In asymmetric cryptography, what is the role of the public key?

It is used to verify the sender's identity.

It is shared openly and used to encrypt messages.

It is kept secret and used to decrypt messages.

It is used to generate a shared symmetric key.

A remote employee needs to securely access internal web applications from a public Wi-Fi network. The company wants to protect the traffic without requiring a full VPN client. Which protocol is the most appropriate?

IPsec tunnel from the employee's device

Sending traffic in plaintext over the public Wi-Fi

SSH port forwarding to each web application

TLS with a valid certificate on the web applications

An organization uses a symmetric key to encrypt backups. A security audit recommends that the key be rotated quarterly. What is the primary reason for this recommendation?

To reduce the key length required for encryption.

To ensure the key is compatible with new backup software versions.

To reduce the amount of data exposed if the key is compromised.

To increase the encryption speed of the backup process.

Which of the following is a common mitigation for man-in-the-middle attacks?

Using digital certificates to authenticate endpoints

Using a longer salt for password hashing

GIAC Security Essentials

Domain 3Objective 1

Cryptography GSEC Practice Questions (Page 7)

Part of the Cryptography and Communications domain, which makes up ~12% of our current practice bank. GIAC (SANS) does not publish an official question count, but from its 240-minute exam (~95–160 total, ~11–19 in this domain), expect 4–6 from this objective — we provide 48 practice questions to prepare you well beyond it. (estimate)

48questions here

10free pages

7concepts

Questions 31–35

31foundation · easy
In asymmetric cryptography, what is the role of the public key?
Select an answer first
32application · medium
A remote employee needs to securely access internal web applications from a public Wi-Fi network. The company wants to protect the traffic without requiring a full VPN client. Which protocol is the most appropriate?
Select an answer first
33application · medium
An organization uses a symmetric key to encrypt backups. A security audit recommends that the key be rotated quarterly. What is the primary reason for this recommendation?
Select an answer first
34foundation · easy
Which protocol is primarily used for secure remote command-line access to a server?
Select an answer first
35foundation · easy
Which of the following is a common mitigation for man-in-the-middle attacks?
Select an answer first

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