Cyber Security Interview Questions and Answers for 5 years experience

1. What are the key differences between symmetric and asymmetric encryption?

   • Answer: Symmetric encryption uses the same key for both encryption and decryption, while asymmetric encryption uses a pair of keys: a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. Symmetric encryption is faster but requires secure key exchange, whereas asymmetric encryption is slower but solves the key exchange problem. Symmetric examples include AES and DES, while asymmetric examples include RSA and ECC.

2. Explain the concept of a firewall and its different types.

   • Answer: A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules. Types include packet filtering firewalls (inspecting individual packets), stateful inspection firewalls (tracking connection states), and application-level gateways (proxying applications). Next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) combine multiple techniques and often include intrusion prevention.

3. Describe the different types of malware.

   • Answer: Malware encompasses various malicious software, including viruses (self-replicating), worms (spreading independently), trojans (disguised as legitimate software), spyware (monitoring user activity), ransomware (encrypting data for ransom), adware (displaying unwanted ads), and rootkits (hiding malicious activity).

4. What is a vulnerability assessment and penetration testing? How do they differ?

   • Answer: A vulnerability assessment is a systematic process to identify security weaknesses in a system or network. Penetration testing, also known as ethical hacking, simulates real-world attacks to exploit those vulnerabilities and assess the impact. Vulnerability assessments are typically automated scans, while penetration testing involves manual techniques and attempts to gain unauthorized access.

5. Explain the importance of incident response planning.

   • Answer: Incident response planning is crucial for minimizing the impact of security incidents. A well-defined plan outlines procedures for identifying, analyzing, containing, eradicating, recovering from, and learning from security breaches. This reduces downtime, data loss, and reputational damage.

6. What is social engineering and how can it be prevented?

   • Answer: Social engineering is the manipulation of individuals to divulge confidential information or perform actions that compromise security. Prevention involves security awareness training for employees, strong password policies, multi-factor authentication, and cautious handling of suspicious emails and phone calls.

7. Explain the concept of a Denial of Service (DoS) attack and how to mitigate it.

   • Answer: A DoS attack floods a system or network with traffic, making it unavailable to legitimate users. Mitigation strategies include implementing firewalls with intrusion prevention, using content delivery networks (CDNs), employing rate limiting, and having robust infrastructure capable of handling high traffic volumes.

8. What is the difference between a virus and a worm?

   • Answer: A virus needs a host program to replicate, while a worm is a self-replicating program that can spread independently across networks. Viruses attach to files, whereas worms exploit vulnerabilities to spread.

9. Describe the importance of security information and event management (SIEM).

   • Answer: SIEM systems collect and analyze security logs from various sources to detect and respond to security threats. They provide real-time monitoring, threat detection, incident response capabilities, and security auditing, enabling proactive security management.

10. What are the key principles of the CIA triad?

    • Answer: The CIA triad comprises Confidentiality (protecting data from unauthorized access), Integrity (ensuring data accuracy and reliability), and Availability (guaranteeing data accessibility to authorized users).

11. Explain the concept of zero-trust security.

    • Answer: Zero trust assumes no implicit trust granted to any user, device, or network, regardless of location. Access is granted based on continuous verification and authorization, using least privilege principles and micro-segmentation.

12. What is multi-factor authentication (MFA)? Why is it important?

    • Answer: MFA requires users to provide multiple forms of authentication to verify their identity. This significantly enhances security by adding layers of protection beyond just passwords, making it much harder for attackers to gain unauthorized access even if they obtain a password.

13. What are some common security threats to cloud environments?

    • Answer: Common cloud security threats include data breaches, misconfigurations, insider threats, denial-of-service attacks, malware, account hijacking, lack of visibility and control, and insecure APIs.

14. What is a security audit?

    • Answer: A security audit is a formal examination of an organization's security practices, policies, and controls to identify vulnerabilities and ensure compliance with regulations and standards.

15. What is risk assessment and how is it performed?

    • Answer: Risk assessment is the process of identifying, analyzing, and prioritizing potential threats and vulnerabilities to an organization's assets. It involves identifying assets, potential threats, vulnerabilities, likelihood of occurrence, and potential impact to determine the overall risk.

16. What is the role of a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system?

    • Answer: A SIEM system collects and analyzes security logs from various sources to detect and respond to security threats. It provides real-time monitoring, threat detection, incident response capabilities, and security auditing.

17. Explain the difference between a vulnerability and an exploit.

    • Answer: A vulnerability is a weakness in a system that can be exploited. An exploit is the method or technique used to take advantage of a vulnerability.

18. What is a honeypot and how is it used in security?

    • Answer: A honeypot is a decoy system designed to attract and trap attackers. It helps in gathering intelligence about attackers, their techniques, and malware, while protecting valuable systems.

19. What are some common web application vulnerabilities?

    • Answer: Common web application vulnerabilities include SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), cross-site request forgery (CSRF), insecure direct object references, and broken authentication.

Thank you for reading our blog post on 'Cyber Security Interview Questions and Answers for 5 years experience'.We hope you found it informative and useful.Stay tuned for more insightful content!