Free Practice Questions for ISC CC Exam

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) refers to any data that can be used to identify a specific individual, either directly or indirectly. Examples include full name, Social Security number, date of birth, address, email address, phone number, and biometric identifiers.

PII is regulated by numerous laws and standards, including privacy regulations and data protection frameworks. Protecting PII is critical to prevent identity theft, fraud, and privacy violations.

Health information is a subset of sensitive data (often classified as PHI). Trade secrets and business data fall under intellectual property. Information classification levels describe value, not identity.

Security controls for PII typically include encryption, access control, monitoring, and data loss prevention mechanisms.

NIST publishes standards and frameworks. GDPR and HIPAA are regulations and laws, not standards bodies.

IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) operates atLayer 3 – the Network Layerof the OSI model. IPSec is designed to secure IP communications by authenticating and encrypting each IP packet in a data stream. Because it works directly with IP packets, it naturally fits at the network layer.

Operating at Layer 3 gives IPSec a major advantage: it can protectall network traffic, regardless of the application or transport protocol being used. This means IPSec can secure TCP, UDP, and ICMP traffic transparently without requiring changes to applications. IPSec is commonly used to implementVirtual Private Networks (VPNs), including site-to-site and remote-access VPNs.

IPSec uses protocols such asAuthentication Header (AH)andEncapsulating Security Payload (ESP)to provide confidentiality, integrity, authentication, and anti-replay protection. Key management is typically handled by IKE (Internet Key Exchange).

Although IPSec may appear in some diagrams as interacting with other layers, standards bodies such as NIST and IETF clearly define IPSec as aLayer 3 (Network Layer)security protocol.

A threat actor is the individual or group responsible for carrying out attacks. Threat vectors describe methods, not entities.

AVirtual Private Network (VPN)creates an encrypted tunnel across untrusted networks such as the Internet. VPNs protect confidentiality and integrity by encrypting authentication credentials and data traffic.

Buffer overflow attacks target applications, exploiting improper memory handling. Applications operate atLayer 7 (Application Layer), making it the primary target.

Anintrusionis an unauthorized attempt to access systems or networks. Not all intrusions succeed or result in breaches, but they represent active threats.

An intranet is a private network that uses internet technologies (such as TCP/IP and web browsers) but is accessible only to an organization’s internal users. It mirrors the structure and functionality of the internet while remaining private.

An extranet extends limited access to external partners. A VLAN is a logical network segmentation technique. A VPN is a secure communication tunnel, not a network architecture.

Intranets are commonly used for internal portals, documentation, collaboration tools, and internal services. From a security standpoint, intranets require strong authentication, segmentation, and access controls.

An IPSec replay attack occurs when an attacker captures legitimate encrypted packets and attempts to retransmit (replay) them to gain unauthorized access or disrupt communication. The attacker does not need to decrypt the packets; instead, they rely on resending previously valid packets within an existing session.

Without proper protections, replayed packets could be accepted as valid, allowing attackers to impersonate legitimate users or repeat sensitive actions. IPSec defends against replay attacks usingsequence numbers and sliding windows, which ensure packets are processed only once and in the correct order.

Packet modification, eavesdropping, and traffic flooding are different attack types and are not specifically replay attacks. Replay attacks are particularly dangerous in authentication and session-based protocols, which is why anti-replay protection is a mandatory IPSec feature defined by the IETF.

Ransomware affects victims’ files primarily byencryptingthem, rendering the data inaccessible without a decryption key. Attackers then demand a ransom in exchange for restoring access.

While modern ransomware may also steal data, encryption is the defining characteristic of ransomware attacks. Destroying or selling files is not the primary mechanism.

Strong backups, access controls, and endpoint protection are key defenses against ransomware, as emphasized by NIST and CIS.