350-201 Performing CyberOps Using Core Security Technologies (CBRCOR) Questions and Answers

Continuous delivery is a software development approach that enables teams to produce software in short cycles, ensuring that the software can be reliably released at any time. It aims to build, test, and release software with greater speed and frequency. This approach helps in closing feedback loops and enables teams to quickly apply patches, making it ideal for situations where code updates need to reach the market as often as possible

To reduce the number of false positive events about brute force attempts on the organization’s mail server, the Snort rule should be modified to tune the count and seconds threshold. This adjustment will help in defining what constitutes normal versus suspicious activity patterns more accurately. By setting a higher count or longer time threshold, the rule will be less likely to trigger on normal login attempts, thus reducing false positives.

References:

Snort User Manual: Provides guidance on configuring and tuning Snort rules.

Best Practices for IDS Configuration: Offers strategies for reducing false positives in intrusion detection systems.

When an engineer discovers that payments have been sent to the wrong recipient due to a SaaS tool being down, the first step should be to contact the incident response team to inform them of a potential breach. This allows for an immediate investigation into the incident and the implementation of measures to mitigate any potential damage5.

 The data format being used in the exhibit is XML (Extensible Markup Language). This can be determined by the presence of tags enclosed in angle brackets (<>), which define the start and end of an element, as well as the hierarchical structure that organizes the data within nested elements. In this case, there are “employee” elements nested within an “employees” root element, each containing “lastname” and “firstname” child elements with corresponding closing tags.

References:

Cisco’s training on Performing CyberOps Using Cisco Security Technologies would cover data formats like XML as part of understanding how to handle and analyze security data.

The official Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate certification resources would include information on various data formats encountered in cybersecurity operations.

 To detect abnormal behavior for a UK-based user traveling between three countries, creating a rule that triggers an alert for a successful VPN connection from any nondestination country is an effective strategy. This rule helps in identifying potential unauthorized access or compromised credentials if the user’s account is accessed from a location where they are not supposed to be2.

Idempotence is a property of certain operations in mathematics and computer science whereby they can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the initial application1. In the context of system operations, particularly in software deployment, an idempotent operation will produce the same result whether it is executed once or multiple times. This means that the operation can set the target environment configuration to a desired state no matter what the current state is

The MIME type that should be followed is indicated by the x-content-type-options header in HTTP responses. This header is used to instruct the browser not to attempt MIME type sniffing, but to stick with the MIME type declared by the server. This can help prevent security risks associated with incorrect MIME type interpretation, such as executing non-executable MIME types as if they were scripts12.

References:

The Performing CyberOps Using Cisco Security Technologies (CBRCOR) course guides learners through cybersecurity operations fundamentals, including how to interpret security event logs and understand access control policies1.

The Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate certification provides knowledge on monitoring, detecting, and responding to cybersecurity threats, which includes understanding the significance of access control rules in network traffic management2.

The combination of increased incoming spam emails and web scraping alerts suggests a phishing attempt. Phishing is a type of social engineering attack where attackers send fraudulent messages designed to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information or deploying malicious software. Web scraping can be used to gather email addresses for such campaigns

The breach described could have been prevented by integrating security practices into the development lifecycle, known as SecDevOps. This approach includes continuous security checks and vulnerability assessments during the development stages, which would likely have identified the vulnerability before the code was deployed.

When dealing with an outdated application in a private VLAN, the IPS should be tuned to allow list only authorized hosts to contact the application’s IP at a specific port. This ensures that only known and trusted entities can communicate with the application, reducing the risk of unauthorized access or data leakage3.

 One of the principles of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is that system maintenance tasks, which were traditionally performed manually, are now automated and managed bysoftware systems567. This allows for consistent, repeatable routines for provisioning and changing systems and their configuration, with changes made to definitions and then rolled out to systems through unattended processes that include thorough validation7.

The security architect working on the Cyber Security Management System (CSMS) for an automotive factory should apply the IEC62443 standard3. This standard provides a framework for addressing and mitigating current and future security vulnerabilities in industrial automation and control systems4.

