CSSLP ISC Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

A hot site is a duplicate of the original site of the organization, with full computer systems as well as near-complete backups of user data. It provides the backup facility, which is maintained in a constant order, with a full complement of servers, workstations, and communication links ready to assume the primary operations responsibility.

A hot site is a backup site in case disaster has taken place in a data center. A hot site is located off site and provides the best protection. It is an exact replica of the current data center. In case a disaster struck to the data center, administrators just need to take the backup of recent data in hot site and the data center is back online in a very short time. It is very expensive to create and maintain the hot site. There are lots of third party companies that provide disaster recovery solutions by maintaining hot sites at their end. Answer: A is incorrect. A cold site is a backup site in case disaster has taken place in a data center. This is the least expensive disaster recovery solution, usually having only a single room with no equipment. All equipment is brought to the site after the disaster. It can be on site or off site. Answer: D is incorrect. Mobile sites are self-reliant, portable shells custom-fitted with definite telecommunications and IT equipment essential to meet system requirements. These are presented for lease through commercial vendors. Answer: C is incorrect. A warm site is, quite logically, a compromise between hot and cold sites. Warm sites will have hardware and connectivity already established, though on a smaller scale than the original production site or even a hot site. These sites will have backups on hand, but they may not be complete and may be between several days and a week old. An example would be backup tapes sent to the warm site by courier.

The NIACAP roles are nearly the same as the DITSCAP roles. Four minimum participants (roles) are required to perform a NIACAP security assessment: IS program manager: The IS program manager is the primary authorization advocate. He is responsible for the Information Systems (IS) throughout the life cycle of the system development. Designated Approving Authority (DAA): The Designated Approving Authority (DAA), in the United States Department of Defense, is the official with the authority to formally assume responsibility for operating a system at an acceptable level of risk. Certification agent: The certification agent is also referred to as the certifier. He provides the technical expertise to conduct the certification throughout the system life cycle. User representative: The user representative focuses on system availability, access, integrity, functionality, performance, and confidentiality in a Certification and Accreditation (C&A) process. Answer: D is incorrect. Information Assurance Manager (IAM) is one of the key participants in the DIACAP process.

A code review is a systematic examination of computer source code, which searches and resolves issues occurred in the initial development phase. It increases the software security by removing common vulnerabilities, such as format string exploits, race conditions, memory leaks, and buffer overflows. A code review is performed in the following forms: Pair programming Informal walkthrough Formal inspection Answer: C is incorrect. A peer review is an examination process in which author and one or more colleagues examine a work product, such as document, code, etc., and evaluate technical content and quality. According to the Capability Maturity Model, peer review offers a systematic engineering practice in order to detect and resolve issues occurring in the software artifacts, and stops the leakage into field operations. Answer: A is incorrect. Management review is a management study into a project's status and allocation of resources. Answer: D is incorrect. In software audit review one or more auditors, who are not members of the software development organization, perform an independent examination of a software product, software process, or a set of software processes for assessing compliance with specifications, standards, contractual agreements, or other specifications.

Qualitative risk analysis is a high-level, fast review of the risk event. Qualitative risk analysis qualifies the risk events for additional analysis.

An information system auditor is an individual who inspects whether the security policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures are efficiently performed in accordance with the company's stated security objectives. He is responsible for reporting the senior management about the value of security controls by performing regular and independent audits. Answer: B is incorrect. A data owner determines the sensitivity or classification levels of data. Answer: A is incorrect. An informational systems security professional is an individual who designs, implements, manages, and reviews the security policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures of the organization. He is responsible to implement and maintain security by the senior-level management. Answer: C is incorrect. A senior management assigns overall responsibilities to other individuals.

The data owner is responsible for ensuring that the appropriate security controls are in place, for assigning the initial classification to the data to be protected, for approving access requests from other parts of the organization, and for periodically reviewing the data classifications and access rights. Data owners are primarily responsible for determining the data's sensitivity or classification levels, whereas the data custodian has the responsibility for backup, retention, and recovery of data. The data owner delegates these responsibilities to the custodian. Answer: B, A, and C are incorrect. These are not the valid answers.

The confidentiality service of a cryptographic system ensures that information will not be disclosed to any unauthorized person on a local network.

The service-oriented modeling framework (SOMF) concentrates on the following principles: Business traceability Architectural best-practices traceability Technological traceability SOA value proposition Software assets reuse SOA integration strategies Technological abstraction and generalization Architectural components abstraction Answer: D is incorrect. The service-oriented modeling framework (SOMF) does not concentrate on it.

Patent laws are used to protect the duplication of software. Software patents cover the algorithms and techniques that are used in creating the software. It does not cover the entire program of the software. Patents give the author the right to make and sell his product. The time of the patent of a product is limited though, i.e., the author of the product has the right to use the patent for only a specific length of time. Answer: D is incorrect. Copyright laws protect original works or creations of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works.

