind DevOps that developers and IT teams should work together closely, instead of separately, throughout software delivery and extends it to include security and integrate automated checks into the full CI/CD pipeline. The integration of the CI/CD pipeline takes care of the problem of security seeming like an outside force and instead allows developers to maintain their usual speed without compromising data security

Account discovery is a technique in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the Discovery tactic. It involves adversaries attempting to identify user accounts on a system or network.

Credential access, lateral movement, and resource development are tactics — high-level objectives an attacker is trying to achieve.

Social engineering attacks manipulate human trust to gain unauthorized access or information. Convincing an employee that an attacker is also an employee builds rapport, lowering defenses for information disclosure or credential sharing. Similarly, impersonating a company representative and requesting unrelated personal data exploits authority bias to deceive victims. These tactics exploit psychological vulnerabilities rather than technical flaws and are prevalent initial steps in multi-stage attacks. Palo Alto Networks highlights the importance of training, multi-factor authentication, and behavior-based threat detection to mitigate social engineering risks effectively.

 If an endpoint does not know how to reach its destination, it will send data to the specified default gateway. A default gateway is a device that routes traffic from a local network to other networks or the internet. The endpoint will use the default gateway’s IP address as the next hop for packets that are destined for unknown or remote networks. The default gateway will then forward the packets to the appropriate destination or another gateway, based on its routing table. References:

Fundamentals of Network Security, Module 2: Networking Concepts, Lesson 2: IP Addressing and Routing1

PCCET Study Guide, Section 2.2: Describe IP Addressing and Routing2

Cortex XSOAR Threat Intelligence Management (TIM) is a platform that enables security teams to manage the lifecycle of threat intelligence, from aggregation to action. One of the key features of Cortex XSOAR TIM is that it automates the ingestion and aggregation of indicators from various sources, such as threat feeds, open-source intelligence, internal data, and third-party integrations 1. Indicators are pieces of information that can be used to identify malicious activity, such as IP addresses, domains, URLs, hashes, etc. By automating the ingestion and aggregation of indicators, Cortex XSOAR TIM reduces the manual effort and time required to collect, validate, and prioritize threat data. It also enables analysts to have a unified view of the global threat landscape and the impact of threats on their network 1. References: 1: Threat Intelligence Management - Palo Alto Networks 2

 A demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a portion of an enterprise network that sits behind a firewall but outside of or segmented from the internal network1. The DMZ typically hosts public services, such as web, mail, and domain servers, that can be accessed by traffic from the internet1. However, the DMZ is isolated from the internal network by another firewall or security gateway, which prevents unauthorized access to the private network2. Therefore, statements A and D are true about servers in a DMZ, while statements B and C are false. References:

What is a Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)? | F5

Demilitarized Zones (DMZs) - Secure Network Architecture - CompTIA …

SIEM stands for security information and event management. It is a technology that collects, analyzes, and reports on security-related data from various sources within an organization’s network. The purpose of SIEM is to provide real-time monitoring and analysis of security events, such as user logins, file access, and changes to critical system files. SIEM helps security teams to detect and respond to potential threats, as well as to meet compliance requirements and improve their cybersecurity posture. References: What Is Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)? - Palo Alto Networks, What is a SIEM Solution? - Palo Alto Networks, Integrate IoT Security with SIEM - Palo Alto Networks

 A sanctioned application is an application that is approved by the IT department and meets the security and compliance requirements of the organization. Sanctioned applications are allowed to access the organization’s network and data and are monitored and protected by the IT department. Examples of sanctioned applications are Office 365, Salesforce, and Zoom. Sanctioned applications are different from unsanctioned, prohibited, and tolerated applications, which are not approved by the IT department and may pose security risks to the organization. Unsanctioned applications are applications that are used by the employees without the IT department’s knowledge or consent, such as Dropbox, Gmail, or Facebook. Prohibited applications are applications that are explicitly forbidden by the IT department, such as BitTorrent, Tor, or malware. Tolerated applications are applications that are not approved by the IT department, but are not blocked or restricted, such as Skype, Spotify, or YouTube. References: Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET), Cloud Security Fundamentals - Module 4: Cloud Security Best Practices, Application Visibility and Control

In cloud computing, there are three main service models: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Each model defines the level of responsibility and control that the cloud provider and the cloud customer have over the cloud resources and services. The cloud provider is responsible for vulnerability and patch management of the underlying operating system in SaaS and PaaS models, while the cloud customer is responsible for it in IaaS model. In SaaS, the cloud provider delivers software applications over the internet and manages all aspects of the cloud infrastructure, platform, and application. The cloud customer only needs to access the software through a web browser or an API. In PaaS, the cloud provider offers a platform for developing, testing, and deploying applications and manages the cloud infrastructure and operating system. The cloud customer can use the platform tools and services to create and run their own applications. In IaaS, the cloud provider supplies the basic cloud infrastructure, such as servers, storage, and networking, and the cloud customer can provision and configure their own operating system, middleware, and applications. References: Cloud Computing Service Models, Cloud Security Fundamentals - Module 2: Cloud Computing Models, Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET)