ECCouncil 212-89 (EC-Council Certified Incident Handler) Practice Test 96

Question 950

The incident is not yet closed. Response staff report: A staff member sends the customer database to a competitor using a company email account after being denied promotion. Which short-term measure protects the affected process or asset?

  1. Work with legal to scope exposed customers and revoke associated access
  2. Preserve the message and suspend unauthorized bulk outbound transfers
  3. Compare outbound message attachments, classification labels and recipient identity
  4. Block the unauthorized transfer mechanism and retain policy evidence

Explanation

Correct Answer

B:

Evidence retention and access control prevent further dissemination; this is a first-response safeguard for whether a trusted mailbox was used for intentional disclosure, not a substitute for full root-cause analysis.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Response must respect due process while addressing data loss; the goal is initial containment or preservation for whether a trusted mailbox was used for intentional disclosure. Corrective follow-through follows initial protection.

C:

Content and destination determine suspected disclosure regardless of a valid login; the case needs initial containment or preservation addressing whether a trusted mailbox was used for intentional disclosure; investigation alone does not control current conditions.

D:

Containment should focus on confirmed unauthorized movement; the activity targets whether an unsanctioned channel moved restricted data; initial containment or preservation here concerns whether a trusted mailbox was used for intentional disclosure.

Question 951

Before destructive cleanup is authorized, the team faces this situation: An insider changed access-control lists on hundreds of folders while masking the changes as a migration. Which protective response should the coordinator authorize now?

  1. Revoke exposed shared credentials and review delegated grants
  2. Restore approved ACLs and test legitimate user access and restricted access
  3. Temporarily restrict the changed shares until permissions are reviewed
  4. Diff current ACLs against approved inheritance and change records

Explanation

Correct Answer

C:

Containment closes unknown access routes; the scope of this restriction follows whether permission integrity can be restored from a baseline rather than indiscriminately changing unrelated assets.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Comprehensive identity containment reduces further data retrieval; it is meant to address whether access containment is complete, not initial containment or preservation for whether permission integrity can be restored from a baseline.

B:

Recovery verifies both availability and confidentiality; the case needs initial containment or preservation addressing whether permission integrity can be restored from a baseline; corrective follow-through follows initial protection.

D:

Bulk permission drift can hide unauthorized access beyond stolen files; for whether permission integrity can be restored from a baseline, investigation alone does not control current conditions; initial containment or preservation remains necessary.

Question 952

Post-containment analysis identified this issue for correction: The insider-threat program collects browsing history on every employee with no defined purpose or legal review. Which remediation is supported by the observed root-cause conditions?

  1. Limit collection to documented security purposes with controlled retention
  2. Document approvals, evidence scope and decisions in a restricted case record
  3. Adopt purpose limitation, access controls and monitored collection approvals
  4. Examine the program charter, local law, employee notice and collected fields
  5. Pause excessive collection pending HR, legal and privacy review

Explanation

Correct Answer

A:

Operational recovery includes appropriate handling of already gathered records; the owner can validate the correction against the evidence bearing on whether monitoring scope is proportionate and authorized.

Incorrect Answers

B:

Defensible case handling requires traceable authorization; the relevant condition for that step is whether insider investigations have accountable authority, which is not shown for whether monitoring scope is proportionate and authorized.

C:

Governed insider monitoring avoids becoming a new data exposure; when judging whether monitoring scope is proportionate and authorized, future hardening is not current-state recovery; this is instead recurrence prevention.

D:

Broad surveillance can create privacy risk without improving detection; for whether monitoring scope is proportionate and authorized, verification is not the corrective step; trusted restoration remains necessary.

E:

A lawful, targeted approach preserves trust and investigation defensibility; the requirement concerns whether monitoring scope is proportionate and authorized, so temporary protection does not complete correction.

Question 953

During lessons learned, the security owner reviews this completed incident: The organization has no protection for privileged audit logs against modification by the same administrators being monitored. Which repeatable safeguard best prevents this failure mode in the future?

  1. Review log repository rights and administrator ability to change retention
  2. Use just-in-time privileged access and periodic recertification
  3. Implement immutable storage and independent access review for audit data
  4. Use dual control for log policy changes and alert on tampering

Explanation

Correct Answer

D:

Separation of duties strengthens insider detection; it closes a repeatable gap revealed by whether monitoring is independent of monitored insiders without removing useful monitoring.

Incorrect Answers

A:

A subject of investigation should not be able to erase the only relevant audit trail; the requirement concerns whether monitoring is independent of monitored insiders, so an investigation is not recurrence prevention.

B:

Privilege lifecycle control reduces long-term insider risk; this serves whether just-in-time privilege would reduce insider opportunity, whereas the requested result is recurrence prevention involving whether monitoring is independent of monitored insiders.

C:

Evidence should remain verifiable after compromise; case recovery is not future-risk control in the decision about whether monitoring is independent of monitored insiders.

Question 954

An improvement plan must address recurrence after this case: A contractor uses a shared service credential to query private customer information after their contract expired. What should the owner add to the normal control review to reduce recurrence?

  1. Inventory nonhuman credentials associated with contractor lifecycle
  2. Correlate database audit, service credential use and contract termination date
  3. Reissue scoped credentials to current service owners and assess accessed records
  4. Require documented purpose and dual approval for high-volume exports

Explanation

Correct Answer

A:

Offboarding must include delegated and shared access; it makes the lesson about whether a service identity provides residual insider access part of normal operations.

Incorrect Answers

B:

Machine credentials can remain active independently of a terminated personal account; the requirement concerns whether a service identity provides residual insider access, so an investigation is not recurrence prevention.

