Engineering — Final Objective Assessment
2026/2027 | Multiple-Choice Questions with
Detailed Rationales
WGU D488 OA Cybersecurity Architecture & Engineering Final Exam -
ANSWERS-Exam Coverage
The exam coverage includes core concepts in WGU D488 - Cybersecurity
Architecture & Engineering as assessed on the Final Objective Assessment
(OA). It focuses on designing, implementing, and managing secure enterprise
architectures, including network, system, and cloud security components.
The exam also evaluates knowledge of security frameworks, access control,
cryptography, threat modeling, vulnerability assessment, and secure system
design principles. Emphasis is placed on identifying and mitigating security
risks, applying best practices in cybersecurity engineering, and ensuring
compliance with regulatory and organizational security requirements.
The security team recently enabled public access to a web application
hosted on a server inside the corporate network. The developers of the
application report that the server has received several structured query
language (SQL) injection attacks in the past several days. The team needs to
deploy a solution that will block the SQL injection attacks. Which solution
fulfills these requirements?
A - Virtual private network (VPN)
B - Security information and event management (SIEM)
C - Web application firewall (WAF)
D - Secure Socket Shell (SSH) - ANSWERS-C - Web application firewall (WAF)
An IT security team has been notified that external contractors are using
their personal laptops to gain access to the corporate network. The team
,needs to recommend a solution that will prevent unapproved devices from
accessing the network. Which solution fulfills these requirements?
A - Implementing a demilitarized zone (DMZ)
B - Installing a hardware security module
C - Implementing port security
D - Deploying a software firewall - ANSWERS-C - Implementing port security
The chief technology officer for a small publishing company has been tasked
with improving the company's security posture. As part of a network
upgrade, the company has decided to implement intrusion detection, spam
filtering, content filtering, and antivirus controls. The project needs to be
completed using the least amount of infrastructure while meeting all
requirements. Which solution fulfills these requirements?
A - Deploying an anti-spam gateway
B - Deploying a proxy server
C - Deploying a unified threat management (UTM) appliance
D - Deploying a web application firewall (WAF) - ANSWERS-C - Deploying a
unified threat management (UTM) appliance
The security team plans to deploy an intrusion detection system (IDS)
solution to alert engineers about inbound threats. The team already has a
database of signatures that they want the IDS solution to validate. Which
detection technique meets the requirements?
A - Intrusion detection
B - Deep packet inspection
C - Signature-based detection
D - Intrusion prevention - ANSWERS-C - Signature-based detection
An IT organization had a security breach after deploying an update to its
production web servers. The application currently goes through a manual
update process a few times per year. The security team needs to recommend
,a failback option for future deployments. Which solution fulfills these
requirements?
A - Implementing a code scanner
B - Implementing code signing
C - Implementing versioning
D - Implementing a security requirements traceability matrix (SRTM) -
ANSWERS-C - Implementing versioning
A software development team is working on a new mobile application that
will be used by customers. The security team must ensure that builds of the
application will be trusted by a variety of mobile devices. Which solution
fulfills these requirements?
A - Code scanning
B - Regression testing
C - Code signing
D - Continuous delivery - ANSWERS-C - Code signing
An IT organization recently suffered a data leak incident. Management has
asked the security team to implement a print blocking mechanism for all
documents stored on a corporate file share. Which solution fulfills these
requirements?
A - Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
B - Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)
C - Digital rights management (DRM)
D - Watermarking - ANSWERS-C - Digital rights management (DRM)
A company has recently discovered that a competitor is distributing
copyrighted videos produced by the in-house marketing team. Management
has asked the security team to prevent these types of violations in the
future. Which solution fulfills these requirements?
, A - Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
B - Secure Socket Shell (SSH)
C - Digital rights management (DRM)
D - Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) - ANSWERS-C - Digital rights
management (DRM)
A security team has been tasked with performing regular vulnerability scans
for a cloud-based infrastructure. How should these vulnerability scans be
conducted when implementing zero trust security?
A - Manually
B - Annually
C - Automatically
D - As needed - ANSWERS-C - Automatically
A healthcare company needs to ensure that medical researchers cannot
inadvertently share protected health information (PHI) data from medical
records. What is the best solution?
A - Encryption
B - Metadata
C - Anonymization
D - Obfuscation - ANSWERS-C - Anonymization
A security team has been tasked with mitigating the risk of stolen credentials
after a recent breach. The solution must isolate the use of privileged
accounts. In the future, administrators must request access to mission-
critical services before they can perform their tasks. What is the best
solution?
A - Identity and access management (IAM)
B - Password policies
C - Privileged access management (PAM)