When there is a report of a possible malicious insider incident, the first action should be to inform the computer security incident response team (CSIRT) to investigate further. The CSIRT has the expertise and authority to conduct a thorough investigation, analyze the precursors and indicators, and determine whether an incident has occurred3.

 Upon receiving an alert that a contractor has downloaded multiple documents from the company’s confidential document management folder, the security manager should report the incident to the incident response team. This team is responsible for investigating the incident, assessing the impact, and determining the appropriate response to the unauthorized access

When an incident response team receives a report of unexpected changes within software, the immediate steps involve classifying the attack vector, understanding the scope of the event, and identifying the vulnerabilities being exploited. This is a critical part of the incident response workflow as it helps in determining the nature of the attack and the appropriate containment and eradication strategies3.

Predictive analytics is the most suitable data analytic technique for anticipating future cyberattacks. It involves using historical data, statistical algorithms, and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on patterns and trends. This approach can help organizations forecast potential cyber threats and take proactive measures to mitigate them before they occur123.

In the case of a suspicious email, the security analyst should communicate with employees to determine who opened the link and isolate the affected assets to prevent further spread of potential malware. Additionally, checking the email header to identify the sender and analyzing the link in an isolated environment are crucial steps to begin the investigation and understand the scope and impact of the potential breach13.

The packet capture shown in the exhibit is indicative of DNS tunneling. This conclusion is drawn from the observation of the packets’ consistent size and frequency, which are directed to a specific destination IP address. Such a pattern is characteristic of DNS tunneling, where data is encapsulated within DNS queries and responses. This method is often used to bypass security controls or for data exfiltration, as it can blend with regular DNS traffic, making detection more challenging.

DNS tunneling can be used for legitimate purposes, such as when an organization’s remote workers need to access internal networks. However, it is also a technique commonly exploited by attackers to smuggle data out of a network or to communicate with command and control servers while evading detection.

References:

Cisco’s official training materials on Performing CyberOps Using Cisco Security Technologies (CBRCOR) provide insights into analyzing packet captures and identifying different types of network traffic, including malicious activities like DNS tunneling.

The Cisco CyberOps Associate Certification resources include detailed information on threat identification and response strategies pertinent to DNS tunneling.

In the context of Cisco Secure Network Analytics (formerly known as Stealthwatch) and ISE (Identity Services Engine), pxGrid (Platform Exchange Grid) is used for sharing context-aware information across different security tools toenable rapid threat containment. When a malware-infected endpoint is detected, Cisco Secure Network Analytics can communicate with ISE using pxGrid to signal the need for quarantine. This allows ISE to place the infected endpoint into a designated quarantine VLAN using an Adaptive Network Control policy, effectively isolating the threat and preventing it from spreading through the network.

References:

Cisco’s guide on pxGrid

Cisco’s solution overview on Rapid Threat Containment

The Cisco Advanced Malware Protection report indicates several behavioral indicators with high severity scores, which suggests that malicious activity has been detected. However, there is no specific indicator in the report that states that files have been modified. Therefore, while the threat scores are high due to the detected malicious activity, we cannot conclude that any files have been modified based on the information provided in the report. This underscores the importance of analyzing the detailed indicators in such reports to accurately understand the nature of the threat and the actions taken by the malware.

 To review packet overviews of SNORT alerts without including all the packet headers, which can result in excessively large files, the engineer should modify the output module rule to use the “alert_fast” option. This option allows SNORT to log alerts in a ‘fast’ format, which includes the timestamp, alert message, and the IP addresses and ports involved, but omits the packet headers. The correct syntax for this action would be output alert_fast: output filename, where ‘filename’ is the desired name for the alert log file.

The behaviors that triggered the User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) are the employee logging in during non-working hours and from a first-seen country. UEBA systems are designed to detect anomalies in user behavior that could indicate security threats. Logging in from a new location, especially during unusual hours, deviates from the user’s typical behavior patterns and raises flags about potential unauthorized access or compromised credentials.

The browser page rendering permissions are displayed in the HTTP response header named x-frame-options. This header is used to control whether a browser should be allowed to render a page in a ,