SSCP Exam Question 341
Which of the following is not a form of passive attack?
Correct Answer: B
Explanation/Reference:
Data diddling involves alteration of existing data and is extremely common. It is one of the easiest types of crimes to prevent by using access and accounting controls, supervision, auditing, separation of duties, and authorization limits. It is a form of active attack. All other choices are examples of passive attacks, only affecting confidentiality.
Source: HARRIS, Shon, All-In-One CISSP Certification Exam Guide, McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2002, Chapter
10: Law, Investigation, and Ethics (page 645).
Data diddling involves alteration of existing data and is extremely common. It is one of the easiest types of crimes to prevent by using access and accounting controls, supervision, auditing, separation of duties, and authorization limits. It is a form of active attack. All other choices are examples of passive attacks, only affecting confidentiality.
Source: HARRIS, Shon, All-In-One CISSP Certification Exam Guide, McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2002, Chapter
10: Law, Investigation, and Ethics (page 645).
SSCP Exam Question 342
Smart cards are an example of which type of control?
Correct Answer: C
Explanation/Reference:
Logical or technical controls involve the restriction of access to systems and the protection of information.
Smart cards and encryption are examples of these types of control.
Controls are put into place to reduce the risk an organization faces, and they come in three main flavors:
administrative, technical, and physical. Administrative controls are commonly referred to as "soft controls" because they are more management-oriented. Examples of administrative controls are security documentation, risk management, personnel security, and training. Technical controls (also called logical controls) are software or hardware components, as in firewalls, IDS, encryption, identification and authentication mechanisms. And physical controls are items put into place to protect facility, personnel, and resources. Examples of physical controls are security guards, locks, fencing, and lighting.
Many types of technical controls enable a user to access a system and the resources within that system. A technical control may be a username and password combination, a Kerberos implementation, biometrics, public key infrastructure (PKI), RADIUS, TACACS +, or authentication using a smart card through a reader connected to a system. These technologies verify the user is who he says he is by using different types of authentication methods. Once a user is properly authenticated, he can be authorized and allowed access to network resources.
Reference(s) used for this question:
Harris, Shon (2012-10-25). CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition (p. 245). McGraw-Hill. Kindle Edition.
and
KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 2: Access control systems (page 32).
Logical or technical controls involve the restriction of access to systems and the protection of information.
Smart cards and encryption are examples of these types of control.
Controls are put into place to reduce the risk an organization faces, and they come in three main flavors:
administrative, technical, and physical. Administrative controls are commonly referred to as "soft controls" because they are more management-oriented. Examples of administrative controls are security documentation, risk management, personnel security, and training. Technical controls (also called logical controls) are software or hardware components, as in firewalls, IDS, encryption, identification and authentication mechanisms. And physical controls are items put into place to protect facility, personnel, and resources. Examples of physical controls are security guards, locks, fencing, and lighting.
Many types of technical controls enable a user to access a system and the resources within that system. A technical control may be a username and password combination, a Kerberos implementation, biometrics, public key infrastructure (PKI), RADIUS, TACACS +, or authentication using a smart card through a reader connected to a system. These technologies verify the user is who he says he is by using different types of authentication methods. Once a user is properly authenticated, he can be authorized and allowed access to network resources.
Reference(s) used for this question:
Harris, Shon (2012-10-25). CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition (p. 245). McGraw-Hill. Kindle Edition.
and
KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, John Wiley & Sons, 2001, Chapter 2: Access control systems (page 32).
SSCP Exam Question 343
Degaussing is used to clear data from all of the following medias except:
Correct Answer: B
Explanation/Reference:
Atoms and Data
Shon Harris says: "A device that performs degaussing generates a coercive magnetic force that reduces the magnetic flux density of the storage media to zero. This magnetic force is what properly erases data from media. Data are stored on magnetic media by the representation of the polarization of the atoms.
Degaussing changes"
The latest ISC2 book says:
"Degaussing can also be a form of media destruction. High-power degaussers are so strong in some cases that they can literally bend and warp the platters in a hard drive. Shredding and burning are effective destruction methods for non-rigid magnetic media. Indeed, some shredders are capable of shredding some rigid media such as an optical disk. This may be an effective alternative for any optical media containing nonsensitive information due to the residue size remaining after feeding the disk into the machine. However, the residue size might be too large for media containing sensitive information.
Alternatively, grinding and pulverizing are acceptable choices for rigid and solid-state media. Specialized devices are available for grinding the face of optical media that either sufficiently scratches the surface to render the media unreadable or actually grinds off the data layer of the disk. Several services also exist which will collect drives, destroy them on site if requested and provide certification of completion. It will be the responsibility of the security professional to help, select, and maintain the most appropriate solutions for media cleansing and disposal."
Degaussing is achieved by passing the magnetic media through a powerful magnet field to rearrange the metallic particles, completely removing any resemblance of the previously recorded signal (from the "all about degaussers link below). Therefore, degaussing will work on any electronic based media such as floppy disks, or hard disks - all of these are examples of electronic storage. However, "read-only media" includes items such as paper printouts and CD-ROM wich do not store data in an electronic form or is not magnetic storage. Passing them through a magnet field has no effect on them.
