ECCouncil 212-89 (EC-Council Certified Incident Handler) Practice Test 111

Question 1100

The affected workflow needs an integrity and access check following this event: A SCADA historian stops receiving data after a new firewall block was installed during a suspected intrusion. What case-specific cleanup or recovery step establishes a trusted state?

  1. Validate historian ingestion and independent process alarm visibility
  2. Restore approved setpoints and verify process stability with authorized operators
  3. Document essential OT data flows and rehearse containment ACLs
  4. Adjust the rule with OT owner approval to preserve required read-only flows

Explanation

Correct Answer

A:

Recovery should confirm trustworthy monitoring has resumed; the resulting state needs verification against the original concern: whether containment interrupted process monitoring.

Incorrect Answers

B:

Recovery needs physical-state validation beyond software scans; the activity targets whether physical process safety is at risk; trusted restoration here concerns whether containment interrupted process monitoring.

C:

Prevalidated rules reduce accidental outages; the case needs trusted restoration addressing whether containment interrupted process monitoring; future hardening is not current-state recovery.

D:

Narrow enforcement can limit malicious traffic without blinding operators; when judging whether containment interrupted process monitoring, temporary protection does not complete correction; this is instead initial containment or preservation.

Question 1101

During lessons learned, the security owner reviews this completed incident: An industrial HMI shows unauthorized setpoint changes while the process is operating near a safety threshold. Which repeatable safeguard best prevents this failure mode in the future?

  1. Correlate HMI commands, controller events and process telemetry with OT operators
  2. Allowlist engineering workstations and monitor PLC program changes
  3. Restore approved setpoints and verify process stability with authorized operators
  4. Use change approval, role segregation and process anomaly detection

Explanation

Correct Answer

D:

Safety-aware controls detect unauthorized setpoint modifications; it closes a repeatable gap revealed by whether physical process safety is at risk without removing useful monitoring.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Cyber observations must be interpreted against real equipment conditions; the case needs recurrence prevention addressing whether physical process safety is at risk; an investigation is not recurrence prevention.

B:

Separated roles reduce unauthorized logic updates; this serves whether a nonengineering station initiated controller changes, whereas the requested result is recurrence prevention involving whether physical process safety is at risk.

C:

Recovery needs physical-state validation beyond software scans; for whether physical process safety is at risk, case recovery is not future-risk control; recurrence prevention remains necessary.

Question 1102

Cleanup is not considered complete. The case record describes: A plant engineer proposes rebooting a suspected compromised controller during an active batch process. Which remediation task is necessary rather than merely suppressing the visible symptom?

  1. Build incident runbooks around process hazards and safe shutdown windows
  2. Rotate vendor credentials and inspect changes made during the session
  3. Use plant-approved protective actions before any controller power change
  4. Schedule verified firmware or logic restoration during an authorized safe state

Explanation

Correct Answer

D:

OT recovery should not bypass maintenance interlocks; the recovery decision is tied to whether reboot is operationally safe, not merely to reduced alert volume.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Preparation prevents unsafe response actions; the requirement concerns whether reboot is operationally safe, so future hardening is not current-state recovery.

B:

Recovery includes process configuration and identity review; the activity targets whether vendor remote access was misused; trusted restoration here concerns whether reboot is operationally safe.

C:

Physical safety and continuity determine acceptable containment; temporary protection does not complete correction in the decision about whether reboot is operationally safe.

Question 1103

The responder must establish the timeline from this observation: A mobile phishing page successfully captures a corporate sign-in and the attacker maintains an active cloud session. Which analysis step best addresses the missing confirmation?

  1. Correlate mobile browser events with identity provider sign-in and token activity
  2. Inspect app source, granted accessibility permissions and notification access
  3. Use phishing-resistant MFA and mobile threat protection
  4. Revoke the account's suspicious sessions and block the lure

Explanation

Correct Answer

A:

The compromised credential may have been replayed from a different device; for this investigation, the relevant uncertainty is whether mobile-origin credentials were used elsewhere, so independent confirmation matters.

Incorrect Answers

B:

Excessive privileges can enable sensitive content capture without conventional malware files; it is meant to address whether abuse of accessibility services is occurring, not evidence validation for whether mobile-origin credentials were used elsewhere.

C:

Origin-bound authentication reduces mobile phishing impact; for whether mobile-origin credentials were used elsewhere, prevention is not incident verification; evidence validation remains necessary.

D:

Cloud-side identity containment can work even if the phone is offline; the requirement concerns whether mobile-origin credentials were used elsewhere, so immediate protection does not substantiate findings.

