CREST CPTIA CREST Practitioner Threat Intelligence Analyst Exam Practice Test

To retrieve historical information about a company's website, including content that may have been removed or altered, Alison should use the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, accessible athttps://archive.org . The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web and other information on the Internet, providing free access to snapshots of websites at various points in time. This tool is invaluable for researchers and analysts looking to understand the evolution of a website or recover lost information.References:

"Using the Wayback Machine for Cybersecurity Research," Internet Archive Blogs

"Digital Forensics with the Archive's Wayback Machine," by Jeff Kaplan, Internet Archive

Email Dossier is a tool designed to assist in the investigation of email incidents by analyzing and validating email headers and providing detailed information about the origin, routing, and authenticity of an email. When Michael is tasked with handling an email incident and needs to check the validity of an email received from an unknown source, Email Dossier can be utilized to trace the email's path, assess its credibility, and identify potential red flags associated with phishing or other malicious email-based attacks.

References:The CREST CPTIA curriculum emphasizes the importance of tools and techniques for email incident handling, including the use of Email Dossier for investigating suspicious emails and aiding in the response to email-based threats.

The Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) Title V, titled "Analyst Conflicts of Interest," contains measures specifically designed to restore investor confidence in the reporting of securities analysts. It addresses the issue of potential conflicts of interest for securities analysts who recommend stocks and other securities by requiring disclosure of certain relationships and financial interests between analysts and the companies they cover. This part of the SOX Act aims to ensure that investors receive unbiased and accurate information from analysts, thereby helping to restore trust in financial markets. Title V consists of only one section, making it unique compared to other titles within the Act that may encompass multiple sections or provisions.References:The Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) certification materials might not directly cover the specifics of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act but would underscore the importance of understanding regulatory requirements and compliance, especially in roles involving incident response and information security governance.

Risk assumption involves accepting the potential risk and continuing to operate the IT system while implementing controls to reduce the risk to an acceptable level. This strategy acknowledges that some level of risk is inevitable and focuses on managing it through mitigation measures rather than eliminating it entirely. Risk avoidance would entail taking actions to avoid the risk entirely, risk planning involves preparing for potential risks, and risk transference shifts the risk to another party, typically through insurance or outsourcing. Risk assumption is a pragmatic approach that balances the need for operational continuity with the imperative of risk management.References:The CREST program covers various risk mitigation strategies, emphasizing the selection of the appropriate approach based on the organization's risk tolerance and the specific context of the threat.

In the context of bulk data collection for threat intelligence, data is often initially collected in an unstructured form from multiple sources and in various formats. This unstructured data includes information from blogs, news articles, threat reports, social media, and other sources that do not follow a specific structure or format. The subsequent processing of this data involves organizing, structuring, and analyzing it to extract actionable threat intelligence. This phase is crucial for turning vast amounts of disparate data into coherent, useful insights for cybersecurity purposes.References:

"The Role of Unstructured Data in Cyber Threat Intelligence," by Jason Trost, Anomali

"Turning Unstructured Data into Cyber Threat Intelligence," by Giorgio Mosca, IEEE Xplore

When Investigator Ian gives you a drive image to investigate, the type of analysis you are performing is static analysis. Static analysis involves examining the contents of a drive, file, or binary without executing the system or the application. It's about analyzing the data at rest. This type of analysis is crucial for forensics investigations because it allows for the examination of files, directories, and system information without altering any state or data, thereby preserving the integrity of the evidence. Static analysis is contrasted with dynamic analysis, which involves analyzing a system in operation (real-time or live) or executing the application to observe its behavior.References:Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) courses and study guides highlight the importance of static analysis in digital forensics, detailing methods for examining disk images, files, and other digital artifacts to gather evidence without compromising its integrity.

URL encoding, also known as percent-encoding, is a mechanism for encoding information in a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) under certain circumstances. This technique involves replacing unsafe ASCII characters with a "%" followed by two hexadecimal digits that represent the character's ASCII code. This is necessary for embedding characters that are not allowed in URLs directly, such as spaces and symbols, or characters that have special meanings within URLs, ensuring that the URL is correctly interpreted by web browsers and servers.

References:The concept of URL encoding is fundamental to web application security, a topic that is covered in the CREST CPTIA program by EC-Council. Understanding encoding techniques is crucial for incident handlers dealing with web-based attacks and investigations.

