Explanation: The Department of Defense Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process (DIACAP) is a process defined by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) for managing risk. DIACAP replaced the former process, known as DITSCAP (Department of Defense Information Technology Security Certification and Accreditation Process), in 2006. DoD Instruction (DoDI) 8510.01 establishes a standard DoD-wide process with a set of activities, general tasks, and a management structure to certify and accredit an Automated Information System (AIS) that will maintain the Information Assurance (IA) posture of the Defense Information Infrastructure (DII) throughout the system’s life cycle. DIACAP applies to the acquisition, operation, and sustainment of any DoD system that collects, stores, transmits, or processes unclassified or classified information since December 1997. It identifies four phases: 1.System Definition 2.Verification 3.Validation 4.Re-Accreditation

Explanation: The authorizing official is the senior manager responsible for approving the working of the information system. He is responsible for the risks of operating the information system within a known environment through the security accreditation phase. In many organizations, the authorizing official is also referred as approving/accrediting authority (DAA) or the Principal Approving Authority (PAA). Answer: C is incorrect. The system owner has the responsibility of informing the key officials within the organization of the requirements for a security C&A of the information system. He makes the resources available, and provides the relevant documents to support the process. Answer: A is incorrect. An Information System Security Officer (ISSO) plays the role of a supporter. The responsibilities of an Information System Security Officer (ISSO) are as follows: Manages the security of the information system that is slated for Certification & Accreditation (C&A). Insures the information systems configuration with the agency’s information security policy. Supports the information system owner/information owner for the completion of security-related responsibilities. Takes part in the formal configuration management process. Prepares Certification & Accreditation (C&A) packages. Answer: D is incorrect. The CISO has the responsibility of carrying out the CIO’s FISMA responsibilities. He manages the information security program functions.

Explanation: The security advantages of virtualization are as follows: It adds a layer of security for defense-in-depth. It provides strong encapsulation of errors. It increases intrusion detection through introspection. It decreases exposure of weak software. It increases the flexibility for discovery. It increases capabilities for fault tolerant computing using rollback and snapshot features. Answer: D is incorrect. Virtualization increases configuration effort because of complexity of the virtualization layer and composite system.

Explanation: FISMA and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) require all general support systems and major applications to be fully certified and accredited before they are put into production. General support systems and major applications are also referred to as information systems and are required to be reaccredited every three years. Answer: A is incorrect. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), is a measurement standards laboratory which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce. The institute’s official mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve quality of life. Answer: C is incorrect. The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) are publicly announced standards developed by the United States federal government for use by all non-military government agencies and by government contractors. Many FIPS standards are modified versions of standards used in the wider community (ANSI, IEEE, ISO, etc.). Some FIPS standards were originally developed by the U.S. government. For instance, standards for encoding data (e.g., country codes), but more significantly some encryption standards, such as the Data Encryption Standard (FIPS 46-3) and the Advanced Encryption Standard (FIPS 197). In 1994, NOAA (Noaa) began broadcasting coded signals called FIPS (Federal Information Processing System) codes along with their standard weather broadcasts from local stations. These codes identify the type of emergency and the specific geographic area (such as a county) affected by the emergency.

Explanation: The tools that produce secure software have the following features: They decrease the exploitable flaws and weaknesses. They decrease the attack surface. They employ software security constraints, protections, and services. They reduce and restrain the propagation, extent, and damage that are caused by the behavior of insecure software. Answer: E is incorrect. This feature is not required for these tools.

Explanation: It is the evaluation and acceptance phase of the SDLC, which meets the following audit objectives: System and data are validated. System meets all user requirements. System meets all control requirements Answer: D is incorrect. During the initiation phase, the need for a system is expressed and the purpose of the system is documented. Answer: C is incorrect. During the definition phase, users’ needs are defined and the needs are translated into requirements statements that incorporate appropriate controls. Answer: B is incorrect. During the programming and training phase, the software and other components of the system are faithfully incorporated into the design specifications. Proper documentation and training are provided in this phase.

