WGU D483 SECURITY OPERATIONS
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM STUDY GUIDE
COMPLETE QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
●● Parkerian hexad
Answer: Where the CIA triad consists of confidentiality, integrity, and
availability, the Parkerian hexad consists of these three principles, as
well as possession or control, authenticity, and utility
●● Confidentiality
Answer: Refers to our ability to protect our data from those who are not
authorized to view it.
Confidentiality can be compromised by the loss of a laptop containing
data, a person looking over our shoulder while we type a password, an e-
mail attachment being sent to the wrong person, an attacker penetrating
our systems, or similar issues.
●● Integrity
Answer: Refers to the ability to prevent our data from being changed in
an unauthorized or undesirable manner. This could mean the
unauthorized change or deletion of our data or portions of our data, or it
could mean an authorized, but undesirable, change or deletion of our
data. To maintain integrity, we not only need to have the means to
,prevent unauthorized changes to our data but also need the ability to
reverse authorized changes that need to be undone.
●● Availability
Answer: refers to the ability to access our data when we need it. Loss of
availability can refer to a wide variety of breaks anywhere in the chain
that allows us access to our data. Such issues can result from power loss,
operating system or application problems, network attacks, compromise
of a system, or other problems. When such issues are caused by an
outside party, such as an attacker, they are commonly referred to as a
denial of service (DoS) attack.
●● Possession or Control
Answer: Refers to the physical disposition of the media on which the
data is stored. This enables us, without involving other factors such as
availability, to discuss our loss of the data in its physical medium
An example is data store be on multiple devices and there could be
numerous versions.
●● Authenticity
Answer: Attribution as to the owner or creator of the data in question.
Authenticity can be enforced through the use of digital signatures.
,●● Utility
Answer: Refers to how useful the data is to us.
●● Interception
Answer: Interception attacks allow unauthorized users to access our
data, applications, or environments and are primarily an attack against
confidentiality. Interception might take the form of unauthorized file
viewing or copying, eavesdropping on phone conversations, or reading
e-mail, and can be conducted against data at rest or in motion. Properly
executed, interception attacks can be very difficult to detect.
Affects Confidentiality
●● Interruption
Answer: Interruption attacks cause our assets to become unusable or
unavailable for our use, on a temporary or permanent basis. Interruption
attacks often affect availability but can be an attack on integrity as well.
In the case of a DoS attack on a mail server, we would classify this as an
availability attack.
Affects Integrity and availability
●● Modification
, Answer: Modification attacks involve tampering with our asset. If we
access a file in an unauthorized manner and alter the data it contains, we
have affected the integrity of the data contained in the file.
●● Fabrication
Answer: Fabrication attacks involve generating data, processes,
communications, or other similar activities with a system. Fabrication
attacks primarily affect integrity but could be considered an availability
attack as well. If we generate spurious information in a database, this
would be considered to be a fabrication attack.
Affects Integrity and Availability
●● Threat
Answer: Something that has potential to cause harm
●● Vulnerability
Answer: Weaknesses that can be used to harm us
●● Risk
Answer: Likeliness that something bad will happen
●● Impact
Answer: The value of the asset is used to assess if a risk is present
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM STUDY GUIDE
COMPLETE QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS
●● Parkerian hexad
Answer: Where the CIA triad consists of confidentiality, integrity, and
availability, the Parkerian hexad consists of these three principles, as
well as possession or control, authenticity, and utility
●● Confidentiality
Answer: Refers to our ability to protect our data from those who are not
authorized to view it.
Confidentiality can be compromised by the loss of a laptop containing
data, a person looking over our shoulder while we type a password, an e-
mail attachment being sent to the wrong person, an attacker penetrating
our systems, or similar issues.
●● Integrity
Answer: Refers to the ability to prevent our data from being changed in
an unauthorized or undesirable manner. This could mean the
unauthorized change or deletion of our data or portions of our data, or it
could mean an authorized, but undesirable, change or deletion of our
data. To maintain integrity, we not only need to have the means to
,prevent unauthorized changes to our data but also need the ability to
reverse authorized changes that need to be undone.
●● Availability
Answer: refers to the ability to access our data when we need it. Loss of
availability can refer to a wide variety of breaks anywhere in the chain
that allows us access to our data. Such issues can result from power loss,
operating system or application problems, network attacks, compromise
of a system, or other problems. When such issues are caused by an
outside party, such as an attacker, they are commonly referred to as a
denial of service (DoS) attack.
●● Possession or Control
Answer: Refers to the physical disposition of the media on which the
data is stored. This enables us, without involving other factors such as
availability, to discuss our loss of the data in its physical medium
An example is data store be on multiple devices and there could be
numerous versions.
●● Authenticity
Answer: Attribution as to the owner or creator of the data in question.
Authenticity can be enforced through the use of digital signatures.
,●● Utility
Answer: Refers to how useful the data is to us.
●● Interception
Answer: Interception attacks allow unauthorized users to access our
data, applications, or environments and are primarily an attack against
confidentiality. Interception might take the form of unauthorized file
viewing or copying, eavesdropping on phone conversations, or reading
e-mail, and can be conducted against data at rest or in motion. Properly
executed, interception attacks can be very difficult to detect.
Affects Confidentiality
●● Interruption
Answer: Interruption attacks cause our assets to become unusable or
unavailable for our use, on a temporary or permanent basis. Interruption
attacks often affect availability but can be an attack on integrity as well.
In the case of a DoS attack on a mail server, we would classify this as an
availability attack.
Affects Integrity and availability
●● Modification
, Answer: Modification attacks involve tampering with our asset. If we
access a file in an unauthorized manner and alter the data it contains, we
have affected the integrity of the data contained in the file.
●● Fabrication
Answer: Fabrication attacks involve generating data, processes,
communications, or other similar activities with a system. Fabrication
attacks primarily affect integrity but could be considered an availability
attack as well. If we generate spurious information in a database, this
would be considered to be a fabrication attack.
Affects Integrity and Availability
●● Threat
Answer: Something that has potential to cause harm
●● Vulnerability
Answer: Weaknesses that can be used to harm us
●● Risk
Answer: Likeliness that something bad will happen
●● Impact
Answer: The value of the asset is used to assess if a risk is present
