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Question 101.

Which security principle recommends granting a user only the access required to complete assigned job responsibilities?

1. Least privilege
   2. Full trust
   3. Open authorization
   4. Shared administration

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Least privilege limits users, applications, and systems to only the permissions necessary for legitimate tasks. This reduces the potential impact of compromised credentials, accidental changes, or insider misuse. Full trust and open authorization provide unnecessarily broad access, while shared administration can reduce accountability. Organizations commonly support least privilege through role-based access, periodic access reviews, separate administrative accounts, and temporary privilege elevation. The principle is especially important for powerful accounts because an attacker who compromises an administrator may gain broad control over systems, data, and security settings.

Question 102.

Which network protocol is primarily used for secure web communication?

1. Telnet
   2. TFTP
   3. FTP
   4. HTTPS

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

HTTPS provides secure web communication by protecting HTTP traffic with TLS encryption. This helps preserve confidentiality and integrity while information travels between a browser and web server. Telnet provides remote terminal access but does not offer comparable encryption. TFTP is a lightweight file-transfer protocol, and traditional FTP is used for file transfer without the same default transport protection. HTTPS is commonly used for web applications, online services, portals, and administrative interfaces that may transmit credentials or sensitive information.

Question 103.

Which Palo Alto Networks firewall capability helps recognize applications even when they use common ports such as TCP 443?

1. Static routing
   2. DHCP relay
   3. Application identification
   4. Port aggregation

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

Application identification allows the firewall to determine which application is generating traffic rather than relying only on port numbers. This is important because many modern applications use common ports such as TCP 443 or dynamically select ports. Application-aware visibility allows administrators to create more precise security rules based on actual business applications. Static routing determines packet paths, DHCP relay forwards DHCP messages, and port aggregation combines links for connectivity or capacity purposes rather than identifying applications.

Question 104.

Which security control is most appropriate for separating guest wireless users from sensitive internal servers?

1. Disk encryption
   2. Network segmentation
   3. File compression
   4. Screen locking

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

Network segmentation separates systems with different security requirements and controls communication between them. Guest wireless devices can be placed in a separate network or security zone so they cannot directly access sensitive internal servers. Disk encryption protects stored data, file compression reduces file size, and screen locking protects unattended user sessions. Segmentation is especially useful for limiting unnecessary communication and reducing lateral movement if a guest or unmanaged endpoint becomes compromised.

Question 105.

Which term describes software that secretly records or collects information about a user?

1. Spyware
   2. Hypervisor
   3. Bootloader
   4. Load balancer

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Spyware is malicious software designed to monitor activity or collect information without the user’s informed authorization. It may capture credentials, browsing activity, personal data, or other sensitive information. A hypervisor manages virtual machines, a bootloader helps start an operating system, and a load balancer distributes traffic across multiple systems. Endpoint protection, secure configuration, patching, least privilege, and user awareness can all help reduce the risk of spyware infection.

Question 106.

Which traffic-log field would most directly show whether a firewall allowed or denied a connection?

1. Device serial number
   2. Interface description
   3. Application version
   4. Action

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

The action field in a traffic log indicates how the firewall handled a session, such as allowing, denying, dropping, or resetting traffic depending on the platform and rule configuration. Other fields may provide valuable context, including source and destination addresses, applications, users, zones, ports, and the matching security rule. Administrators often review action fields when troubleshooting failed connections or determining whether suspicious communications were blocked or permitted.

Question 107.

Which security concept describes monitoring endpoint activity and responding to suspicious processes or behaviors?

1. VLAN tagging
   2. Static NAT
   3. Endpoint detection and response
   4. DNS forwarding

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

Endpoint detection and response monitors activity on laptops, workstations, and servers to identify suspicious behavior. EDR platforms may collect process, file, network, and system telemetry and can support actions such as terminating malicious processes or isolating a compromised endpoint. VLAN tagging identifies logical Layer 2 network membership, static NAT translates addresses, and DNS forwarding handles name-resolution queries. EDR complements firewalls because some malicious activity occurs directly on endpoints and may not be visible only through network inspection.

Question 108.

Which statement best describes authentication?