Splunk is a powerful tool for log analysis, capable of collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data from various sources in real time. For an incident handler like Drake, intending to detect traces of malicious activities within the network infrastructure, Splunk can efficiently parse large volumes of log data, enabling the identification of patterns and anomalies that may indicate malware propagation or other security incidents. Its real-time analysis capabilities make it an ideal tool for monitoring network activities and responding to incidents promptly.

Logging User IDs (D) can pose privacy concerns and may conflict with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which emphasizes the protection of personal data and privacy. Therefore, while logging details such as Timestamps, Session IDs, and Source IP addresses are essential for security auditing to track when events occur, who is initiating sessions, and from where, care must be taken with User IDs. The handling of personally identifiable information (PII) must comply with privacy laws and organizational policies to safeguard individual privacy rights.

References:Security best practices and compliance frameworks discussed in the CREST guide incident handlers on what information should and should not be logged, emphasizing the need to balance security auditing requirements with privacy and regulatory obligations.

The attack described, where multiple connection requests from different geo-locations are received by a server within a short time span leading to stress and reduced performance, is indicative of a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack. In a DDoS attack, the attacker floods the target's resources (such as a server) with excessive requests from multiple sources, making it difficult for the server to handle legitimate traffic, leading to degradation or outright unavailability of service. The use of multiple geo-locations for the attack sources is a common characteristic of DDoS attacks, making them harder to mitigate.References:

"Understanding Denial-of-Service Attacks," US-CERT

"DDoS Quick Guide," DHS/NCCIC

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF or XSRF) is an attack that tricks the victim's browser into executing unauthorized actions on a website where they are currently authenticated. In this scenario, the attacker exploits the trust that a site has in the user's browser, effectively forcing the browser to perform actions without the user's knowledge or consent. For example, if the user is logged into their bank's website, an attacker could craft a malicious request to transfer funds without the user's direct interaction. CSRF attacks rely on authenticated sessions and typically target state-changing requests to compromise user or application data.

References:The Certified Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) curriculum by EC-Council discusses various web-based attacks, including CSRF, detailing their mechanisms, implications, and preventive measures to safeguard against such threats.

The scenario described by Steve's observations, where multiple logins are occurring from different locations in a short time span, especially from locations where the organization has no business relations, points to 'Geographical anomalies' as a key indicator of compromise (IoC). Geographical anomalies in logins suggest unauthorized access attempts potentially made by attackers using compromised credentials. This is particularly suspicious when the locations of these logins do not align with the normal geographical footprint of the organization's operations or employee locations. Monitoring for such anomalies can help in the early detection of unauthorized access and potential data breaches.References:

SANS Institute Reading Room, "Indicators of Compromise: Reality's Version of the Minority Report"

"Identifying Indicators of Compromise" by CERT-UK

The data preprocessing step performed by Johnson, where he analyzes user activities within a certain time period to create time-ordered domain sequences for further analysis on sequential patterns, is known as user-specific sessionization. This process involves aggregating all user activities and requests into discrete sessions based on the individual user, allowing for a coherent analysis of user behavior over time. This is critical for identifying patterns that may indicate a watering hole attack, where attackers compromise a site frequently visited by the target group to distribute malware. User-specific sessionization helps in isolating and examining sequences of actions taken by users, making it easier to detect anomalies or patterns indicative of such an attack.References:The CREST materials discuss various data preprocessing techniques used in the analysis of cyber attacks, including the concept of sessionization to better understand user behavior and detect threats.

Alert Logic is a cloud-based security tool that provides Security-as-a-Service solutions including threat management, vulnerability assessment, and improved security outcomes. It is designed specifically to secure cloud resources and services, making it an ideal choice for organizations like Sam Morison Inc. that are moving their operations to the cloud and are concerned about the security of their data. Tools like Nmap, Burp Suite, and Wireshark, while valuable in certain contexts, do not offer the same cloud-focused security capabilities as Alert Logic.

In Wireshark, the filtericmp.type==8is used to detect ping sweep attempts. ICMP type 8 messages are echo requests, which are used in ping operations to check the availability of a network device. A ping sweep involves sending ICMP echo requests to multiple addresses to discover active devices on a network. By filtering for ICMP type 8 messages in Wireshark, Bran can identify these echo requests, helping to pinpoint ping sweep activities on the network.

