Which practice is essential for securely storing encryption keys in an enterprise environment?

Storing keys in plaintext in a configuration file for easy access

Sharing keys among all employees to ensure availability

Using a hardware security module (HSM) or a dedicated key management service

Embedding keys in application source code

Which statement accurately describes a key difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption?

Symmetric encryption is generally slower than asymmetric encryption

Symmetric encryption uses two different keys, while asymmetric uses the same key for encryption and decryption

Symmetric encryption uses a single shared key for both encryption and decryption, while asymmetric uses a public/private key pair

Asymmetric encryption is primarily used for bulk data encryption because it is faster

A hospital is deploying a new wireless network for medical devices that do not support WPA3-Enterprise. The security team requires strong encryption and per-device authentication to prevent rogue devices from joining. Which configuration provides the best security for these legacy devices?

WPA2-Enterprise with AES-CCMP and 802.1X using RADIUS

Open network with MAC address filtering

WPA2-Personal with a long pre-shared key

A large e-commerce site is experiencing performance issues during peak traffic. The security team suspects that the TLS handshake is causing latency. They want to reduce the number of round trips required for the handshake while maintaining strong security. Which approach should they take?

Use TLS 1.2 with RSA key exchange and no session resumption

Increase the TLS record size to 64 KB

Disable TLS and use plain HTTP for all traffic

Enable TLS 1.3 and use session resumption

A company is designing a remote access architecture for 5,000 employees. They need to support both site-to-site VPNs for branch offices and remote access for individual users. The security team wants to centralize authentication and policy management. Which architecture should they choose?

Use only SSL VPN for both site-to-site and remote access

Use separate VPN gateways for site-to-site and remote access, each with local user databases

Use only IPsec VPN for both site-to-site and remote access

Deploy a VPN concentrator that supports both IPsec site-to-site and SSL remote access, integrated with RADIUS

GIAC Defensible Security Architect

Domain 3Objective 2

Network Encryption and Remote Access GDSA Practice Questions (Page 6)

Part of the Network Services and Encryption domain, which makes up ~23% of our current practice bank. GIAC (SANS) does not publish an official question count, but from its 120-minute exam (~50–80 total, ~12–18 in this domain), expect 4–6 from this objective — we provide 49 practice questions to prepare you well beyond it. (estimate)

49questions here

10free pages

8concepts

Questions 26–30

26foundation · easy
Which practice is essential for securely storing encryption keys in an enterprise environment?
Select an answer first
27foundation · easy
Which statement accurately describes a key difference between symmetric and asymmetric encryption?
Select an answer first
28application · medium
A hospital is deploying a new wireless network for medical devices that do not support WPA3-Enterprise. The security team requires strong encryption and per-device authentication to prevent rogue devices from joining. Which configuration provides the best security for these legacy devices?
Select an answer first
29expert · hard
A large e-commerce site is experiencing performance issues during peak traffic. The security team suspects that the TLS handshake is causing latency. They want to reduce the number of round trips required for the handshake while maintaining strong security. Which approach should they take?
Select an answer first
30expert · hard
A company is designing a remote access architecture for 5,000 employees. They need to support both site-to-site VPNs for branch offices and remote access for individual users. The security team wants to centralize authentication and policy management. Which architecture should they choose?
Select an answer first

Finished these 5 questions?

Review the revealed explanations, or continue through the curriculum.

Next 5 questions →Back to GDSA

Free Basic Practice is a study aid with revealable answers — not a scored exam. Examers.io is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by GIAC (SANS). “GDSA” is a trademark of its owner, used for identification only.