〇：DDoS attacks

Availability is one of the properties of the CIA triad that indicates service continuity. An attack that threatens the continuity of service corresponds to a DDoS attack that sends a large number of requests and causes a service outage. Therefore, the correct answer is “DDoS attack”.

×: Wheeling

Whaling is a spear-phishing attack that targets a socially recognized person or organization.

×: TOC/TOU

TOC/TOU is a software bug that occurs when the system is modified between the time a condition is checked and the time the results of that check are used. In many cases, the attack replaces one file with another between looking for the file and reading the file.

×: DRAM

RAM (Random Access Memory) is memory used for CPU and screen displays, etc. DRAM is RAM that is only stored for short periods of time and requires periodic refreshing.

〇：System logs that operate and are acquired on a daily basis

It is necessary to show that the logs are different from common usage in order to determine whether the access is unauthorized or not. Also, it is less reliable as legal evidence regarding logs that are not routinely obtained.

×：System logs from sophisticated products that comply with international standards

Market sophistication is not a requirement for legal evidence. Conversely, it is unlikely that software developed in-house cannot be used for legal archives.

×：System logs printed and stored as physical media

Whether or not logs are printed is not necessarily a legal requirement. Since the records are printed out as software, they are not purely physical evidence.

×：System logs close to the infrastructure recorded at the OS layer

Logs close to the OS layer have greater systemic traceability, but they are also less relevant to user operations and are not suitable as evidence of unauthorized access.

The Health Insurance Interoperability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has three rules: the Privacy Rule, the Security Rule, and the Breach Notification Rule. The rules mandate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards.

A security document documents the security to be achieved.” To achieve “strong security” a clear definition is needed. Since the definition varies from organization to organization, it is necessary to put it in writing. There are five documents, with policy at the top, each of which is mandatory or optional.

〇：Business Case

The most important part of establishing and maintaining a current continuity plan is management support. Management may need to be convinced of the need for such a plan. Therefore, a business case is needed to obtain this support. The business case should include current vulnerabilities, legal obligations, current status of the recovery plan, and recommendations. Management is generally most interested in cost-benefit issues, so preliminary figures can be gathered and potential losses estimated. Decisions about how a company should recover are business decisions and should always be treated as such.

×：Business Impact Analysis

Incorrect because the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) was conducted after the BCP team gained management’s support for its efforts. A BIA is conducted to identify areas of greatest financial or operational loss in the event of a disaster or disruption. It identifies the company’s critical systems required for survival and estimates the amount of downtime the company can tolerate as a result of a disaster or disruption.

×：Risk Analysis

Incorrect, as this is a method of identifying risks and assessing the potential damage that could be caused to justify security protection measures. In the context of BCP, risk analysis methods should be used in a BIA to identify which processes, devices, or operations are critical and should be recovered first.

×：Threat reports

The answer is wrong because it is unintended. However, it is important for management to understand what the actual threats are to the enterprise, the consequences of those threats, and the potential loss value for each threat. Without this understanding, management pays lip service to continuity planning and in some cases may be worse than if it did not plan because of the false awareness of security it creates.

〇：Trademarks

Intellectual property can be protected by several different laws, depending on the type of resource. Trademarks are used to protect words, names, symbols, sounds, shapes, colors, or combinations of these, such as logos. The reason a company registers one of these trademarks, or a combination of these trademarks, is to represent their company (brand identity) to the world. Therefore, the correct answer is “trademark”.

×：Patent

A patent is a monopoly right to use a technology for something that is very difficult to invent, such as a medicine.

×：Copyright

A copyright is a right to something that is not technical, such as music or a book, but something that is thought up and created.

×：Trade Secrets

Trade secrets are information that is useful and confidential as a business activity, such as customer information, product technology and manufacturing methods.

〇：Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Almost every country has its own set of rules regarding what constitutes private data and how it should be protected. With the advent of the digital and information age, these different laws have begun to adversely affect business and international trade. Thus, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) created guidelines for different countries to ensure that data is properly protected and that everyone follows the same rules.

×：COSO

An organization that studies fraudulent financial reporting and which elements lead to them is fraudulent because the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) was established in 1985. The acronym COSO refers to a model of corporate governance that addresses IT at the strategic level, corporate culture, and financial accounting principles.