References:Wireshark, as a network protocol analyzer, is frequently discussed in the CREST CPTIA program, with particular emphasis on its utility in detecting network reconnaissance activities like ping sweeps through specific filter usage.

Passive DNS monitoring involves collecting data about DNS queries and responses without actively querying DNS servers, thereby not altering or interfering with DNS traffic. This technique allows analysts to track changes in DNS records and observe patterns that may indicate malicious activity. In the scenario described, Enrique is employing passive DNS monitoring by using a recursive DNS server to log the responses received from name servers, storing these logs in a central database for analysis. This approach is effective for identifying malicious domains, mapping malware campaigns, and understanding threat actors' infrastructure without alerting them to the fact that they are being monitored. This method is distinct from active techniques such as DNS interrogation or zone transfers, which involve sending queries to DNS servers, and dynamic DNS, which refers to the automatic updating of DNS records.References:

SANS Institute InfoSec Reading Room, "Using Passive DNS to Enhance Cyber Threat Intelligence"

"Passive DNS Replication," by Florian Weimer, FIRST Conference Presentation

Process memory (RAM) is a type of digital evidence that is temporarily stored and requires a constant power supply to retain information. If the power supply is interrupted, the information stored in process memory is lost. This type of evidence can include data about running programs, user actions, system events, and more, making it crucial for forensic analysis, especially in identifying actions taken by both users and malware. Collecting data from process memory helps incident responders understand the state of the system at the time of an incident and can reveal valuable information that is not persisted elsewhere on the device.

References:Incident handling and response training, such as the CREST CPTIA program, emphasize the importance of collecting and analyzing volatile data, including process memory, to effectively investigate and respond to cybersecurity incidents.

The term that describes the combination of strategies and services intended to restore data, applications, and other resources to the public cloud or dedicated service providers is "Cloud recovery." This term encompasses disaster recovery efforts focused on ensuring that an organization's digital assets can be quickly and effectively restored or moved to cloud environments in the event of data loss, system failure, or a disaster. Cloud recovery strategies are part of a broader disaster recovery and business continuity planning, ensuring minimal downtime anddata loss by leveraging cloud computing's scalability and flexibility. Mitigation, analysis, and eradication are terms associated with other aspects of incident response and risk management, not specifically with the restoration of resources to cloud environments.References:The Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) curriculum includes discussions on disaster recovery and business continuity planning, highlighting cloud recovery as a vital component of ensuring organizational resilience against disruptions.

James's activities, including creating anonymous access to cloud services to carry out attacks such as password and key cracking, hosting malicious data, and conducting DDoS attacks, exemplify the abuse and nefarious use of cloud services. This threat involves exploiting cloud computing resources to conduct malicious activities, which can impact the cloud service provider as well as other users of the cloud services. This abuse ranges from using the cloud platform's resources for computationally intensive tasks like cracking passwords or encryption keys to conducting DDoS attacks that can disrupt services for legitimate users.References:The Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) certification emphasizes understanding cloud-specific security challenges, including the abuse of cloud services, and recommends strategies for mitigating such risks, highlighting the need for comprehensive security measures to protect cloud environments.

In the Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH) process, the stage where Mr. Bob is applying analysis to reject hypotheses and select the most likely one based on listed evidence, followed by preparing a matrix with screened hypotheses and evidence, is known as the 'Refinement' stage. This stage involves refining the list of hypotheses by systematically evaluating the evidence against each hypothesis, leading to the rejection of inconsistent hypotheses and the strengthening of the most plausible ones. The preparation of a matrix helps visualize the relationship between each hypothesis and the available evidence, facilitating a more objective and structured analysis.References:

"Psychology of Intelligence Analysis" by Richards J. Heuer, Jr., for the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence

"A Tradecraft Primer: Structured Analytic Techniques for Improving Intelligence Analysis" by the CIA

Wireshark is a network protocol analyzer that allows users to capture and interactively browse the traffic running on a computer network. It is a crucial tool for incident responders like Eric who are developing incident-handling plans and need to analyze network traffic and patterns. Wireshark can provide detailed information about the network, including protocols used, source and destination of packets, and potential signs of malicious activity, making it invaluable for developing informed policies and procedures.

