Cloud Security Risks, Attacks, and Best Practices NDE Practice Questions (Page 5)

Questions 21–25

1. 21expert · hard

   A company's cloud environment is managed by a third-party cloud service provider. The company's security team suspects that a former employee, who had administrative access, may have created a backdoor account before leaving. The company wants to investigate without alerting the attacker. Which approach is most appropriate?

   • AReset all administrative passwords in the environment.
   • BReview the cloud provider's audit logs for account creation events and correlate them with the former employee's access history.
   • CImmediately disable all accounts created by the former employee.
   • DContact the former employee and ask if they created any backdoor accounts.
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first
2. 22application · medium

   A company uses a cloud-based identity provider (IdP) for single sign-on (SSO). The security team wants to implement the principle of least privilege. Which practice best supports this goal?

   • AUse a single administrative account for all users.
   • BAssign users only the permissions they need to perform their job functions and review access rights regularly.
   • CGrant all users the same level of access to simplify management.
   • DGrant temporary access to all users and extend it automatically.
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first
4. 23application · medium

   A cloud administrator notices that a virtual machine (VM) is running a cryptocurrency miner that was not installed by the organization. The VM's security logs show that the attacker used a valid user account to access the VM via SSH. The user account had been inactive for six months. Which security best practice would most directly have prevented this attack?

   • AInstall antivirus software on the VM to detect the miner.
   • BMove the VM to a different subnet with stricter network security group rules.
   • CDisable or remove inactive user accounts and enforce multi-factor authentication for all administrative access.
   • DApply the latest security patches to the VM's operating system.
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first
5. 24application · medium

   An e-commerce company's cloud environment uses a shared admin account for all cloud console access. A former employee who still knows the password logs in and deletes several production databases. The company wants to reduce the risk of this happening again. Which set of actions is the most effective?

   • AEnable CloudTrail logging and set up alerts for destructive API calls.
   • BTake daily snapshots of the databases and store them in a separate account.
   • CRotate the shared password immediately and require MFA for the shared account.
   • DCreate individual IAM users with least-privilege permissions, enable MFA, and revoke the shared account's access.
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first
6. 25foundation · easy

   To protect sensitive data stored in a cloud database from unauthorized access, which best practice should be applied?

   • AEncryption
   • BMonitoring
   • CIdentity and access management
   • DIncident response
   Reveal Solution Discussion Select an answer first