Question 1104

A technical closure review begins after this incident: A desktop triggers a false positive on a signed internal updater after a new security policy rollout. An incident plan must include factual validation, narrowly scoped protection, and trusted remediation—not only prevention. Which THREE actions cover those stages? (Choose THREE.)

  1. Maintain signed package inventory and change-aware endpoint detections
  2. Maintain release-aware allowlisting with expiration and review
  3. Check signer, release manifest, deployment schedule and process actions
  4. Tune the specific rule and document tested expected execution
  5. Use a narrow temporary exception only after validating the updater
  6. Use controlled-folder protections and immutable backup copies

Explanation

Correct Answers

C:

Authenticity and expected behavior can support a false-positive conclusion; within the combined response for whether the alert is a benign software change, this supplies evidence validation: this evidence is scoped to whether the alert is a benign software change, not a generic system-health reading.

D:

Recovery restores normal updates without sacrificing coverage; within the combined response for whether the alert is a benign software change, this supplies trusted restoration: the affected workflow should not be considered trusted until the issue of whether the alert is a benign software change is resolved.

E:

Broad antivirus disablement would create unnecessary exposure; within the combined response for whether the alert is a benign software change, this supplies initial containment or preservation: it restricts the path implicated in whether the alert is a benign software change; later eradication and restoration remain separate decisions.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Context reduces incorrect persistence alerts; the relevant condition for that step is whether the service change is authorized, which is not shown for whether the alert is a benign software change.

B:

Controlled exception lifecycles reduce recurring alerts; for whether the alert is a benign software change, future hardening is not current-state recovery; trusted restoration remains necessary.

F:

Write restrictions and protected recovery points reduce impact; it is meant to address whether ransomware encryption has begun, not trusted restoration for whether the alert is a benign software change.

Question 1105

For the next control cycle, the responder supplies this incident history: An employee laptop reports hundreds of file-renaming operations and rapid changes to document entropy. Which ongoing safeguard should be implemented and tested?

  1. Enable DNS and endpoint behavioral correlation
  2. Suspend the responsible process and isolate the laptop from file shares
  3. Rebuild the endpoint and restore affected files from validated backups
  4. Use controlled-folder protections and immutable backup copies
  5. Correlate file-modification bursts with originating process and user account

Explanation

Correct Answer

D:

Write restrictions and protected recovery points reduce impact; it makes the lesson about whether ransomware encryption has begun part of normal operations.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Layered telemetry covers gaps in signature detections; the relevant condition for that step is whether a negative signature alert rules out compromise, which is not shown for whether ransomware encryption has begun.

B:

Stopping writes limits immediate file damage and propagation; for whether ransomware encryption has begun, one-time protection is not durable prevention; recurrence prevention remains necessary.

C:

Reliable recovery avoids trusting altered local content; the requirement concerns whether ransomware encryption has begun, so case recovery is not future-risk control.

E:

Bulk rewrites and entropy shifts are consistent with encryption activity; an investigation is not recurrence prevention in the decision about whether ransomware encryption has begun.

Question 1106

During lessons learned, the security owner reviews this completed incident: A network camera still uses a default administrator password and exposes its control interface to the internet. Which repeatable safeguard best prevents this failure mode in the future?

  1. Require secure-by-default device commissioning checklists
  2. Review camera authentication logs, firmware and management interface exposure
  3. Enforce unique device credentials and isolated management networks
  4. Upgrade supported firmware and validate camera configuration after compromise review

Explanation

Correct Answer

C:

IoT devices should not depend on factory defaults; this turns the weakness behind whether weak device identity enabled unauthorized access into a measurable prevention requirement.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Hardening at install time prevents dormant weaknesses; that method could help with whether an unnecessary remote service exposes device control; the recurrence prevention decision here involves whether weak device identity enabled unauthorized access.

B:

Default credentials plus public reachability create a straightforward entry path; when judging whether weak device identity enabled unauthorized access, an investigation is not recurrence prevention; this is instead evidence validation.

D:

Recovery must address both access and possible persistent settings; the requirement concerns whether weak device identity enabled unauthorized access, so case recovery is not future-risk control.

Question 1107

The team has retained the initial evidence and is assessing recovery from: Endpoint event logs are overwritten after a few hours because an application generates noisy debug events. What restoration task closes the identified integrity or control gap?

