CISSP Asset Security — 20 Questions

Question 1

An organization wants to implement a data classification scheme for internal use. Which of the following is an example of a commercial data classification label?

Accepted Answer

Private. Private is a commercial data classification label used to protect sensitive personal information (PII). Unclassified, Secret, and Top Secret are strictly government/military classification labels.

Answer

Unclassified

Answer

Top Secret

Answer

Confidential

Question 2

A financial institution is preparing to dispose of magnetic tape backups containing transaction records. The tapes are no longer needed for retention. Which sanitization method is most effective for rendering the data unrecoverable on magnetic tape?

Accepted Answer

Physical destruction by incineration. NIST SP 800-88 Rev 1 defines three levels of sanitization: Clear, Purge, and Destroy. Physical destruction (such as incineration) is the most secure and effective method of sanitization because it physically destroys the media, making recovery completely impossible. Degaussing is a 'Purge' method, which is highly effective but still carries a small risk of failure if the degausser's magnetic field strength is insufficient for the tape's coercivity (especially modern high-coercivity tapes). Since the tapes are being disposed of and do not need to be reused, physical destruction by incineration is the most effective method.

Answer

Cryptographic erasure

Answer

Degaussing

Answer

Overwriting with zeros

Question 3

A government contractor handles documents classified as 'Secret.' Which of the following represents the correct handling of these documents when they are no longer needed?

Accepted Answer

Shred them using a cross-cut shredder to particles of a specified size.. Secret-level physical documents require secure destruction methods approved by the government, such as shredding to a specified particle size (micro-cut), to prevent unauthorized reconstruction and disclosure. Tearing them in half, standard recycling, or overwriting (which applies to digital media, not physical paper) are incorrect or insufficient methods.

Answer

Overwrite the data using a 7-pass method.

Answer

Recycle them as part of a standard office recycling program.

Answer

Deposit them in a secure disposal bin for later incineration.

Question 4

A company is implementing a data retention policy for customer records. Which THREE factors should be considered when determining retention periods?

Accepted Answer

Legal and regulatory requirements. When determining data retention periods, organizations must balance three primary factors:
1. Legal and regulatory requirements (Option A): Laws and regulations (such as GDPR, HIPAA, or SOX) often mandate minimum retention periods for specific types of data.
2. Business operational needs (Option E): The organization must retain data as long as it serves a legitimate business purpose or operational utility.
3. Storage costs and resource constraints (Option B): Keeping data indefinitely is financially costly and increases the organization's attack surface and legal liability, making cost and storage capacity key constraints.

Data owner's personal preference (Option D) is subjective and does not align with governance. Retaining data for the 'maximum possible' time (Option C) violates data minimization principles and increases liability.

Answer

Maximum possible retention without consequence

Answer

Data owner's personal preference

Question 5

A government contractor handles classified information up to the Secret level. The company's data classification policy recently changed, requiring that all documents marked as 'Confidential' be reclassified as 'Secret' after review. Who is ultimately accountable for ensuring that reclassification is performed correctly?

Accepted Answer

Data owner. The data owner is the senior-level manager accountable for data classification and protection. They have the authority and responsibility to assign classification levels and ensure data is properly classified.

Answer

Data custodian

Answer

Data subject

Answer

Data steward

Question 6

An organization's data retention policy requires that financial records be kept for seven years. After that period, the records must be destroyed in a manner that prevents reconstruction. Which of the following is the best sanitization method for paper records containing sensitive financial data?

Accepted Answer

Cross-cut shredding. Cross-cut shredding reduces paper to small particles, making reconstruction extremely difficult and is a common method for destroying paper records.

Answer

Overwriting with random patterns multiple times

Answer

Cryptographic erasure

Answer

Degaussing with a strong magnetic field

Question 7

A company collects PII from European customers for order processing. Under GDPR, they engage a third-party logistics provider to handle shipping. Which role does the logistics provider typically assume in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Data processor. A data processor processes personal data on behalf of the data controller (the company). The logistics provider handles data for shipping but does not determine purposes or means.

Answer

Data controller

Answer

Data custodian

Answer

Data subject

Question 8

A healthcare organization must decommission an old server containing patient health information (PHI) stored on solid-state drives (SSDs). Standard overwriting techniques are ineffective for SSDs due to wear-leveling and bad block mapping. Which sanitization method is most appropriate for these drives?

Accepted Answer

Physical destruction such as shredding or pulverizing. Physical destruction (e.g., shredding or pulverizing) is recommended for SSDs because overwriting may not reach all cells, and degaussing does not affect flash memory.

Answer

Cryptographic erasure by deleting the encryption key

Answer

Degaussing with a high-coercivity degausser

Answer

Overwriting with the DoD 5220.22-M 7-pass standard

Question 9

A database administrator (DBA) is responsible for implementing access controls and backup procedures for a customer database containing PII. The DBA reports to the data owner regarding security measures. Which role best describes the DBA's responsibilities?

Accepted Answer

Data custodian. The data custodian is responsible for the day-to-day management and security of data, including implementing controls, backups, and access management, on behalf of the data owner.

Answer

Data steward

Answer

Data owner

Answer

Data processor

Question 10

An organization is implementing privacy by design in a new application that collects user location data. Which practice best aligns with the data minimization principle?