Incident triage is the phase in the Incident Handling and Response (IH&R) process where identified security incidents are analyzed, validated, categorized, and prioritized. This step is crucial for determining the severity of incidents and deciding on the order in which they should be addressed. During triage, incident handlers assess the impact, urgency, and potential harm of an incident to prioritize their response efforts effectively. This ensures that resources are allocated efficiently, and the most critical incidents are handled first. Incident recording and assignment involve logging incidents and assigning them to handlers, containment focuses on limiting the extent of damage, and notification involves informing stakeholders about the incident.References:The Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) courses and study guides detail the IH&R process, emphasizing the importance of triage in managing and responding to security incidents effectively.

A Denial of Service (DoS) attack aims to make a computer resource, network, or application unavailable to its intended users, thereby preventing legitimate users from using the service. This is achieved by overwhelming the target with a flood of internet traffic or sending information that triggers a crash. In contrast, fraud and theft involve the unauthorized acquisition of data or assets, unauthorized access refers to gaining entry into systems without permission, and malicious code or insider threat attacks relate to software designed to cause harm or unauthorized actions by trusted users within the organization. The specific intent of a DoS attack is to disrupt service, making it a distinct category focused on denial of availability.References:The Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) certification materials discuss various types of cybersecurity threats, including DoS attacks, outlining their methods, objectives, and impacts on targeted systems or networks.

The correct sequence of steps performed by incident responders during the vulnerability assessment phase is as follows:

Perform OSINT information gathering to validate the vulnerabilities (4):Initially, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is used to gather information about the organization’s digital footprint and potential vulnerabilities.

Run vulnerability scans using tools (1):Next, specialized tools are employed to scan the organization's networks and systems for vulnerabilities.

Identify and prioritize vulnerabilities (2):The identified vulnerabilities are then analyzed and prioritized based on their severity and potential impact on the organization.

Examine and evaluate physical security (3):Physical security assessments are also crucial as they can impact the overall security posture and protection of digital assets.

Check for misconfigurations and human errors (6):This step involves looking for misconfigurations in systems and networks, as well as potential human errors that could lead to vulnerabilities.

Apply business and technology context to scanner results (5):The results from the scans are evaluated within the context of the business and its technology environment to accurately assess risks.

Create a vulnerability scan report (7):Finally, a comprehensive report is created, detailing the vulnerabilities, their severity, and recommended mitigation strategies.

This sequence ensures a thorough assessment, prioritizing vulnerabilities that pose the greatest risk and providing actionable insights for mitigation.References:CREST CPTIA courses and study guides elaborate on the vulnerability assessment process, detailing the steps involved in identifying, evaluating, and addressing security vulnerabilities within an organization's IT infrastructure.

Ping sweeping is a technique used in network reconnaissance to identify which IP addresses in a range are active or live. By sending ICMP echo requests ("ping") to multiple hosts and observing which ones respond, an attacker or, in this case, a red team member like Allan, can determine which systems are up and potentially vulnerable to further exploration or attack. This method is foundational for mapping the network before deploying more targeted exploits or scans.

References:EC-Council's Certified Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) program discusses various reconnaissance techniques, including ping sweeping, as a preliminary step in network analysis and vulnerability assessment.

Analysis of Competing Hypotheses (ACH) is an analytic process designed to help an analyst or a team of analysts evaluate multiple competing hypotheses on an issue fairly and objectively. ACH assists in identifying and analyzing the evidence for and against each hypothesis, ultimately aiding in determining the most likely explanation. In the scenario where a team of threat intelligence analysts has various theories on a particular malware, ACH would be the most appropriate method to assess these competing theories systematically. ACH involves listing all possible hypotheses, collecting data and evidence, and assessing the evidence's consistency with each hypothesis. This process helps in minimizing cognitive biases and making a more informed decision on the most consistent theory.References:

Richards J. Heuer Jr., "Psychology of Intelligence Analysis," Central Intelligence Agency

"A Tradecraft Primer: Structured Analytic Techniques for Improving Intelligence Analysis," Central Intelligence Agency

Phishing emails often share common characteristics designed to manipulate the recipient into taking immediate action. One of the hallmark features is the use of urgency, threatening language, or promising subject lines in the emails. These tactics are intended to create a sense of urgency or fear, compelling the recipient to respond quickly without giving due consideration to the legitimacy of the email. Phishing emails may claim that the recipient's account has been compromised, that they need to confirm personal information immediately, or that they have won a prize. The goal is to trick the recipient into clicking on malicious links, opening attachments, or providing sensitive information.

