ISP ISP Information & Cybersecurity 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which industrial control system (ICS) protocol is most commonly targeted by adversaries due to its lack of built-in authentication?
- HTTPS
- Modbus (Correct answer)
- SSH
- TLS 1.3
Correct answer: Modbus
Modbus was designed for reliability in isolated networks and lacks authentication, making it vulnerable when exposed to broader networks.
Question 2: In an industrial security information classification scheme, which label typically applies to trade secrets and proprietary formulas?
- Public
- Internal Use Only
- Confidential / Proprietary (Correct answer)
- Top Secret
Correct answer: Confidential / Proprietary
Confidential or Proprietary is the standard commercial classification for sensitive business information like trade secrets that require restricted handling.
Question 3: A security patch management program is PRIMARILY intended to:
- Improve application performance and add new features
- Remediate known software vulnerabilities before they can be exploited (Correct answer)
- Track employee software license compliance
- Automate system backups on a scheduled basis
Correct answer: Remediate known software vulnerabilities before they can be exploited
Patch management ensures vulnerabilities identified in software are addressed in a timely manner to reduce the attack surface.
Question 4: Which security control prevents an employee from reading emails on a personally owned device not approved by the organization?
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
- Mobile Device Management (MDM) with a BYOD policy restriction (Correct answer)
- Antivirus software on company servers
- Physical security guards at the building entrance
Correct answer: Mobile Device Management (MDM) with a BYOD policy restriction
MDM combined with a BYOD policy can enforce that only managed, compliant devices can access corporate email and resources.
Question 5: An air-gapped network in an industrial environment means:
- The network uses wireless frequencies exclusively
- The network is physically isolated with no connections to external or untrusted networks (Correct answer)
- The network operates at lower bandwidth to reduce attack surface
- The network uses encrypted tunnels to connect to the internet
Correct answer: The network is physically isolated with no connections to external or untrusted networks
An air gap is a physical security measure that prevents a network from connecting to external systems, limiting remote attack vectors.
Question 6: What is a 'zero-day vulnerability'?
- A vulnerability with no exploits available in any threat database
- A software flaw unknown to the vendor for which no patch exists at the time of discovery or exploitation (Correct answer)
- A vulnerability discovered exactly at midnight
- A flaw in a zero-trust network architecture
Correct answer: A software flaw unknown to the vendor for which no patch exists at the time of discovery or exploitation
Zero-day vulnerabilities are particularly dangerous because defenders have 'zero days' to patch before the flaw can be exploited.
ISP ISP Information & Cybersecurity 2
Which industrial control system (ICS) protocol is most commonly targeted by adversaries due to its lack of built-in authentication?