CAS-004 Security Operations Practice Question
During an incident response, a forensic examiner is collecting evidence from a compromised Windows workstation. The examiner must follow proper order of volatility to preserve potential evidence. Which THREE of the following items should be collected first, before the others? (Choose THREE.)
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
List of active network connections
The order of volatility dictates that the most volatile data (registers, cache, memory, network connections, running processes) should be collected first. Disk data is less volatile.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Master File Table (MFT) from the hard drive
Why it's wrong here
Disk data is less volatile and can be collected later.
- ✗
Event logs from the Security log
Why it's wrong here
Logs are stored on disk and are not as volatile as memory.
- ✓
List of active network connections
Why this is correct
Network state can change quickly.
- ✓
List of running processes
Why this is correct
Processes can be terminated or hidden.
- ✓
Contents of RAM (memory dump)
Why this is correct
Memory is highly volatile and should be captured first.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CAS-005 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CAS-005 exam.