Accepted Answer

Collecting location data only when the app is actively in use. Data minimization requires collecting only the data necessary for the specified purpose. Collecting location data only when the app is actively in use reduces unnecessary data collection.

Answer

Encrypting location data both at rest and in transit

Answer

Anonymizing location data after collection

Answer

Obtaining explicit consent from users before collection

Question 11

Which phase of the data lifecycle involves the removal of data from active storage and placement into long-term storage for potential future use?

Accepted Answer

Archive. The archive phase moves data from active use to long-term storage for retention purposes, often for compliance or historical reference.

Answer

Use

Answer

Destroy

Answer

Store

Question 12

A company's software asset management team discovers an unauthorized copy of a licensed application installed on several employee workstations. What is the primary risk associated with this finding?

Accepted Answer

Legal liability for software piracy. Unauthorized software can expose the organization to legal liability for copyright infringement, security vulnerabilities due to lack of patching, and compliance issues.

Answer

Reduction in employee productivity

Answer

Increased storage consumption

Answer

Incompatibility with other systems

Question 13

A data warehouse contains anonymized customer transaction data used for analytics. The anonymization process removed direct identifiers and applied k-anonymity with k=10. An attacker obtains the dataset and attempts to re-identify individuals using auxiliary information. Which of the following best describes the residual privacy risk?

Accepted Answer

Moderate risk because k-anonymity does not protect against attribute disclosure if the group is homogeneous. k-anonymity means each record is indistinguishable from at least k-1 other records, but attacks like homogeneity or background knowledge can still lead to re-identification, especially if auxiliary data is available.

Answer

No risk because anonymization eliminates all PII

Answer

High risk because k=10 is too small to provide meaningful privacy

Answer

Low risk because k=10 ensures a group of at least 10 individuals

Question 14

An organization's data retention policy specifies that customer records must be retained for five years after the end of the business relationship. After that period, what should be done with the data according to best practices?

Accepted Answer

Securely destroy the data. Once the retention period expires, data should be securely destroyed to prevent unauthorized access and comply with privacy regulations.

Answer

Continue retaining the data indefinitely for future use

Answer

Archive the data to offline storage

Answer

Anonymize the data and keep it

Question 15

What is the primary purpose of a configuration management database (CMDB) in asset management?

Accepted Answer

Provide a repository of configuration items and their relationships. A CMDB is used to store information about configuration items (CIs) and their relationships, helping manage IT assets and their interdependencies.

Answer

Monitor network traffic for anomalies

Answer

Store and manage data classification labels

Answer

Track software licenses and compliance

Question 16

A company uses differential privacy to release aggregate statistics from a dataset containing sensitive employee information. Which of the following is true regarding differential privacy?

Accepted Answer

It works by adding noise to the data or query results to protect individual privacy. Differential privacy adds calibrated noise to query results to mask individual contributions, ensuring that the inclusion or exclusion of any single record does not significantly affect the output.

Answer

It ensures that no individual's data can ever be inferred from the released statistics

Answer

It requires that data be encrypted before release

Answer

It is a method of pseudonymization that replaces identifiers with pseudonyms

Question 17

An organization is required to declassify a document that was previously classified as 'Secret' under government guidelines. What process must be followed before the document can be released to the public?

Accepted Answer

A declassification review by authorized personnel must be conducted. Declassification is a formal review process to determine if the information still requires protection. It must be performed by authorized personnel following established procedures.

Answer

The data owner must reclassify it as 'Unclassified' without further action

Answer

The document can be released immediately after the classification period expires

Answer

The document should be shredded and a new version created without classified markings

Question 18

A multinational corporation is implementing a data classification policy for commercial data. Which TWO labels are commonly used in commercial classification schemes? (Select TWO.)

Accepted Answer

Public. Commercial classification often includes 'Public' for non-sensitive data and 'Private' for internal data. 'Top Secret' and 'Unclassified' are government labels.

Answer

Secret

Answer

Unclassified

Answer

Top Secret

Question 19

An organization is developing a new application that collects and processes European customers' personal data. To comply with the privacy by design principles under GDPR, which THREE measures should be implemented? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Retain the data only as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose (storage limitation). Privacy by design principles include data minimization (collect only necessary data), purpose limitation (use data only for specified purpose), and storage limitation (retain data only as long as needed). Encryption is a security measure, not a privacy by design principle. Consent is important but not a design principle per se.

Answer

Encrypt all personal data at rest and in transit

Answer

Obtain explicit consent from users before data collection

Question 20

A security professional is tasked with sanitizing a set of hard drives that contain sensitive corporate data. The organization wants to ensure that data cannot be recovered, even by advanced forensic methods. According to NIST SP 800-88, which THREE methods are considered appropriate for sanitization? (Select THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Physically shredding the drive into small pieces. NIST SP 800-88 defines clearing, purging, and destroying as sanitization methods. Overwriting is a form of clearing/purging, degaussing is purging for magnetic media, and physical destruction is destroying. Cryptographic erasure is effective for encrypted media but is not a separate category in the standard.

Answer

Deleting all files and emptying the recycle bin

Answer

Reformatting the drive and reinstalling the operating system