  1. Include event-retention performance tests in endpoint baselines
  2. Collect evidence through vendor-approved interfaces and validate control functionality
  3. Prioritize export of security-critical events to central storage
  4. Tune debug verbosity and verify investigation events remain available

Explanation

Correct Answer

D:

A balanced configuration preserves high-value evidence; the resulting state needs verification against the original concern: whether security telemetry capacity is adequate.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Capacity planning improves forensic readiness; the goal is trusted restoration for whether security telemetry capacity is adequate. Future hardening is not current-state recovery.

B:

Supported methods preserve reliability while investigating; it is meant to address whether the equipment vendor approves the proposed scanner for this controller, not trusted restoration for whether security telemetry capacity is adequate.

C:

Protected off-device logs survive local overwrite; the case needs trusted restoration addressing whether security telemetry capacity is adequate; temporary protection does not complete correction.

Question 1108

A case is escalated for independent verification after this finding: A field workstation is disconnected from the corporate network for weeks, so its EDR agent receives no policies or updates. What collection or comparison would validate the reported condition?

  1. Use offline-capable controls and reconnect compliance checks
  2. Limit access to high-value services until the device synchronizes and is assessed
  3. Map device identity, installed apps and data access from the alerted mobile client
  4. Inspect last agent heartbeat, definition updates and local event buffer

Explanation

Correct Answer

D:

Offline operation can create long monitoring and protection gaps; it makes the determination of whether intermittent devices retain protective coverage defensible and reviewable by the incident owner.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Remote endpoints need protection between central connections; prevention is not incident verification in the decision about whether intermittent devices retain protective coverage.

B:

A trust gate prevents stale endpoints from rejoining blindly; the case needs evidence validation addressing whether intermittent devices retain protective coverage; immediate protection does not substantiate findings.

C:

Compromised endpoints can expose cloud sessions and enterprise data without compromising servers; it is meant to address whether endpoints can bypass server-centric protection, not evidence validation for whether intermittent devices retain protective coverage.

Question 1109

The team needs temporary protection and must retain evidence. The observed event is: A managed Android phone is rooted, causing device-attestation checks to fail during corporate access. Investigators need both a defensible factual finding and a limited immediate safeguard. Which TWO actions jointly satisfy those requirements? (Choose TWO.)

  1. Enforce managed developer-setting restrictions on high-risk devices
  2. Block access from the noncompliant device through conditional policy
  3. Require device integrity attestation for sensitive mobile access
  4. Reprovision on a verified supported device and review exposed sessions
  5. Review device integrity attestation, MDM compliance and enrollment state

Explanation

Correct Answers

B:

Identity gating reduces risk without treating an attestation result as proof of a specific exploit; within the combined response for whether platform integrity meets access policy, this supplies initial containment or preservation: this is a first-response safeguard for whether platform integrity meets access policy, not a substitute for full root-cause analysis.

E:

Rooting can change the trust assumptions behind managed endpoint protections; within the combined response for whether platform integrity meets access policy, this supplies evidence validation: it makes the determination of whether platform integrity meets access policy defensible and reviewable by the incident owner.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Policy limits unauthorized debugging connections; the activity targets whether debugging exposes the managed device; initial containment or preservation here concerns whether platform integrity meets access policy.

C:

Conditional access limits compromised or unmanaged platforms; for whether platform integrity meets access policy, prevention cannot replace immediate action; initial containment or preservation remains necessary.

D:

Trust restoration requires an approved system state; the requirement concerns whether platform integrity meets access policy, so corrective follow-through follows initial protection.

Question 1110

An evidence-led review starts with the following report: A smart thermostat gateway sends traffic to an unknown cloud endpoint after an unapproved firmware update. What investigation should establish the disputed activity and its timeline?

  1. Compare firmware version and signature with vendor release records and flow logs
  2. Correlate gateway crash logs, source flows and management parser errors
  3. Require signed firmware and approved update management for IoT assets
  4. Restrict the gateway's outbound paths without interrupting essential building control

Explanation

Correct Answer

A:

An unexpected firmware build can change device behavior and external communication; the objective is to establish whether firmware integrity or destination was altered; the result can then guide the later protective decision.

Incorrect Answers

B:

Timing and input patterns can link traffic to service instability; this serves whether malicious management requests cause availability loss, whereas the requested result is evidence validation involving whether firmware integrity or destination was altered.

C:

Firmware provenance reduces supply-chain and unauthorized changes; the requirement concerns whether firmware integrity or destination was altered, so prevention is not incident verification.

D:

Network containment protects safety and availability; the goal is evidence validation for whether firmware integrity or destination was altered. Immediate protection does not substantiate findings.

EC-Council Certified Incident Handler (212-89) Practice Tests