CompTIA CySA+ Practice Test (CS0-003)

Communicating with the legal team during an incident response is essential to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, and to prepare for possible legal actions. The legal team needs detailed information about the incident's impact and evidence to guide the organization in legal proceedings and interactions with regulatory bodies.

The most effective method for validating data integrity in an incident response context is computing and comparing hash values, typically using algorithms like MD5 or SHA-256. This ensures that the data remains unchanged from its original state. While checksums and time stamps also provide some level of integrity checking, they are not as robust and trustworthy as cryptographic hashes.

The primary focus during the containment phase is to limit the spread of the infection to prevent further damage. This often involves isolating affected systems from the network to stop the malware from communicating with other systems. While identifying the root cause and developing a recovery plan are crucial steps in the incident response process, they typically occur after containment to understand the full extent of the threat and restore services effectively.

Corrective controls are actions, procedures, or mechanisms put in place to reduce or eliminate the impact of a vulnerability after it has been exploited. These controls fix or mitigate the consequences of a security incident.

Indicators of organized crime involvement often include sophisticated and coordinated activities, such as large-scale unauthorized transactions, use of advanced malware, and evidence of long-term planning. Organized crime groups tend to have the resources and motivation to carry out complex cyber attacks targeting financial gain.

An MOU is generally not a legally binding document and more often represents an agreement on a common line of action or a partnership that outlines the intentions of the parties. It may set forth expectations, responsibilities, and timelines, but it does not, by itself, legally enforce those elements without the backing of a legally binding contract or agreement.

MTTR encompasses the entire time from detection to full restoration, which includes not only the time to apply a patch but also any other remediation activities required to resolve a vulnerability or incident. Therefore, it is not limited solely to patch application time.

Threat hunting refers to the proactive effort of searching for cyber threats that are lurking undetected in a network or system. Unlike threat intelligence, which is focused on gathering and analyzing information about existing or emerging threats, threat hunting is an active defense strategy intended to find malicious activity that has evaded existing security measures. Therefore, it requires a more hands-on approach, utilizing both manual techniques and automated tools to identify hidden threats.

The 'pandas' library is widely used in Python for data manipulation and analysis, which allows cybersecurity professionals to handle large datasets efficiently. By using pandas, one can analyze logs, user activities, and patterns to identify anomalies indicative of potential security threats. In contrast, other libraries such as 'matplotlib' and 'seaborn' are primarily used for data visualization but do not offer the same level of data manipulation capabilities as pandas.

A timeline of events is assembled to understand the sequence of actions that occurred on a digital system. This helps to provide context to the incident and is key in understanding the scope and impact of an incident, which can lead to identifying the cause and the party responsible for the intrusion. A hash value, while important for verifying data integrity, does not give details about events. User permissions may indicate access control issues but do not create a sequence of events. Encryption algorithms are used to secure data, not to directly analyze an incident.

A comprehensive incident response plan typically includes guidelines for detection, analysis, containment, eradication, and recovery. It outlines roles and responsibilities, communication strategies, and procedures for handling different types of incidents. Employee work schedules and vacation policies are usually managed separately by HR and are not relevant to incident response.

Forensic analysis in the context of incident response is all about performing a detailed and systematic examination of evidence, following a security incident. The goal is to identify the actions that led to the incident, as well as any individuals involved. By understanding the 'how' and 'why' behind the event, organizations can improve their security posture against future threats. It's not solely about recovery, and it doesn't necessarily mean the evidence is admissible in court—it depends on the methods used.

When scheduling regular vulnerability scans, it is crucial to consider performance impacts. For a financial institution, running scans during peak operational hours could disrupt critical services, leading to negative consequences. Scheduling scans during off-peak hours can help avoid these issues. Legal and regulatory compliance is also important but pertains to ensuring the scans meet specific standards and requirements, not necessarily to scheduling. Available bandwidth affects scan speed and thoroughness but isn't the top priority over operational impacts.

The correct answer is a managerial control that involves high-level planning, policy, and standard development. These controls ensure that the organization's security measures are consistently reviewed and updated according to the latest threat intelligence and organizational changes. Other types of controls like operational or technical wouldn't focus on strategic oversight and policy review.

Maintaining the chain of custody ensures that the evidence is properly documented and tracked from collection to court presentation, preserving its integrity and admissibility. While documenting timestamps, securing physical evidence, and using write blockers are important, the chain of custody encompasses the overarching process critical for the evidence.