Password Protection and Encryption Techniques DFE Practice Questions (Page 7)

Questions 31–35

1. 31application · medium

   A company wants to protect its laptops from data theft if they are lost. The laptops contain sensitive customer data. Which measure provides the strongest protection for data at rest?

   • AUse a BIOS password to prevent unauthorized booting.
   • BSet a screensaver password to lock the screen after inactivity.
   • CEnable full-disk encryption with a strong password and store recovery keys securely.
   • DStore data in a hidden folder to obscure it.
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first
2. 32foundation · easy

   Which password cracking technique involves trying every possible combination of characters until the correct password is found?

   • ASocial engineering attack
   • BDictionary attack
   • CBrute force attack
   • DRainbow table attack
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first
4. 33expert · hard

   A company's legal team has authorized a forensic investigation of a former employee's laptop. The laptop has an encrypted container (VeraCrypt) and the employee refuses to provide the password. The investigation is time-sensitive and the company has a limited budget. Which approach best balances legal compliance, time, and likelihood of success?

   • AUse a hardware write-blocker to clone the disk and then attempt to reset the password by editing the container header.
   • BCapture a memory dump from the laptop if it is powered on and the container is mounted, then extract the encryption key from memory.
   • CPerform an exhaustive brute-force attack on the VeraCrypt password using a high-performance GPU cluster.
   • DRequest a court order to compel the employee to reveal the password, even though this may delay the investigation.
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first
5. 34application · medium

   A security architect is designing a secure messaging system. They need to ensure that messages can be encrypted by anyone but only decrypted by the intended recipient. They also want to use a fast symmetric algorithm for the actual message encryption. Which approach should they use?

   • AUse a digital signature to encrypt the message.
   • BUse only RSA to encrypt the entire message.
   • CUse only AES with a shared secret key distributed to all users.
   • DUse hybrid encryption: encrypt the message with AES and encrypt the AES key with the recipient's RSA public key.
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first
6. 35application · medium

   A forensic examiner has a password-protected Excel file that uses AES encryption. The examiner suspects the password is a common word followed by two digits. Which attack method is most efficient?

   • AUse a known-plaintext attack on the file's header
   • BRainbow table attack on the Excel file's hash
   • CBrute-force attack trying all possible 10-character combinations
   • DDictionary attack with a rule that appends two digits to each word
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first