Test your basic knowledge |

Comptia Security +: Vocab

Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Network devices that operate at layer 2. Every port on a switch is a separate collision domain






2. A system designed to stop piggybacking.






3. A name given to a system implemented by the FBI that is analogous to wiretapping except in this case - e-mail and other communications are being tapped instead of telephone conversations. Carnivore was essentially a customizable packet sniffer that c






4. An instance of a scripting language






5. Motive - Opportunity - and Means. These deal with crime.






6. A set of rules applied by many transit networks which restrict the ways in which the network may be used.






7. Method of authenticating to a system. Something that you supply and something you know.






8. The Teardrop attack involved sending IP fragments with overlapping payloads to the target machine.






9. Motivational tools for employee awareness to get them to report security flaws in an organization






10. Also civil law






11. Making individuals accountable for their actions on a system typically through the use of auditing






12. Business Impact Analysis. A BIA is a functional analysis in which a team collects data through interviews and documentary sources. It documents business functions - activities - and transactions.






13. Signal degradation as it moves farther from its source






14. In the broadest sense - a fraud is a deception made for personal gain






15. In the context of computer software - a Trojan horse is a malicious program that is disguised as or embedded within legitimate software.






16. Being able to control access to individuals very specifically - instead of lower in the OSI model where you cant set it so specifically






17. If an employee is suspected of wrongdoing - sending them away from work for a while so that their actions can be audited.






18. White hat l0pht






19. In cryptography - a substitution cipher is a method of encryption by which units of plaintext are substituted with ciphertext according to a regular system; the 'units' may be single letters (the most common) - pairs of letters - triplets of letters






20. The ability to have more than one thread associated with a process






21. In computer security - this type of attack is a situation in which one person or program successfully masquerades as another by falsifying data and thereby gains an illegitimate advantage.






22. Packet sniffers (also known as Network Analyzers or Ethernet Sniffers) are software programs that can see the traffic passing over a network or part of a network. As data streams travel back and forth over the network - the program captures each pack






23. The apparent simultaneous performance of two or more tasks by a computer's central processing unit.






24. More discriminate than dogs






25. The process of reducing your risks to an acceptable level based on your risk analysis






26. Setting up the user to access the honeypot for reasons other than the intent to harm.






27. The output of a hash function is a digest.






28. The key that is used to encrypt a file or message is the same key that is used to decrypt the file or message






29. An arrangement in which the keys needed to decrypt encrypted data are held in escrow by a third party - so that someone else (typically government agencies) can obtain them to decrypt messages which they suspect to be relevant to national security.






30. Residual physical representation of data that has been in some way erased. After storage media is erased there may be some physical characteristics that allow data to be reconstructed.






31. Transferring your risk to someone else - typically an insurance company






32. Public Key Infrastructure






33. A technique to eliminate data redundancy.






34. The threshold is a baseline for violation activities that may be normal for a user to commit before alarms are raised.






35. A form of network attack in which a valid data transmission is maliciously or fraudulently repeated or delayed. This is carried out either by the originator or by an adversary who intercepts the data and retransmits it - possibly as part of a masquer






36. Common Object Request Broker Architecture.






37. Countermeasure to put fake stuff into a database so if someone is reading it they will get the wrong info.






38. 'If you cant see it - its secure'. Bad policy to live by.






39. Rolling command center with UPS - satellite - uplink - power - etc.






40. A type of virus that changes its telltale code segments so that it ' looks' different from one infected file to another - thus making detection more difficult.






41. A type of hash function used to produce a checksum - which is a small - fixed number of bits - against a block of data. This is used to detect errors after transmission or storage.






42. The study of automated methods for uniquely recognizing humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. In information technology - biometric authentication refers to technologies that measure and analyze human physical and beh






43. Telephone tapping (or wire tapping/wiretapping in the US) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party - often by covert means. The telephone tap or wire tap received its name because historically - the monitoring connec






44. The EU spec. If databases exist - users are allowed to check data into them - allowed to change them if wrong - etc.






45. In cryptography - it is a block cipher






46. A legal term used to describe an out-of-court statement offered to establish the truth of the facts asserted in that statement. Hearsay is generally not admissible in common law courts because it is of dubious value - but there are many exceptions to






47. A meme and a joke are the same thing. e.g. When someone says to delete a file that is really just fine and they call it a virus






48. Scanning the airwaves for radio transmissions






49. Access control method for database based on the content of the database to provide granular access






50. The physical part of a computer - as distinguished from the computer software that executes within the hardware.