×：COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology)

Incorrect, as this framework defines control objectives to ensure that IT is properly managed and that IT is responsive to business needs. It is an international open standard that provides control and security requirements for sensitive data and reference frameworks.

×：International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Incorrect because it is an international standards organization composed of representatives of national standards bodies. Its purpose is to establish global standardization. But its standardization goes beyond the privacy of data moving across international borders. For example, some standards address quality control; others address assurance and security.

Scoping determines which parts of a standard will be deployed to the organization. It selects the standards that apply to the request or industry and determines which are within the organizational scope and which are outside of it.

Users can logically guess the URL or path to access resources they should not. If an organization’s network has access to a report name ending in “financials_2017.pdf”, it is possible to guess other file names that should not be accessed, such as “financials_2018.pdf” or “financials.pdf”.

〇：Reconfiguration Phase

When a firm returns to its original or new site, the firm is ready to enter the reconfiguration phase. The firm has not entered the emergency state until it is operating at the original primary site or until it returns to the new site that was built to replace the primary site. If a firm needs to return from the replacement site to the original site, a number of logistical issues must be considered. Some of these issues include ensuring employee safety, proper communication and connection methods are working, and properly testing the new environment.

The definition of a rebuilding phase needs to be imagined and answered in the question text. It will test your language skills to see how it reads semantically rather than lexically correct.

×：Recovery Phase

Incorrect because it involves preparing an off-site facility (if needed), rebuilding networks and systems, and organizing staff to move to the new facility. To get the company up and running as quickly as possible, the recovery process needs to be as structured as possible. Templates should be developed during the planning phase. It can be used by each team during the recovery phase to take the necessary steps and document the results. The template keeps the team on task and quickly communicates to the team leader about progress, obstacles, and potential recovery time.

×：Project Initiation Phase

This is incorrect because it is how the actual business continuity plan is initiated. It does not occur during the execution of the plan. The Project Initiation Phase includes obtaining administrative support, developing the scope of the plan, and securing funding and resources.

×：Damage Assessment Phase

Incorrect because it occurs at the start of the actual implementation of the business continuity procedures. The damage assessment helps determine if the business continuity plan should be implemented based on the activation criteria predefined by the BCP coordinator and team. After the damage assessment, the team will move into recovery mode if one or more of the situations listed in the criteria occur.

Awareness is to inform the organization’s members of the information they already have in order to make them more vigilant again. Tranning is the input of information that is unknown to the members of the organization. Therefore, the difference between awareness-raising and tranning is whether the target audience is already aware of the information.

Defense-in-Depth is the concept that protection should not be monolithic, but should be multi-layered in all aspects. The term “defense-in-depth” comes close to the alternative, as multiple layers of protection are required to protect against a single vulnerability.

〇：Risk Mitigation

Risk can be addressed in four basic ways: transfer, avoidance, mitigation, and acceptance. Sue reduces the risk posed by her e-mail system by implementing security controls such as antivirus and anti-spam software. This is also referred to as risk mitigation, where risk is reduced to a level considered acceptable. Risk can be mitigated by improving procedures, changing the environment, erecting barriers to threats, and implementing early detection techniques to stop threats when they occur and reduce damage.

×：Risk Acceptance

This is inappropriate because risk acceptance does not involve spending on protection or countermeasures such as anti-virus software. When accepting a risk, one should be aware of the level of risk faced and the potential damage costs and decide to keep it without implementing countermeasures. If the cost/benefit ratio indicates that the cost of countermeasures exceeds the potential losses, many companies will accept the risk.

×：Risk Avoidance

Wrong because it would mean discontinuing the activity that is causing the risk. In this case, Sue’s firm decides to continue using e-mail. A company may choose to terminate an activity that introduces risk if the risk outweighs the business needs of the activity. For example, a company may choose to block social media websites in some departments because of the risk to employee productivity.

×：Risk Transfer

This is incorrect because it involves sharing risk with other entities, as in the purchase of insurance to transfer some of the risk to the insurance company. Many types of insurance are available to firms to protect their assets. If a company determines that its total or excess risk is too high to gamble, it can purchase insurance.

〇：Conduct business impact analysis

While no specific scientific equation must be followed to create a continuity plan, certain best practices have been proven over time. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) organization is responsible for developing and documenting many of these best practices so that they are readily available to all. NIST outlines seven steps in Special Publication 800-34 Rev 1, Continuity Planning Guide for Federal Information Systems. Conduct a business impact analysis. Identify preventive controls. Develop a contingency strategy. Develop an information systems contingency plan. Ensure testing, training, and exercises of the plan. Ensure the plan is maintained. Conduct a business impact analysis by identifying critical functions and systems and prioritize them as needed. It also includes identifying vulnerabilities and threats and calculating risks.