1. Determining what resources a user may access
   2. Verifying the identity of a user or device
   3. Creating backup copies of information
   4. Assigning IP addresses dynamically

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

Authentication verifies that a user or device is who or what it claims to be. It can use passwords, certificates, security tokens, biometrics, or multiple factors. Authorization occurs after authentication and determines what resources or actions the authenticated identity is permitted to use. Backups protect data for recovery, while DHCP commonly assigns IP configuration information. Strong authentication is important because stolen credentials are a common path attackers use to gain unauthorized access.

Question 109.

Which security objective focuses on ensuring that authorized users can access systems when required?

1. Availability
   2. Confidentiality
   3. Integrity
   4. Obfuscation

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Availability ensures that authorized users can access systems, services, and information when needed. Organizations improve availability through redundancy, failover, backups, resilient architecture, monitoring, disaster recovery, and protection against denial-of-service attacks. Confidentiality prevents unauthorized disclosure, while integrity protects information against unauthorized modification. Obfuscation makes information harder to interpret but is not one of the three core CIA security objectives. Availability is especially important for critical business and security infrastructure.

Question 110.

Which protocol is commonly used to securely administer a server from a command line?

1. HTTP
   2. Telnet
   3. TFTP
   4. SSH

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

SSH provides encrypted remote command-line administration and commonly uses TCP port 22. It protects administrative credentials and session contents from straightforward interception. Telnet also provides terminal access but typically sends data without strong encryption. HTTP is primarily used for web communication, and TFTP is a lightweight file-transfer protocol. Secure administration should combine SSH with strong authentication, restricted management access, individual administrator accounts, least privilege, and logging.

Question 111.

Which activity is most closely associated with a security operations center?

1. Replacing office furniture
   2. Manufacturing endpoint hardware
   3. Investigating alerts and suspicious activity
   4. Designing marketing campaigns

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

A security operations center monitors, investigates, and responds to potentially malicious activity. Analysts may review firewall logs, endpoint alerts, authentication events, cloud telemetry, threat intelligence, and other sources. They determine whether activity is benign, a false positive, or part of a genuine security incident. SOC teams may also perform threat hunting, incident escalation, case management, and coordination with infrastructure teams. Furniture replacement, hardware manufacturing, and marketing are not core security operations responsibilities.

Question 112.

Which statement best describes the purpose of multi-factor authentication?

1. It allows every user to become an administrator.
   2. It requires authentication evidence from more than one factor category.
   3. It replaces encryption.
   4. It disables passwords automatically.

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

Multi-factor authentication strengthens identity verification by requiring factors from different categories, such as something a user knows and something the user has. A password combined with a hardware token is one example. MFA does not automatically grant administrative access, replace encryption, or necessarily remove passwords. It reduces risk because stealing one credential may not be enough for an attacker to authenticate successfully. MFA is particularly valuable for remote access, cloud applications, and privileged administrative accounts.

Question 113.

Which action is most appropriate when creating a new firewall security rule?

1. Permit only the traffic required by the documented business need.
   2. Use an unrestricted any-to-any rule by default.
   3. Disable logging permanently.
   4. Grant all users administrative privileges.

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Firewall rules should support legitimate business requirements while minimizing unnecessary access. Administrators should identify the required source, destination, application, user, service, and security inspection needs before allowing traffic. An unrestricted any-to-any rule creates excessive exposure and weakens segmentation. Disabling logging reduces visibility, while administrative permissions are unrelated to ordinary application traffic. Good firewall rule management also includes documentation, ownership, review, expiration where appropriate, and removal of obsolete rules.

Question 114.

Which condition would most likely indicate a possible password-spraying attack?

1. One successful login from a normal workstation
   2. A routine software update
   3. A scheduled backup job
   4. Failed login attempts against many accounts using a small number of passwords

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

Password spraying attempts a small number of commonly used passwords against many different accounts. This approach can avoid triggering traditional account lockouts that are based on many failures against one account. Security teams may detect spraying by correlating authentication failures across multiple usernames, source systems, and time periods. Normal logins, backups, and approved updates are expected activity. Multi-factor authentication, strong password policies, monitoring, rate controls, and compromised-password detection can reduce the risk of password-spraying attacks.

