Free Practice Questions for Cisco 200-201 Exam

Threat hunting is a proactive cybersecurity technique that involves searching for indicators of compromise or signs of intrusion within an organization’s network or systems. Unlike automated detection systems, threat hunting is typically carried out by security analysts who use their knowledge and intuition to identify subtle, unusual patterns that may indicate a security breach. The goal of threat hunting is to identify and mitigate threats before they can cause significant damage.

 Statistical detection relies on analyzing data over time to identify patterns and anomalies, without predefined rules. It uses algorithms and statistical models to determine normal behavior and identify deviations. Rule-based detection uses predefined rules or patterns to identify known threats or vulnerabilities, often based on signatures or behaviors associated with specific attacks.

 Deep packet inspection (DPI) and stateful inspection are two techniques that are used by firewalls and other network security devices to inspect and filter network traffic. Stateful inspection allows visibility on Layer 4 (transport layer) of the OSI model, which means it can track the state of TCP or UDP connections and filter packets based on source and destination IP addresses, ports, and protocols. Deep packet inspection allows visibility on Layer 7 (application layer) of the OSI model, which means it can inspect the contents and payloads of packets and filter packets based on application-specific criteria, such as signatures, keywords, URLs, or behaviors. References:

Understanding Cisco Cybersecurity Operations Fundamentals (CBROPS) v1.0, Module 2: Security Monitoring, Lesson 2.2: Network Security Monitoring Tools

Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate Overview, Exam Topics, 2.2 Describe the impact of network security monitoring tools on data privacy

A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack occurs when an attacker secretly intercepts and possibly alters the communication between two parties who believe they are directly communicating with each other. In this scenario, an attacker can observe network traffic exchanged between two users by placing themselves in between their communication channel. References := Cisco Blogs - New Cybersecurity and Cloud Skills to Protect Companies from Cybersecurity Attacks of the Future

In cybersecurity, a threat is any potential malicious attack or event that can harm an organization, while a risk is the potential damage or loss that could occur if a threat exploits a vulnerability. Therefore, risk is considered the intersection of threats and vulnerabilities, representing the likelihood and impact of a threat materializing.

The ping of death is a type of attack that involves sending oversized or malformed packets using the ICMP protocol to crash, freeze, or reboot the target system1.

UDP flooding is an attack method that sends a large number of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets to random ports on a remote host, causing the host to repeatedly check for the application listening at that port, and (when no application is found) reply with an ICMP Destination Unreachable packet. This process can saturate the network and the resources of the host, leading to denial of service2.

Social engineering is a tactic used by attackers to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential information, such as passwords. In this scenario, the attacker is impersonating a colleague by using a similar email address with a missing letter, attempting to trick the employee into revealing sensitive information.

The Cuckoo report indicates that the file has been identified by Yara rules as being capable of detecting a sandbox environment, which is a security mechanism for isolating and analyzing suspicious code. The presence of the “vmdetect” and “anti_dog” Yara rules suggests that the file may have mechanisms to avoid executing its malicious behavior when it detects that it is being analyzed in a sandbox. This is a common evasion technique used by malware to prevent detection and analysis by security researchers or automated systems.

 In the incident response process, detection and analysis involve researching an attacking host through logs in a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system. This step helps in identifying, validating, and managing potential security incidents. References := Cisco CyberOps Associate - Module 3: Security Monitoring