×：Identify preventive controls

Wrong because critical functions and systems are prioritized and preventive controls need to be identified after their vulnerabilities, threats, and identified risks (all of which are part of a business impact analysis). Conducting a business impact analysis involves step 2, which is to create a continuity plan, and step 3, which is to identify preventive controls.

×：Develop a Continuity Plan Policy Statement

This is incorrect because you need to create a policy that provides the guidance needed to develop a business continuity plan and assigns authority to the roles needed to perform these tasks. This is the first step in creating a business continuity plan and is done before identifying and prioritizing critical systems and functions that are part of the business impact analysis.

×：Create contingency strategies

Creating a contingency strategy is incorrect because it requires formulating a method to ensure that systems and critical functions are brought online quickly. Before this can be done, a business impact analysis must be performed to determine critical systems and functions and prioritize them during recovery.

HIPAA covered entities and the organizations and individuals who assist them in their business are treated in the same manner as HIPAA covered entities. Health care providers, health information clearinghouses, and health insurance plans are covered entities. Developers of health apps are responsible as programmers rather than holders or plan holders of bodily information. They may not be covered by HITECH, which focuses on how body information is managed. Therefore, the correct answer is “health app developer”.

It is not necessary to know the detailed HITECH requirements. You can classify them based on whether or not you are dealing with information and answer the questions by process of elimination.

The expected annual loss amount is the value of losses that could occur in the future, equalized on an annual basis based on the frequency of occurrence. Therefore, it is the Single Loss Expectancy (SLE) multiplied by the annual frequency of occurrence (ALO).

〇：Cessation of activities that pose a risk.

This question is about choosing what is not included. Discontinuing an activity that introduces risk is a way to address risk through avoidance. For example, there are many risks surrounding the use of instant messaging (IM) within a company. If a company decides not to allow the use of IM because there is no business need to do so, banning this service is an example of risk avoidance. The risk assessment does not include the implementation of such measures. Therefore, the correct answer is “discontinue the activity that poses a risk”.

×：Asset Identification

This is incorrect because identifying the asset is part of the risk assessment and is required to identify what is not included in the risk assessment. To determine the value of an asset, the asset must first be identified. Identifying and valuing assets is another important task of risk management.

×：Threat Identification

This is incorrect because identifying threats is part of risk assessment and requires identifying what is not included in the risk assessment. A risk exists because a threat could exploit a vulnerability. If there are no threats, there are no risks. Risk links vulnerabilities, threats, and the resulting potential for exploitation to the business.

×：Risk analysis in order of cost

Analyzing risks in order of cost or criticality is part of the risk assessment process and is inappropriate because questions are asked to identify what is not included in the risk assessment. A risk assessment examines and quantifies the risks a company faces. Risks must be addressed in a cost-effective manner. Knowing the severity of the risk allows the organization to determine how to effectively address it.

Service Organization Control (SOC) is a rule established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to assure the internal control of the party contracted to perform services. Sometimes, work is contracted out to other firms. In order to guarantee the quality of its own work, the company that is contracted to perform the work must also have appropriate controls in place. For this reason, we check the internal control of the outsourcing company to which the work is outsourced.

• SOC-1 (Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICFR)) Audits the accounting of the trustee company.
  SOC-2 (Trust Services Criteria): Checks security and other controls other than accounting for the fiduciary company. Usually takes six months to complete.
  SOC-3 (Trust Services Criteria for General Use Report) Confirms security and other controls other than accounting for unspecified persons (users).

Sabotage is an attack by an insider.

〇：Regular training to change employee attitudes

Behavior-directed controls are intended to direct the behavior required of employees as part of organizational management. Regular training that changes employee awareness falls under the action-directed type. Therefore, the correct answer is “Regular training to change employee attitudes”.

×：Remotely directed defenses using drone audits

This falls under reinforcing (compensating) defensive measures.

×：Defensive measures to be behavioral psychological barriers due to physical barriers

This is a physical (physically) defensive measure.

×：Developing recurrence prevention measures to review certain actions

This is a corrective measure.