Explanation: The definition phase of the DITSCAP/NIACAP model takes place at the beginning of the project, or at the initial C&A effort of a legacy system. C&A consists of four phases in a DITSCAP assessment. These phases are the same as NIACAP phases. The order of these phases is as follows: 1.Definition: The definition phase is focused on understanding the IS business case, the mission, environment, and architecture. This phase determines the security requirements and level of effort necessary to achieve Certification & Accreditation (C&A). 2.Verification: The second phase confirms the evolving or modified system’s compliance with the information. The verification phase ensures that the fully integrated system will be ready for certification testing. 3.Validation: The third phase confirms abidance of the fully integrated system with the security policy. This phase follows the requirements slated in the SSAA. The objective of the validation phase is to show the required evidence to support the DAA in accreditation process. 4.Post Accreditation: The Post Accreditation is the final phase of DITSCAP assessment and it starts after the system has been certified and accredited for operations. This phase ensures secure system management, operation, and maintenance to save an acceptable level of residual risk.

Explanation: Quantitative risk analysis is the process of numerically analyzing the effect of identified risks on overall project objectives. It is performed on risk that have been prioritized through the qualitative risk analysis process. Answer: A is incorrect. This is actually the definition of qualitative risk analysis. Answer: B is incorrect. While somewhat true, this statement does not completely define the quantitative risk analysis process. Answer: C is incorrect. This is not a valid statement about the quantitative risk analysis process. Risk response planning is a separate project management process.

Explanation: A zero-day attack, also known as zero-hour attack, is a computer threat that tries to exploit computer application vulnerabilities which are unknown to others, undisclosed to the software vendor, or for which no security fix is available. Zero-day exploits (actual code that can use a security hole to carry out an attack) are used or shared by attackers before the software vendor knows about the vulnerability. User awareness training is the most effective technique to mitigate such attacks. Answer: A is incorrect. A replay attack is a type of attack in which attackers capture packets containing passwords or digital signatures whenever packets pass between two hosts on a network. In an attempt to obtain an authenticated connection, the attackers then resend the captured packet to the system. In this type of attack, the attacker does not know the actual password, but can simply replay the captured packet. Answer: C is incorrect. Man-in-the-middle attacks occur when an attacker successfully inserts an intermediary software or program between two communicating hosts. The intermediary software or program allows attackers to listen to and modify the communication packets passing between the two hosts. The software intercepts the communication packets and then sends the information to the receiving host. The receiving host responds to the software, presuming it to be the legitimate client. Answer: D is incorrect. A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack is mounted with the objective of causing a negative impact on the performance of a computer or network. It is also known as network saturation attack or bandwidth consumption attack. Attackers perform DoS attacks by sending a large number of protocol packets to a network.

Explanation: CSRF (Cross-Site Request Forgery) is a malicious exploit of a website, whereby unauthorized commands are transmitted from a user trusted by the website. It is also known as a one-click attack or session riding. CSRF occurs when a user is tricked by an attacker into activating a request in order to perform some unauthorized action. It increases data loss and malicious code execution. Answer: A is incorrect. Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in web applications which enable malicious attackers to inject client-side script into web pages viewed by other users. An exploited cross-site scripting vulnerability can be used by attackers to bypass access controls, such as the same origin policy. Cross-site scripting carried out on websites were roughly 80% of all security vulnerabilities documented by Symantec as of 2007. Their impact may range from a petty nuisance to a significant security risk, depending on the sensitivity of the data handled by the vulnerable site, and the nature of any security mitigations implemented by the site owner. Answer: C is incorrect. A side channel attack is based on information gained from the physical implementation of a cryptosystem, rather than brute force or theoretical weaknesses in the algorithms (compare cryptanalysis). For example, timing information, power consumption, electromagnetic leaks or even sound can provide an extra source of information which can be exploited to break the system. Many side- channel attacks require considerable technical knowledge of the internal operation of the system on which the cryptography is implemented. Answer: B is incorrect. Injection flaws are the vulnerabilities where a foreign agent illegally uses a sub-system. They are the vulnerability holes that can be used to attack a database of Web applications. It is the most common technique of attacking a database. Injection occurs when user-supplied data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. The attacker’s hostile data tricks the interpreter into executing involuntary commands or changing data. Injection flaws include XSS (HTML Injection) and SQL Injection.