Security Flashcards

What is the CIA triad in information security?

Answer: The three core principles of information security: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability

The CIA triad represents the three fundamental pillars of information security: Confidentiality (protecting data from unauthorized access), Integrity (ensuring data accuracy), and Availability (ensuring data is accessible when needed).

What is social engineering in cybersecurity?

Answer: Psychological manipulation of people to trick them into revealing confidential information or performing security-compromising actions

Social engineering exploits human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities, manipulating people through deception, urgency, authority, or trust into bypassing security procedures.

What is the purpose of a security audit?

Answer: To systematically evaluate an organization's security posture, identify vulnerabilities, and verify compliance with security policies and standards

A security audit systematically examines an organization's information systems, policies, and practices to identify vulnerabilities, verify compliance, and recommend improvements.

What is multi-factor authentication (MFA) and why is it effective?

Answer: Requiring two or more different types of verification factors to prove identity, making account compromise significantly harder

MFA combines two or more independent authentication factors—something you know, something you have, and something you are—so compromising one factor alone is insufficient for access.

What is a zero-day vulnerability?

Answer: A previously unknown software vulnerability that is exploited by attackers before the vendor has developed a patch

A zero-day vulnerability is an unknown software flaw that attackers discover and exploit before the software vendor is aware of it or has released a fix, leaving zero days for users to protect themselves.

What is the role of encryption in protecting data?

Answer: Encryption converts readable data into an unreadable format that can only be deciphered with the correct key, protecting confidentiality

Encryption transforms plaintext data into ciphertext using mathematical algorithms and keys, ensuring that even if data is intercepted or stolen, it remains unreadable without the decryption key.