Not all clearing/ purging methods are applicable to all media- for example, optical media is not susceptible to degaussing, and overwriting may not be effective against Flash devices. The degree to which information may be recoverable by a sufficiently motivated and capable adversary must not be underestimated or guessed at in ignorance. For the highest-value commercial data, and for all data regulated by government or military classification rules, read and follow the rules and standards.
I will admit that this is a bit of a trick question. Determining the difference between "read-only media" and
"read-only memory" is difficult for the question taker. However, I believe it is representative of the type of question you might one day see on an exam.
The other answers are incorrect because:
Floppy Disks, Magnetic Tapes, and Magnetic Hard Disks are all examples of magnetic storage, and therefore are erased by degaussing.
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock used in filmmaking or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram. In most cases, a helical scan video head rotates against the moving tape to record the data in two dimensions, because video signals have a very high bandwidth, and static heads would require extremely high tape speeds. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) or, more commonly and more recently, videocassette recorder (VCR) and camcorders. A Tape use a linear method of storing information and since nearly all video recordings made nowadays are digital direct to disk recording (DDR), videotape is expected to gradually lose importance as non-linear/random-access methods of storing digital video data become more common.
Reference(s) used for this question:
Harris, Shon (2012-10-25). CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition (Kindle Locations 25627-25630).
McGraw-Hill. Kindle Edition.
Schneiter, Andrew (2013-04-15). Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK, Third Edition : Security Operations (Kindle Locations 580-588). . Kindle Edition.
All About Degaussers and Erasure of Magnetic Media:
http://www.degausser.co.uk/degauss/degabout.htm
http://www.degaussing.net/
http://www.cerberussystems.com/INFOSEC/stds/ncsctg25.htm
Atoms and Data
Shon Harris says: "A device that performs degaussing generates a coercive magnetic force that reduces the magnetic flux density of the storage media to zero. This magnetic force is what properly erases data from media. Data are stored on magnetic media by the representation of the polarization of the atoms.
Degaussing changes"
The latest ISC2 book says:
"Degaussing can also be a form of media destruction. High-power degaussers are so strong in some cases that they can literally bend and warp the platters in a hard drive. Shredding and burning are effective destruction methods for non-rigid magnetic media. Indeed, some shredders are capable of shredding some rigid media such as an optical disk. This may be an effective alternative for any optical media containing nonsensitive information due to the residue size remaining after feeding the disk into the machine. However, the residue size might be too large for media containing sensitive information.
Alternatively, grinding and pulverizing are acceptable choices for rigid and solid-state media. Specialized devices are available for grinding the face of optical media that either sufficiently scratches the surface to render the media unreadable or actually grinds off the data layer of the disk. Several services also exist which will collect drives, destroy them on site if requested and provide certification of completion. It will be the responsibility of the security professional to help, select, and maintain the most appropriate solutions for media cleansing and disposal."
Degaussing is achieved by passing the magnetic media through a powerful magnet field to rearrange the metallic particles, completely removing any resemblance of the previously recorded signal (from the "all about degaussers link below). Therefore, degaussing will work on any electronic based media such as floppy disks, or hard disks - all of these are examples of electronic storage. However, "read-only media" includes items such as paper printouts and CD-ROM wich do not store data in an electronic form or is not magnetic storage. Passing them through a magnet field has no effect on them.
Not all clearing/ purging methods are applicable to all media- for example, optical media is not susceptible to degaussing, and overwriting may not be effective against Flash devices. The degree to which information may be recoverable by a sufficiently motivated and capable adversary must not be underestimated or guessed at in ignorance. For the highest-value commercial data, and for all data regulated by government or military classification rules, read and follow the rules and standards.
I will admit that this is a bit of a trick question. Determining the difference between "read-only media" and
"read-only memory" is difficult for the question taker. However, I believe it is representative of the type of question you might one day see on an exam.
The other answers are incorrect because:
Floppy Disks, Magnetic Tapes, and Magnetic Hard Disks are all examples of magnetic storage, and therefore are erased by degaussing.
A videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock used in filmmaking or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram. In most cases, a helical scan video head rotates against the moving tape to record the data in two dimensions, because video signals have a very high bandwidth, and static heads would require extremely high tape speeds. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) or, more commonly and more recently, videocassette recorder (VCR) and camcorders. A Tape use a linear method of storing information and since nearly all video recordings made nowadays are digital direct to disk recording (DDR), videotape is expected to gradually lose importance as non-linear/random-access methods of storing digital video data become more common.
Reference(s) used for this question:
Harris, Shon (2012-10-25). CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition (Kindle Locations 25627-25630).
McGraw-Hill. Kindle Edition.
Schneiter, Andrew (2013-04-15). Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK, Third Edition : Security Operations (Kindle Locations 580-588). . Kindle Edition.