Question 115.

Which firewall security feature is designed to control access to websites based on categories or reputation?

1. Static routing
   2. Link aggregation
   3. URL filtering
   4. Port mirroring

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

URL filtering allows an organization to control web access based on destinations, categories, reputation, and security policy. It can help block malicious, phishing, risky, or inappropriate websites while allowing approved business use. Static routing controls packet paths, link aggregation combines network links, and port mirroring copies traffic for monitoring. URL filtering is often combined with DNS security, threat prevention, file inspection, user identification, and application-aware controls to create broader protection against web-based threats.

Question 116.

Which statement best describes a firewall security zone?

1. It automatically creates user passwords.
   2. It groups network interfaces or areas with similar security requirements.
   3. It stores backup copies of endpoint files.
   4. It replaces IP addressing.

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

A security zone groups interfaces or networks that share similar security requirements or levels of trust. Firewall rules then control communication between zones. For example, separate zones may be created for users, servers, guest systems, external networks, and management infrastructure. Zones do not replace IP addressing or identity systems and do not function as backup storage. Zone-based policy helps simplify segmentation and makes security boundaries easier to understand and manage.

Question 117.

Which cybersecurity practice most directly protects against loss of important data caused by ransomware?

1. Maintaining protected and tested backups
   2. Sharing administrator accounts
   3. Disabling endpoint monitoring
   4. Removing security logs

Correct Answer: 1

Explanation:

Protected and tested backups provide a recovery path if ransomware encrypts, deletes, or corrupts production data. Backups should be appropriately isolated or protected so attackers cannot easily destroy them using the same credentials that compromise production systems. Organizations should also test restoration procedures because an unusable backup provides little value during an emergency. Shared administrator accounts, disabled endpoint monitoring, and removed logs all weaken security. Backups should complement prevention, segmentation, endpoint protection, patching, and incident-response capabilities.

Question 118.

Which action best supports the containment phase of incident response?

1. Ignore a compromised endpoint until the incident ends.
   2. Publish compromised credentials to all employees.
   3. Delete all backups.
   4. Isolate the affected endpoint to limit further malicious activity.

Correct Answer: 4

Explanation:

Containment aims to limit the spread and impact of a confirmed or strongly suspected compromise. Isolating an affected endpoint can prevent malware from contacting other systems, accessing additional resources, or communicating with attacker infrastructure. Containment actions should follow established incident-response procedures and consider evidence preservation and business impact. Ignoring the endpoint can allow the incident to worsen, while exposing credentials or deleting backups creates additional security problems.

Question 119.

Which statement best describes the shared responsibility model in cloud security?

1. The cloud provider is responsible for every security task.
   2. The customer is responsible for the provider’s physical data center.
   3. Security responsibilities are divided between the cloud provider and the customer.
   4. Cloud services do not require access control.

Correct Answer: 3

Explanation:

The shared responsibility model divides security responsibilities between the cloud service provider and the customer. The exact division depends on the service model and provider. The provider may secure physical infrastructure and foundational services, while the customer may remain responsible for identities, data, configurations, applications, or operating systems. Moving to the cloud does not automatically transfer every security obligation to the provider. Organizations need to understand exactly which controls they must configure, monitor, and maintain.

Question 120.

Which approach provides the strongest overall protection for a modern enterprise?

1. Trust all internal traffic automatically.
   2. Use layered security controls across identity, endpoints, networks, applications, cloud services, monitoring, and recovery.
   3. Depend only on passwords for authentication.
   4. Disable logging to improve system performance.

Correct Answer: 2

Explanation:

A layered security strategy combines complementary controls so that failure of one defense does not leave the organization completely exposed. Identity security limits unauthorized access, endpoint protection monitors hosts, network controls restrict traffic, application security reduces software risk, cloud controls protect distributed workloads, monitoring supports detection and investigation, and recovery capabilities improve resilience. Automatically trusting internal traffic, relying only on passwords, or disabling logging creates unnecessary risk. Defense in depth provides stronger protection because different controls can prevent, detect, contain, or reduce the impact of attacks at different stages.