References:The Certified Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) program by EC-Council covers the identification and handling of phishing incidents, including the analysis of phishing emails and the importance of educating users on recognizing and responding to phishing attempts.

Nation-state attribution involves identifying a specific country or government as the sponsor behind a cyber-attack or intrusion. This type of threat attribution is focused on determining the involvement of state actors in cyber operations against specific targets, which often involves sophisticated, well-planned, and executed cyber campaigns. Alexis's efforts to identify and attribute the actors behind the attack to a specific nation-state fall under this category, as she seeks to uncover the geopolitical motives and the extent of state sponsorship behind the incident. Nation-state attribution requires analyzing a variety of indicators, including technical evidence, tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and contextual intelligence. This is distinct from campaign attribution, which focuses on linking attacks to a specific campaign or operation, true attribution, which aims at identifying the actual individuals behind an attack, and intrusion set attribution, which involves attributing a set of malicious activities to a particular threat actor orgroup.References:The Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) certification program includes discussions on various types of threat attributions, highlighting the challenges and methodologies involved in attributing cyber-attacks to specific actors, including nation-states.

A negligent insider is an individual within an organization who, due to a lack of knowledge on security threats or in an attempt to increase workplace efficiency, inadvertently bypasses security procedures or makes errors that compromise security. This type of insider threat is not malicious in intent; rather, it stems from carelessness, oversight, or a lack of proper security training. Such insiders might click on phishing links, mishandle sensitive information, or use unsecured networks for work-related tasks, thereby exposing the organization to potential security breaches. This contrasts with compromised insiders (who are manipulated by external parties), professional insiders (who misuse their access for personal gain), and malicious insiders (who intentionally aim to harm the organization).References:The Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) courses and study guides discuss different types of insider threats, emphasizing the importance of security awareness training to mitigate the risks associated with negligent insiders.

By assessing the Threat Intelligence (TI) program through a comparison of project results with the original objectives, and by ensuring that all expected deliverables have been produced to an acceptable quality level, Joe is conducting a gap analysis. Gap analysis involves identifying the difference between the current state and the desired state or objectives, in this case, the outcomes of the TI program versus its intended goals as outlined in the project charter. This process allows for the assessment of what was successful, what fell short, and where improvements can be made, thereby evaluating the program's overall effectiveness and identifying areas for future enhancement.References:

"Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)" by the Project Management Institute

"Intelligence Analysis: A Target-Centric Approach" by Robert M. Clark

The responsibility of first responders does not include shutting down or rebooting the victim’s computer as a measure to preserve temporary and fragile evidence. In fact, such actions can potentially alter or destroy volatile data that could be crucial for the investigation. The primary responsibilities of first responders include protecting and identifying the crime scene, and ensuring the preservation of evidence in its original state as much as possible, which may involve isolating affected systems from the network but not necessarily shutting them down or rebooting them without proper forensic readiness and consideration.

As of my last update, the most recent NIST standard for incident response was NIST Special Publication 800-61 Revision 2 (800-61r2), titled "Computer Security Incident Handling Guide." This document provides guidelines for establishing an effective incident response program, including preparation, detection and analysis, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident activity.

References:The document is a key resource in the field of incident response, frequently cited in the CREST CPTIA curriculum for its comprehensive guidelines on managing and responding to cybersecurity incidents.

A side channel attack, as described in the scenario, involves an attacker using indirect methods to gather information from a system. In this case, Alice is exploiting the shared physical resources, specifically the processor cache, of a virtual machine host to steal data from another virtual machine on the same host. This type of attack does not directly breach the system through conventional means like breaking encryption but instead takes advantage of the information leaked by the physical implementation of the system, such as timing information, power consumption, electromagnetic leaks, or, as in this case, shared resource utilization, to infer the secret data.

References:The EC-Council's Certified Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) program covers various types of cyber attacks, including advanced techniques like side channel attacks, highlighting the need for comprehensive security strategies that consider both direct and indirect attack vectors.

