Q 01/05

What is the fraud of sending messages posing as a trusted sender to trick people into revealing passwords called?

A) Phishing

B) Spoofing

C) Sniffing

D) Tailgating

Answer · why

A) Phishing

The spelling nods to 'phreaking', the older hobby of hacking phone systems; the word first appeared in a 1995 AOL cracking toolkit.

Q 02/05

Malware that encrypts a victim's files and demands payment for the key is called what?

A) Adware

B) Ransomware

C) Spyware

D) Scareware

Answer · why

B) Ransomware

The first documented example, the 1989 AIDS Trojan, was so badly designed that victims never actually needed to pay.

Q 03/05

The 'CIA triad' at the heart of information security stands for confidentiality, integrity and what?

A) Authentication

B) Accountability

C) Availability

D) Anonymity

Answer · why

C) Availability

It has nothing to do with the US intelligence agency; the third leg means legitimate users can actually get at their data.

Q 04/05

A vulnerability that is exploited before the software vendor knows it exists is called what?

A) Backdoor

B) Rootkit

C) Logic bomb

D) Zero-day

Answer · why

D) Zero-day

The name counts the days the vendor has had to fix it, which at the moment of discovery is none.

Q 05/05

A decoy system set up to attract and study attackers is known as what?

A) Honeypot

B) Sandbox

C) Firewall

D) Tarpit

Answer · why

A) Honeypot

Anything that touches it is suspicious by definition, since no legitimate user has a reason to be there.