Network Security
What does “HTTPS” stand for?
HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure
What does “chain of custody” refer to in digital forensics?
Documentation of who handled evidence and when
What does the acronym AES stand for?
Advanced Encryption Standard
What does the acronym SQL in SQL Injection stand for?
Structured Query Language
What is “phishing”?
A social engineering attack that tricks users into giving sensitive info (like passwords)
Which device is primarily used to separate and filter traffic between trusted and untrusted networks?
A firewall
What’s the difference between volatile and non-volatile data?
Volatile data is lost when power is removed (RAM); non-volatile persists (disk)
Which type of cryptography uses two keys: a public key and a private key?
Asymmetric cryptography
What tool is widely used for automated vulnerability scanning and exploitation?
Metasploit Framework
In cybersecurity, what does CIA stand for? (Not the Central Intelligence Agency)
Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
In networking, what’s the difference between TCP and UDP?
TCP is connection-oriented and reliable; UDP is connectionless and faster but less reliable
Which file system artifact stores the timestamps (created, modified, accessed) for files on Windows systems?
The Master File Table (MFT)
What’s the primary weakness of the Caesar cipher?
It’s vulnerable to frequency analysis (only 25 possible shifts)
What’s the difference between black box, white box, and gray box penetration tests?
Black box = no internal knowledge; white box = full knowledge; gray box = partial knowledge
What is social engineering in cybersecurity?
Manipulating people into revealing information or performing actions that compromise security
What’s the name of the attack where an attacker intercepts and possibly alters communication between two parties without their knowledge?
Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack
What tool is commonly used to acquire a bit-for-bit copy of a disk for forensic analysis?
dd (or FTK Imager, EnCase, etc.)
What is the main purpose of a cryptographic hash function?
To create a fixed-length output (digest) from input data, used for integrity verification and digital signatures
Which Nmap flag performs a stealth SYN scan, often called “half-open” scanning?
-sS
Which major U.S. law governs how organizations must protect health information (HIPAA, SOX, or GDPR)?
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
BGP hijacking is a major internet-level attack. What does BGP stand for and what is its purpose?
Border Gateway Protocol; it controls routing between autonomous systems on the Internet
What does the Windows “Recycle Bin” actually do with a deleted file?
It moves the file to a hidden system folder and marks it as deleted, but does not immediately erase the data
What is the difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption in terms of speed and key usage?
Symmetric uses one key and is faster; asymmetric uses a key pair and is slower but enables secure key exchange
Explain the difference between privilege escalation via “vertical” and “horizontal” techniques.
Vertical = gaining higher privileges (e.g., user → admin); horizontal = accessing another user’s resources with the same privilege level
What is the main goal of multifactor authentication (MFA)?
To increase security by requiring more than one type of verification (something you know, have, or are)