Which of the following is a reason why proper handling and reporting of existing evidence are important for the investigation and reporting phases of an incident response?
Correct Answer:
A
The correct answer is A. To ensure the report is legally acceptable in case it needs to be presented in court. Proper handling and reporting of existing evidence are important for the investigation and reporting phases of an incident response because they ensure the integrity, authenticity, and admissibility of the evidence in case it needs to be presented in court. Evidence that is mishandled, tampered with, or poorly documented may not be accepted by the court or may be challenged by the opposing party. Therefore, incident responders should follow the best practices and standards for evidence collection, preservation, analysis, and reporting1.
The other options are not reasons why proper handling and reporting of existing evidence are important for the investigation and reporting phases of an incident response. They are rather outcomes or benefits of conducting a thorough and effective incident response process. A lessons-learned analysis (B) is a way to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the incident response team and improve their performance for future incidents. A postmortem analysis © is a way to determine the root cause, impact, and timeline of the incident and provide recommendations for remediation and prevention. A root cause analysis (D) is a way to identify the underlying factors that led to the incident and address them accordingly.
A security analyst is reviewing the following alert that was triggered by FIM on a critical system:
Which of the following best describes the suspicious activity that is occurring?
Correct Answer:
C
A new program has been set to execute on system start is the most likely cause of the suspicious activity that is occurring, as it indicates that the malware has modified the registry keys of the system to ensure its persistence. File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) is a tool that monitors changes to files and registry keys on a system and alerts the security analyst of any unauthorized or malicious modifications. The alert triggered by FIM shows that the malware has created a new registry key under the Run subkey, which is used to launch programs automatically when the system starts. The new registry key points to a file named “update.exe” in the Temp folder, which is likely a malicious executable disguised as a legitimate update file. Official References:
https://www.comptia.org/blog/the-new-comptia-cybersecurity-analyst-your-questions-answered https://partners.comptia.org/docs/default-source/resources/comptia-cysa-cs0-002-exam-objectives https://www.comptia.org/training/books/cysa-cs0-002-study-guide
An organization recently changed its BC and DR plans. Which of the following would best allow for the incident response team to test the changes without any impact to the business?
Correct Answer:
A
Performing a tabletop drill based on previously identified incident scenarios is the best way to test the changes to the BC and DR plans without any impact to the business, as it is a low-cost and low-risk method of exercising the plans and identifying any gaps or issues. A tabletop drill is a type of BC/DR exercise that involves gathering key personnel from different departments and roles and discussing how they would respond to a hypothetical incident scenario. A tabletop drill does not involve any actual simulation or disruption of the systems or processes, but rather relies on verbal communication and documentation review. A tabletop drill can help to ensure that everyone is familiar with the BC/DR plans, that the plans reflect the current state of the organization, and that the plans are consistent and coordinated across different functions. The other options are not as suitable as performing a tabletop drill, as they involve more cost, risk, or impact to the business. Simulating an incident by shutting down power to the primary data center is a type of BC/DR exercise that involves creating an actual disruption or outage of a critical system or process, and observing how the organization responds and recovers. This type of exercise can provide a realistic assessment of the BC/DR capabilities, but it can also cause significant impact to the business operations, customers, and reputation. Migrating active workloads from the primary data center to the secondary location is a type of BC/DR exercise that involves switching over from one system or site to another, and verifying that the backup system or site can support the normal operations. This type of exercise can help to validate the functionality and performance of the backup system or site, but it can also incur high costs, complexity, and potential errors or failures. Comparing the current plan to lessons learned from previous incidents is a type of BC/DR activity that involves reviewing past experiences and outcomes, and identifying best practices or improvement opportunities. This activity can help to update and refine the BC/DR plans, but it does not test or validate them in a simulated or actual scenario
A security analyst is reviewing a packet capture in Wireshark that contains an FTP session from a potentially compromised machine. The analyst sets the following display filter: ftp. The analyst can see there are several RETR requests with 226 Transfer complete responses, but the packet list pane is not showing the packets containing the file transfer itself. Which of the following can the analyst perform to see the entire contents of the downloaded files?
Correct Answer:
C
The best way to see the entire contents of the downloaded files in Wireshark is to change the display filter to ftp-data and follow the TCP streams. FTP-data is a protocol that is used to transfer files between an FTP client and server using TCP port 20. By filtering for ftp-data packets and following the TCP streams, the analyst can see the actual file data that was transferred during the FTP session
A security analyst has found the following suspicious DNS traffic while analyzing a packet capture:
• DNS traffic while a tunneling session is active.
• The mean time between queries is less than one second.
• The average query length exceeds 100 characters. Which of the following attacks most likely occurred?
Correct Answer:
A
DNS exfiltration is a technique that uses the DNS protocol to transfer data from a compromised network or device to an attacker-controlled server. DNS exfiltration can bypass firewall rules and security products that do not inspect DNS traffic. The characteristics of the suspicious DNS traffic in the question match the indicators of DNS exfiltration, such as:
DNS traffic while a tunneling session is active: This implies that the DNS protocol is being used to create a covert channel for data transfer. The mean time between queries is less than one second: This implies that the DNS queries are being sent at a high frequency to maximize the amount of data transferred. The average query length exceeds 100 characters: This implies that the DNS queries are encoding large amounts of data in the subdomains or other fields of the DNS packets.
Official References: https://partners.comptia.org/docs/default-source/resources/comptia-cysa-cs0-002-exam-objectives https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/topic/bypassing-security-products-via-dns-data-exfiltration/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CompTIA/comments/nvjuzt/dns_exfiltration_