All About Degaussers and Erasure of Magnetic Media:
http://www.degausser.co.uk/degauss/degabout.htm
http://www.degaussing.net/
http://www.cerberussystems.com/INFOSEC/stds/ncsctg25.htm
SSCP Exam Question 344
In an organization where there are frequent personnel changes, non-discretionary access control using Role Based Access Control (RBAC) is useful because:
Correct Answer: B
In an organization where there are frequent personnel changes, nondiscretionary access control (also called Role Based Access Control) is useful because the access controls are based on the individual's role or title within the organization. You can easily configure a new employee acces by assigning the user to a role that has been predefine. The user will implicitly inherit the permissions of the role by being a member of that role.
These access permissions defined within the role do not need to be changed whenever a new person takes over the role.
Another type of non-discretionary access control model is the Rule Based Access Control (RBAC or RuBAC) where a global set of rule is uniformly applied to all subjects accessing the resources. A good example of RuBAC would be a firewall.
This question is a sneaky one, one of the choice has only one added word to it which is often. Reading questions and their choices very carefully is a must for the real exam. Reading it twice if needed is recommended.
Shon Harris in her book list the following ways of managing RBAC:
Role-based access control can be managed in the following ways:
Non-RBAC Users are mapped directly to applications and no roles are used. (No roles being used)
Limited RBAC Users are mapped to multiple roles and mapped directly to other types of applications that do not have role-based access functionality. (A mix of roles for applications that supports roles and explicit access control would be used for applications that do not support roles)
Hybrid RBAC Users are mapped to multiapplication roles with only selected rights assigned to those roles.
Full RBAC Users are mapped to enterprise roles. (Roles are used for all access being granted)
NIST defines RBAC as: Security administration can be costly and prone to error because administrators usually specify access control lists for each user on the system individually. With RBAC, security is managed at a level that corresponds closely to the organization's structure. Each user is assigned one or more roles, and each role is assigned one or more privileges that are permitted to users in that role. Security administration with RBAC consists of determining the operations that must be executed by persons in particular jobs, and assigning employees to the proper roles. Complexities introduced by mutually exclusive roles or role hierarchies are handled by the RBAC software, making security administration easier.
Reference(s) used for this question:
KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten
Domains of Computer Security, 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 32.
and
Harris, Shon (2012-10-25). CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition McGraw-Hill.
and
http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/rbac/
These access permissions defined within the role do not need to be changed whenever a new person takes over the role.
Another type of non-discretionary access control model is the Rule Based Access Control (RBAC or RuBAC) where a global set of rule is uniformly applied to all subjects accessing the resources. A good example of RuBAC would be a firewall.
This question is a sneaky one, one of the choice has only one added word to it which is often. Reading questions and their choices very carefully is a must for the real exam. Reading it twice if needed is recommended.
Shon Harris in her book list the following ways of managing RBAC:
Role-based access control can be managed in the following ways:
Non-RBAC Users are mapped directly to applications and no roles are used. (No roles being used)
Limited RBAC Users are mapped to multiple roles and mapped directly to other types of applications that do not have role-based access functionality. (A mix of roles for applications that supports roles and explicit access control would be used for applications that do not support roles)
Hybrid RBAC Users are mapped to multiapplication roles with only selected rights assigned to those roles.
Full RBAC Users are mapped to enterprise roles. (Roles are used for all access being granted)
NIST defines RBAC as: Security administration can be costly and prone to error because administrators usually specify access control lists for each user on the system individually. With RBAC, security is managed at a level that corresponds closely to the organization's structure. Each user is assigned one or more roles, and each role is assigned one or more privileges that are permitted to users in that role. Security administration with RBAC consists of determining the operations that must be executed by persons in particular jobs, and assigning employees to the proper roles. Complexities introduced by mutually exclusive roles or role hierarchies are handled by the RBAC software, making security administration easier.
Reference(s) used for this question:
KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten
Domains of Computer Security, 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 32.
and
Harris, Shon (2012-10-25). CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, 6th Edition McGraw-Hill.
and
http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SNS/rbac/
SSCP Exam Question 345
When submitting a passphrase for authentication, the passphrase is converted into ...
Correct Answer: A
Passwords can be compromised and must be protected. In the ideal case, a password should only be used once. The changing of passwords can also fall between these two extremes.
Passwords can be required to change monthly, quarterly, or at other intervals, depending on the criticality of the information needing protection and the password's frequency of use.
Obviously, the more times a password is used, the more chance there is of it being compromised.
It is recommended to use a passphrase instead of a password. A passphrase is more resistant to attacks. The passphrase is converted into a virtual password by the system. Often time the passphrase will exceed the maximum length supported by the system and it must be trucated into a Virtual Password.
Reference(s) used for this question:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip112.htm and KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 36 & 37.
Passwords can be required to change monthly, quarterly, or at other intervals, depending on the criticality of the information needing protection and the password's frequency of use.
Obviously, the more times a password is used, the more chance there is of it being compromised.
It is recommended to use a passphrase instead of a password. A passphrase is more resistant to attacks. The passphrase is converted into a virtual password by the system. Often time the passphrase will exceed the maximum length supported by the system and it must be trucated into a Virtual Password.
Reference(s) used for this question:
http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip112.htm and KRUTZ, Ronald L. & VINES, Russel D., The CISSP Prep Guide: Mastering the Ten Domains of Computer Security, 2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 36 & 37.
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