1. Which of the following examples
illustrates how malware might be
concealed?
a) A botnet of zombies carry personal
information back to the hacker
b) A hacker uses techniques to improve the
ranking of a website so that users are
redirected to a malicious site
c) An attack is launched against the public
website of an online retailer with the objective
of blocking its response to visitors
d) An email is sent to the employees of an
organization with an attachment that looks like
an antivirus update, but the attachment actually
consists of spyware
Solution: d) An email is sent to the
employees of an organization with an
attachment that looks like an antivirus
update, but the attachment actually consists
of spyware
Explanation: A bot computer is typically
infected by visiting an unsafe website or
opening an infected email attachment or infected
media file.
2. What is the purpose of a rootkit?
a) To masquerade as a legitimate program
b) To deliver advertisements without user
consent
c) To replicate itself independently of any
other programs
d) To gain privileged access to a device while
concealing itself
Solution: d) To gain privileged access to a
device while concealing itself
Explanation: Most rootkits take advantage of
software vulnerabilities to gain access to
resources that normally shouldn’t be accessible
(privilege escalation) and modify system files.
3. What type of attack allows an attacker
to use a brute-force approach?
a) Denial of service
b) Packet sniffing
c) Social engineering
d) Password cracking
Solution: d) Password cracking
4. What is the most common goal of search
engine optimization (SEO) poisoning?
a) To increase web traffic to malicious sites
b) To trick someone into installing malware or
divulging personal information
c) To build a botnet of zombies
d) To overwhelm a network device with
maliciously formed packets
Solution: a) To increase web traffic to
malicious sites
Explanation: The most common goal of SEO
poisoning is to increase traffic to malicious
sites that may host malware or attempt social
engineering.
5. What do you call a program written to
take advantage of a known security
vulnerability?
a) An exploit
b) Antivirus
c) A firewall
d) A software update
Solution: a) An exploit
6. Which of the following security
vulnerabilities could result in the receipt
of malicious information that could force a
program to behave in an unintended way?
a) Buffer overflow
b) Non-validated input
c) Race condition
d) Access control problem
Solution: b) Non-validated input
Explanation: Programs often require data input,
but this incoming data could have malicious
content, designed to force the program to behave
in an unintended way.
7. A set of changes done to any program or
application with the aim of updating, fixing
or improving it is often referred to as
what?
a) A hack
b) A patch
c) An install
d) A fix
Solution: b) A patch
8. Can you identify the software
vulnerability from the following
descriptions?
a) Occurs when data is written beyond the limits
of memory areas that are allocated to an
application
– Buffer overflow
b) Occurs when an ordered or timed set of
processes is disrupted or altered by an
exploit
– Race condition
c) Occurs through the improper use of practices
that manage equipment, data or applications
– Access control
Solution: a) Buffer overflow, b) Race
condition, c) Access control
9. What is a miner?
a) A person that solves complex mathematical
puzzles to verify a transaction
b) A computer that processes and verifies a
blockchain transaction
c) A type of blockchain
d) An algorithm that predicts the next block of
a chain
Solution: b) A computer that processes and
verifies a blockchain transaction
10. What is the primary goal of a DoS
attack?
a) To obtain all addresses in the address book
within the server
b) To prevent the target server from being able
to handle additional requests
c) To scan the data on the target server
d) To facilitate access to external networks
Solution: b) To prevent the target server
from being able to handle additional
requests
Explanation: A denial of service (DoS) attack
attempts to overwhelm a system or process by
sending large amounts of data or requests to the
target. The goal is to keep the system so
overwhelmed handling false requests that it is
unable to respond to legitimate ones.
11. Which of the following should be
carried out to address known software
vulnerabilities of a specific
application?
a) Change the hardware
b) Change the software
c) Install a security patch
d) Remove the application
Solution: c) Install a security patch