The Trademark law is a piece of legislation that contains the federal statutes of trademark law in the United States. The Act prohibits a number of activities, including trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and false advertising. Trademarks were traditionally protected in the United States only under State common law, growing out of the tort of unfair competition. Trademark law in the United States is almost entirely enforced through private lawsuits. The exception is in the case of criminal counterfeiting of goods. Otherwise, the responsibility is entirely on the mark owner to file suit in either state or federal civil court in order to restrict an infringing use. Failure to "police" a mark by stopping infringing uses can result in the loss of protection. Answer: D is incorrect. Copyright law of the United States governs the legally enforceable rights of creative and artistic works under the laws of the United States. Copyright law in the United States is part of federal law, and is authorized by the U.S. Constitution. The power to enact copyright law is granted in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, also known as the Copyright Clause. This clause forms the basis for U.S. copyright law ("Science", "Authors", "Writings") and patent law ("useful Arts", "Inventors", "Discoveries"), and includes the limited terms (or durations) allowed for copyrights and patents ("limited Times"), as well as the items they may protect. In the U.S., registrations of claims of copyright, recordation of copyright transfers, and other administrative aspects of copyright are the responsibility of the United States Copyright Office, a part of the Library of Congress. Answer: A is incorrect. The Espionage Act of 1917 was a United States federal law passed shortly after entering World War I, on June 15, 1917, which made it a crime for a person: To convey information with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies. This was punishable by death or by imprisonment for not more than 30 years. To convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States or to promote the success of its enemies and whoever when the United States is at war, to cause or attempt to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or to willfully obstruct the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States. Answer: C is incorrect. Cyber law is a very wide term, which wraps up the legal issue related to the use of communicative, transactional and distributive aspect of networked information device and technologies. It is commonly known as INTERNET LAW. These Laws are important to apply as Internet does not tend to make any geographical and jurisdictional boundaries clear; this is the reason why Cyber law is not very efficient. A single transaction may involve the laws of at least three jurisdictions, which are as follows: 1.The laws of the state/nation in which the user resides 2.The laws of the state/nation that apply where the server hosting the transaction is located 3.The laws of the state/nation, which apply to the person or business with whom the transaction takes place

The demon dialing technique automatically tests every phone line in an exchange and tries to locate modems that are attached to the network. Information about these modems can then be used to attempt external unauthorized access. Answer: B is incorrect. In sniffing, a protocol analyzer is used to capture data packets that are later decoded to collect information such as passwords or infrastructure configurations. Answer: D is incorrect. Dumpster diving technique is used for searching paper disposal areas for unshredded or otherwise improperly disposed-of reports. Answer: C is incorrect. Social engineering is the most commonly used technique of all, getting information (like passwords) just by asking for them.

Configuration control is a procedure of the Configuration management. Configuration control is a set of processes and approval stages required to change a configuration item's attributes and to re-baseline them. It supports the change of the functional and physical attributes of software at various points in time, and performs systematic control of changes to the identified attributes. Answer: C is incorrect. Configuration audits confirm that the configuration identification for a configured item is accurate, complete, and will meet specified program needs. Configuration audits are broken into functional and physical configuration audits. They occur either at delivery or at the moment of effecting the change. A functional configuration audit ensures that functional and performance attributes of a configuration item are achieved, while a physical configuration audit ensures that a configuration item is installed in accordance with the requirements of its detailed design documentation. Answer: D is incorrect. Configuration identification is the process of identifying the attributes that define every aspect of a configuration item. A configuration item is a product (hardware and/or software) that has an end-user purpose. These attributes are recorded in configuration documentation and baselined. Baselining an attribute forces formal configuration change control processes to be effected in the event that these attributes are changed. Answer: A is incorrect. The configuration status accounting procedure is the ability to record and report on the configuration baselines associated with each configuration item at any moment of time. It supports the functional and physical attributes of software at various points in time, and performs systematic control of accounting to the identified attributes for the purpose of maintaining software integrity and traceability throughout the software development life cycle.

