CISSP Practice

60. a. Configuration management provides a valuable baseline for controlling maintenance and enhancement activity. Configuration management typically has four major functions: identification, control, requirements tracing, and status accounting. Configuration identification determines what components to include in the configuration and develops unique identifiers for tracking individual components and adding new ones.

Configuration control imposes discipline on the change process to ensure that items changed or added to the configuration complete all the necessary testing and approval steps before inclusion.

Configuration requirements tracing ensures that the configuration changes are traceable back to user requirements either directly (e.g., a user-requested change) or indirectly (e.g., better user support through improved system performance).

Configuration status accounting reports the current status of components in the configuration and components undergoing change or about to be added.

61. Which of the following are countermeasures against network weaving?

1. Traffic flow signal

2. Traffic encryption key

3. Tunneling

4. Traffic padding

a. 1 and 2

b. 1 and 3

c. 2 and 4

d. 3 and 4

61. d. Network weaving is a penetration technique in which different communication networks are linked to access an information system to avoid detection and trace-back. Tunneling enables one network to send its data via another network’s connections. It works by encapsulating a network protocol within packets carried by the second network. Traffic padding generates mock communications or data units to disguise the amount of real data units being sent. The other two items cannot control network weaving penetration. Traffic flow signal is used to conduct traffic flow analysis. Traffic encryption key is used to encrypt plaintext or to super-encrypt previously encrypted text and/or to decrypt cipher-text.

62. Which of the following supports the cloud computing infrastructure most?

a. Virtualization technology

b. Service-oriented architecture

c. Web 2.0 services

d. Utility computing

62. a. Cloud computing, an emerging form of distributed computing, is an amalgamation of technologies, including virtualization, service-oriented architecture, Web 2.0 services, and utility computing. Out of these technologies, virtualization has taken a prominent role due to use of multiple virtual machines and guest virtual machines.

Virtualization technology enables multiple operating systems (OSs) to coexist on a computing platform. In virtualization, special purpose software successfully replicates the behavior of hardware. Through such methods, a single physical host computer can run multiple virtual machines, each with a distinct guest OS and associated applications. Various virtualization products exist that can be used to provide an isolated virtual machine environment for systems and applications to execute. Risky functions, such as Web browsing, may be confined to a virtual system designated and configured exclusively for that purpose. Should the virtual system be compromised, it can easily be restored to a known-good state.

Service-oriented architecture is a collection of services, which communicate with each other. The communication can involve either simple data passing or it could involve two or more services coordinating some activity. Web 2.0 service is the second-generation of Internet-based services that enables people to collaborate and create information online in new ways, such as social networking sites, wikis, and communication tools. Utility computing deals with on-demand network access and self-service facilities for subscribers.

63. Which of the following is an operational issue in data communications networks?

a. Network modularity and adaptability

b. Network performance and throughput

c. Network availability and redundancy

d. Network size and interoperability

63. b. Performance management consists of day-to-day system requirements and evaluation to assess current performance and to identify and implement system adjustments that can improve performance. To ensure efficiency, the performance management staff must know the workloads imposed by users, the levels of service required to satisfy workloads, and current capacity. The other three choices are incorrect because they are examples of network planning and design issues.

64. Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is an example of a fast packet-switching network. Which of the following statements about ATM is not true?

a. ATM networks can carry data communications.

b. ATM networks can carry video communications.