GSEC Study Guide Questions with Verified
Correct Answers
Name some Security Policies that can apply to any organization.
Access Control, Information Protection, Remote Access, Acceptable Use, User Account,
Network Security Policy and Data at Rest (USB Sticks etc)
What does a business continuity plan define?
Defines how an organization will restore 100% of its operations, but give it the ability to
continue to meet defined goals
Name some strategies for disaster recovery.
Backups, Replication, Backup Facilities, Local Mirrors, Surge Protectors, Uninterruptible
Power Supply (UPS), Generator, Cloud facilities, Standby (hot or warm standby
systems/locations)
What are the SANS steps regarding incident handling in order?
Preparation, Identification, Containment, Eradiction, Recovery and Lessons Learned
Public organizations are required to file documents with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) how is this done?
Using the Electronic Data-Gathering Analysis and Retrieval system (EDGAR)
EDGAR (Electronic Data-Gathering Analysis and Retrieval System) stores a lot of
information about?
Information regarding public corporations. This includes details about subsidiaries and their
growth information, as well as debt information
The Operations Security Professional's Organization outlines a process for OPSEC as?
,Identification of critical information, Analysis of threats, Analysis of Vulnerabilities,
Assessment of Risk, Application of appropriate OPSEC measures and assessment of insider
knowledge
What does SLE stand for?
Single Loss Expectancy
What does ALE stand for?
Annualized loss expectancy
What does ARO stand for?
Annual rate of occurrence
What is ROI and how is it calculated?
ROI stands for return on investment and it is calculated as (gain - expenditure) / expenditure
* 100%
You have determined that an SLE for one of your systems is $5000 and the ARO is 2.
What is your ALE?
$10,000
Your organization needs to have a way to recover operations completely and also meet
expectations for continued operations. What does your organization need?
A business continuity plan
What are Duqu and Stuxnet examples of?
Information warfare
,You have four possible strategies for mitigating a particular risk. Which of the
following should you go with when using a quantitative risk assessment approach?
Expenditure: $100,000; Return $95,000
Expenditure: $10,000; Return $0
Expenditure: $250,000; Return $275,000
Expenditure: $125,000; Return $50,000
ROI or Return on Investment is calculated as (gain - expenditure) / expenditure *100% so
Expenditure of $250,000 with a Return of $275,000 is your answer
Which of these is not an example of where an adversary can gather useful information
to use against your organization?
Job listings
SEC Filings
Domain Name Registeries
The Microsoft registry
The Microsoft Registry
What is the best way to protect data at rest?
Encrypt it
Backups and replication are two strategies to consider for what activity?
Disaster Recovery
An effective risk management strategy can be which of these?
Risk avoidance
, Security policies are best described as?
High level statements of intent and expectation for an organization
In order to have data to determine whether a project makes financial sense, you would
perform which of these?
SLE
ALE
CBA
ARO
Cost Benefit Analysis
What are some paging algorithms? (Algorithms that might be used to decide which
memory should be sent out to a pagefile or swap space).
First In First Out (FIFO), Least Recently Used (LRU), Random, Optimal, Not Recently Used
(NRU)
Describe the First In First Out (FIFO) algorithm
It removes the page that is essentially the oldest. This approach doesn't take into account
when the page was most recently used or if it has been used recently at all
Describe Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm
The LRU algorithm uses pages that haven't been used in a while to send to secondary storage
Describe the Random algorithm
Any page might be selected, so there is a chance that a page that has just been swapped out
may need to be swapped back in within the next few clock cycles
Correct Answers
Name some Security Policies that can apply to any organization.
Access Control, Information Protection, Remote Access, Acceptable Use, User Account,
Network Security Policy and Data at Rest (USB Sticks etc)
What does a business continuity plan define?
Defines how an organization will restore 100% of its operations, but give it the ability to
continue to meet defined goals
Name some strategies for disaster recovery.
Backups, Replication, Backup Facilities, Local Mirrors, Surge Protectors, Uninterruptible
Power Supply (UPS), Generator, Cloud facilities, Standby (hot or warm standby
systems/locations)
What are the SANS steps regarding incident handling in order?
Preparation, Identification, Containment, Eradiction, Recovery and Lessons Learned
Public organizations are required to file documents with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) how is this done?
Using the Electronic Data-Gathering Analysis and Retrieval system (EDGAR)
EDGAR (Electronic Data-Gathering Analysis and Retrieval System) stores a lot of
information about?
Information regarding public corporations. This includes details about subsidiaries and their
growth information, as well as debt information
The Operations Security Professional's Organization outlines a process for OPSEC as?
,Identification of critical information, Analysis of threats, Analysis of Vulnerabilities,
Assessment of Risk, Application of appropriate OPSEC measures and assessment of insider
knowledge
What does SLE stand for?
Single Loss Expectancy
What does ALE stand for?
Annualized loss expectancy
What does ARO stand for?
Annual rate of occurrence
What is ROI and how is it calculated?
ROI stands for return on investment and it is calculated as (gain - expenditure) / expenditure
* 100%
You have determined that an SLE for one of your systems is $5000 and the ARO is 2.
What is your ALE?
$10,000
Your organization needs to have a way to recover operations completely and also meet
expectations for continued operations. What does your organization need?
A business continuity plan
What are Duqu and Stuxnet examples of?
Information warfare
,You have four possible strategies for mitigating a particular risk. Which of the
following should you go with when using a quantitative risk assessment approach?
Expenditure: $100,000; Return $95,000
Expenditure: $10,000; Return $0
Expenditure: $250,000; Return $275,000
Expenditure: $125,000; Return $50,000
ROI or Return on Investment is calculated as (gain - expenditure) / expenditure *100% so
Expenditure of $250,000 with a Return of $275,000 is your answer
Which of these is not an example of where an adversary can gather useful information
to use against your organization?
Job listings
SEC Filings
Domain Name Registeries
The Microsoft registry
The Microsoft Registry
What is the best way to protect data at rest?
Encrypt it
Backups and replication are two strategies to consider for what activity?
Disaster Recovery
An effective risk management strategy can be which of these?
Risk avoidance
, Security policies are best described as?
High level statements of intent and expectation for an organization
In order to have data to determine whether a project makes financial sense, you would
perform which of these?
SLE
ALE
CBA
ARO
Cost Benefit Analysis
What are some paging algorithms? (Algorithms that might be used to decide which
memory should be sent out to a pagefile or swap space).
First In First Out (FIFO), Least Recently Used (LRU), Random, Optimal, Not Recently Used
(NRU)
Describe the First In First Out (FIFO) algorithm
It removes the page that is essentially the oldest. This approach doesn't take into account
when the page was most recently used or if it has been used recently at all
Describe Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm
The LRU algorithm uses pages that haven't been used in a while to send to secondary storage
Describe the Random algorithm
Any page might be selected, so there is a chance that a page that has just been swapped out
may need to be swapped back in within the next few clock cycles