The correct sequence for scheduling a threat intelligence program involves starting with the foundational steps of defining the project scope and objectives, followed by detailed planning and scheduling of tasks. The sequence starts with reviewing the project charter (1) to understand the project's scope, objectives, and constraints. Next, building a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) (9) helps in organizing the team's work into manageable sections. Identifying all deliverables (2) clarifies the project's outcomes. Defining all activities (8) involves listing the tasks required to produce the deliverables. Identifying the sequence of activities (3) and estimating resources (7) and task dependencies (4) sets the groundwork for scheduling. Estimating the duration of each activity (6) is critical before developing the final schedule (5), which combines all these elements into a comprehensive plan. This approach ensures a structured and methodical progression from project initiation to execution.References:

"A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)," Project Management Institute

"Cyber Intelligence-Driven Risk," by Intel471

BrowsingHistoryView is a tool designed to collect and analyze history data from various web browsers, including Microsoft Edge. It allows users to view the browsing history stored by their browsers in one unified interface. This includes URLs visited, page titles, visit times, and the number of visits to each page. While ChromeHistoryView is specific to Google Chrome, BrowsingHistoryView supports multiple browsers, making it versatile for analyzing history data across different platforms. MZCacheView and MZHistoryView do not exist as tools recognized for this purpose in the context of Microsoft Edge or other browser history analysis.References:Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) courses and study guides emphasize the importance of using digital forensic tools, such as BrowsingHistoryView, for analyzing web browser data during investigations.

Racheal should check for DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) in the email headers to analyze the authenticity of received emails. DKIM is an email authentication method designed to detect email spoofing. It provides a way for the receiver to check that an email claimed to have come from a specific domain was indeed authorized by the owner of that domain. It achieves this by affixing a digital signature, linked to a domain name, to each outgoing email message. The recipient can verify this signature to confirm that the email was not altered during its transmission and that it indeed comes from the specified domain, thereby helping to prevent email spoofing. Other options like SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), POP (Post Office Protocol), and ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) are not directly related to email authenticity checks.References:Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) certification materials cover various protocols and standards for ensuring the security and authenticity of communications, including email security protocols like DKIM.

Tracy, as a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), requires intelligence that aids in understanding broader business and cybersecurity trends, making informed decisions regarding new technologies, security budgets, process improvements, and staffing. This need aligns with the role of a strategic user of threat intelligence. Strategic users leverage intelligence to guide long-term planning and decision-making, focusing on minimizing business risks and safeguarding against emerging threats to new technology and business initiatives. This type of intelligence is less about the technical specifics of individual threats and more about understanding the overall threat landscape, regulatory environment, and industry trends to inform high-level strategy and policy.References:

"The Role of Strategic Intelligence in Cybersecurity," Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

"Cyber Threat Intelligence and the Lessons from Law Enforcement," by Robert M. Lee and David Bianco, SANS Institute Reading Room

In Wireshark, to identify ICMP ping sweep attempts, the filtericmp.type == 8 or icmp.type ==0is used. This filter captures ICMP echo requests and echo replies, which are indicative of ping commands. Type 8 represents an echo request used when a source sends a ping, and type 0 represents an echo reply, which is the response from the target. By filtering for these ICMP types, Miko can detect a surge in ping requests across the network, which could indicate a ping sweep attempt—an exploratory activity often used by attackers to discover active hosts on a network by sending ping requests to multiple addresses.References:Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) courses and study guides often incorporate training on using network analysis tools like Wireshark, including how to use filters to detect specific types of network activities and potential threats.

In the context of incident handling, the "point of contact" list is essential for ensuring that Sheila, the incident handler working at night, can quickly notify the responsible personnel within the organization about the cyberattack. This list typically includes the contact information of key stakeholders and decision-makers who need to be informed about security incidents, allowing for timely communication, decision-making, and response coordination.

References:Incident Handler (CREST CPTIA) courses and study guides stress the importance of having a well-maintained point of contact list as part of an organization's incident response plan to facilitate efficient and effective communication during and after cybersecurity incidents.

The information Sarah is gathering, which includes collections of validated and prioritized threat indicators along with detailed technical analysis of malware samples, botnets, DDoS methods, and other malicious tools, indicates that she is obtaining this intelligence from providers of comprehensive cyber-threat intelligence. These providers offer a holistic view of the threat landscape, combining tactical and operational threat data with in-depth analysis and context, enabling security teams to make informed decisions and strategically enhance their defenses.References:

"Cyber Threat Intelligence Providers: How to Choose the Right One for Your Organization," by CrowdStrike

"The Role of Comprehensive Cyber Threat Intelligence in Effective Cybersecurity Strategies," by FireEye