Certification and accreditation (C&A) is a set of processes that culminate in an agreement between key players that a system in its current configuration and operation provides adequate protection controls. Certification and Accreditation (C&A or CnA) is a process for implementing information security. It is a systematic procedure for evaluating, describing, testing, and authorizing systems prior to or after a system is in operation. The C&A process is used extensively in the U.S. Federal Government. Some C&A processes include FISMA, NIACAP, DIACAP, and DCID 6/3. Certification is a comprehensive assessment of the management, operational, and technical security controls in an information system, made in support of security accreditation, to determine the extent to which the controls are implemented correctly, operating as intended, and producing the desired outcome with respect to meeting the security requirements for the system. Accreditation is the official management decision given by a senior agency official to authorize operation of an information system and to explicitly accept the risk to agency operations (including mission, functions, image, or reputation), agency assets, or individuals, based on the implementation of an agreed-upon set of security controls. Answer: D is incorrect. Risk management is a set of processes that ensures a risk-based approach is used to determine adequate, cost- effective security for a system. Answer: A is incorrect. Information assurance (IA) is the process of organizing and monitoring information-related risks. It ensures that only the approved users have access to the approved information at the approved time. IA practitioners seek to protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring confidentiality, integrity, authentication, availability, and non-repudiation. These objectives are applicable whether the information is in storage, processing, or transit, and whether threatened by an attack. Answer: B is incorrect. ISSE is a set of processes and solutions used during all phases of a system's life cycle to meet the system's information protection needs.

The potential security disadvantages of virtualization are as follows: It increases configuration effort because of complexity and composite system. It initiates the problem of how to prevent overlap while mapping VM storage onto host files. It introduces the problem of virtualizing the TPM. It creates the possibility that remote attestation may not work. It initiates the problem of detecting VM covert channels. It involves new protection mechanisms for preventing VM escape, VM detection, and VM-VM interference. It initiates the possibility of virtual networking configuration errors. It initiates the risk that malicious software is targeting the VM environment.

It increases overall security risk shared resources, such as networks, clipboards, clocks, printers, desktop management, and folders. Answer: A and B are incorrect. These are not the disadvantages of virtualization, as described in the NIST Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB) paper "Perspectives on Cloud Computing and Standards".

A checklist test is a test in which the disaster recovery checklists are distributed to the members of the disaster recovery team. All members are asked to review the assigned checklist. The checklist test is a simple test and it is easy to conduct this test. It allows to accomplish the following three goals: It ensures that the employees are aware of their responsibilities and they have the refreshed knowledge. It provides an individual with an opportunity to review the checklists for obsolete information and update any items that require modification during the changes in the organization. It ensures that the assigned members of disaster recovery team are still working for the organization. Answer: B is incorrect. A simulation test is a method used to test the disaster recovery plans. It operates just like a structured walk- through test. In the simulation test, the members of a disaster recovery team present with a disaster scenario and then, discuss on appropriate responses. These suggested responses are measured and some of them are taken by the team. The range of the simulation test should be defined carefully for avoiding excessive disruption of normal business activities. Answer: A is incorrect. A parallel test includes the next level in the testing procedure, and relocates the employees to an alternate recovery site and implements site activation procedures. These employees present with their disaster recovery responsibilities as they would for an actual disaster. The disaster recovery sites have full responsibilities to conduct the day-to-day organization's business. Answer: C is incorrect. A full-interruption test includes the operations that shut down at the primary site and are shifted to the recovery site according to the disaster recovery plan. It operates just like a parallel test. The full-interruption test is very expensive and difficult to arrange. Sometimes, it causes a major disruption of operations if the test fails.

The annualized loss expectancy in her project will be $2,500. Annualized loss expectancy (ALE) is the annually expected financial loss to an organization from a threat. The annualized loss expectancy (ALE) is the product of the annual rate of occurrence (ARO) and the single loss expectancy (SLE). It is mathematically expressed as follows: ALE = Single Loss Expectancy (SLE) * Annualized Rate of Occurrence (ARO) Here, it is as follows:

ALE = SLE * ARO

= 250,000 * 0.01

= 2,500

Answer: D, C, and A are incorrect. These are not valid answers.

Data remanence refers to the data that remains even after the efforts have been made for removing or erasing the data. This event occurs because of data being left intact by an insignificant file deletion operation, by storage media reformatting, or through physical properties of the storage medium. Data remanence can make unintentional disclosure of sensitive information possible. So, it is required that the storage media is released into an uncontrolled environment. Answer: C and B are incorrect. These are the made-up disasters. Answer: A is incorrect. Object reuse refers to reassigning some other object of a storage media that has one or more objects.

The Department of Defense Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process (DIACAP) is a process defined by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) for managing risk.

The subordinate tasks of the Initiate and Plan IA C&A phase are as follows: Register system with DoD Component IA Program. Assign IA controls. Assemble DIACAP team. Develop DIACAP strategy. Initiate IA implementation plan. Answer: F is incorrect. Validation activities are conducted in the second phase of the DIACAP process, i.e., Implement and Validate Assigned IA Controls.

A security policy is an overall general statement produced by senior management (or a selected policy board or committee) that dictates what role security plays within the organization. A well designed policy addresses the following: What is being secured? - Typically an asset. Who is expected to comply with the policy? - Typically employees. Where is the vulnerability, threat, or risk? - Typically an issue of integrity or responsibility.