C:

Recovery replaces a shared secret without breaking legitimate integrations; the goal is recurrence prevention for whether a service identity provides residual insider access. Case recovery is not future-risk control.

D:

Process safeguards limit sensitive data movement; it is meant to address whether claimed business justification can be verified, not recurrence prevention for whether a service identity provides residual insider access.

Question 955

To avoid broad unnecessary disruption, responders consider this finding: An engineer downloads source-code archives just before resigning and transfers them to a personal drive despite an explicit restriction. Which operational control should take effect first?

  1. Assess transferred code, revoke residual credentials and remediate unauthorized copies where lawful
  2. Suspend unauthorized export channels and preserve access evidence with HR/legal oversight
  3. Stop unsafe forwarding and provide an approved remote-work alternative
  4. Correlate repository downloads, device transfers and departing employee identity

Explanation

Correct Answer

B:

Evidence-based containment limits loss without assuming every departure is malicious; the action limits the impact connected to whether an intentional insider exfiltration occurred without assuming the underlying flaw is already gone.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Recovery must address both disclosure and continuing access; when judging whether an intentional insider exfiltration occurred, corrective follow-through follows initial protection; this is instead post-containment assessment.

C:

Containment protects data while addressing the business cause; the activity targets whether careless behavior created an insider data incident; initial containment or preservation here concerns whether an intentional insider exfiltration occurred.

D:

Multiple independent records can establish the movement of protected data and timing; the goal is initial containment or preservation for whether an intentional insider exfiltration occurred. Investigation alone does not control current conditions.

Question 956

The team needs temporary protection and must retain evidence. The observed event is: A company grants permanent domain administrator access to employees who only need temporary database maintenance. What narrowly scoped action would best control the immediate risk?

  1. Remove unnecessary standing rights and grant supervised temporary access
  2. Disable password sharing and assign named temporary delegates
  3. Compare actual maintenance tasks with effective permanent role grants
  4. Migrate maintenance to scoped identities with approval and session logging

Explanation

Correct Answer

A:

Time-bounded privileges support valid work with less exposure; the immediate response addresses whether just-in-time privilege would reduce insider opportunity while the team preserves relevant case records.

Incorrect Answers

B:

Individual accountability protects both investigators and staff; the activity targets whether account sharing undermines attribution; initial containment or preservation here concerns whether just-in-time privilege would reduce insider opportunity.

C:

Persistent broad authority increases potential misuse and credential theft impact; the goal is initial containment or preservation for whether just-in-time privilege would reduce insider opportunity. Investigation alone does not control current conditions.

D:

Operational recovery corrects entitlement design; corrective follow-through follows initial protection in the decision about whether just-in-time privilege would reduce insider opportunity.

Question 957

An evidence-led review starts with the following report: A contractor onboarding process grants full database export privileges even though the project requires only read access to five tables. What investigation should establish the disputed activity and its timeline?

  1. Review blocked business workflows and observed unsanctioned transfer channels
  2. Use time-limited vendor entitlements and approval-based data exports
  3. Compare granted roles with contract scope and approved data requirements
  4. Reduce access to approved objects and remove bulk-export rights

Explanation

Correct Answer

C:

Excess permission increases potential damage from misuse or compromise; this permits a traceable finding about whether third-party access exceeds business need before the team makes a disruptive change.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Unusable policies may push sensitive data outside enterprise monitoring; that method could help with whether preventive controls created unsafe workarounds; the evidence validation decision here involves whether third-party access exceeds business need.

B:

Granular access reduces insider opportunity; prevention is not incident verification in the decision about whether third-party access exceeds business need.

D:

Least-privilege containment narrows the contractor's reachable data; when judging whether third-party access exceeds business need, immediate protection does not substantiate findings; this is instead initial containment or preservation.

Question 958

The responder must establish the timeline from this observation: An administrator covertly configures an automated nightly job to copy audit archives to personal cloud storage. Which analysis step best addresses the missing confirmation?

  1. Inspect scheduler configuration, identity grants and cloud upload records
  2. Disable the unauthorized job and block its external storage destination
  3. Monitor new data-export jobs and restrict destinations for archive storage
  4. Correlate database audit, service credential use and contract termination date

Explanation

Correct Answer

A:

A recurring job can continue exfiltration without interactive logins; the review should retain source and timing information relevant to whether scheduled automation is an insider persistence route.

Incorrect Answers

B:

Containment stops the unattended transfer path; the goal is evidence validation for whether scheduled automation is an insider persistence route. Immediate protection does not substantiate findings.

C:

Job governance reduces stealthy recurring copies; prevention is not incident verification in the decision about whether scheduled automation is an insider persistence route.

D:

Machine credentials can remain active independently of a terminated personal account; the other incident centers on whether a service identity provides residual insider access, not this evidence validation question about whether scheduled automation is an insider persistence route.

Question 959

A technical closure review begins after this incident: A departing database administrator left a hidden scheduled account that can still connect after all personal accounts were disabled. 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. Disable the unauthorized account and stop associated scheduled jobs
  2. Include service identities and task owners in privileged offboarding
  3. Minimize shared secrets and use attributable identities with revocation hooks
  4. Audit service accounts, scheduler jobs and login timestamps tied to the administrator
  5. Rebuild approved automation identities and rotate any shared secrets
  6. Include sharing-link inventory in offboarding checklists

Explanation

Correct Answers

A:

Removing nonhuman access blocks post-departure connection; within the combined response for whether non-person identity persistence remains, this supplies initial containment or preservation: it protects the affected workflow while investigators continue resolving whether non-person identity persistence remains.

D:

Hidden access can survive ordinary employee account termination; within the combined response for whether non-person identity persistence remains, this supplies evidence validation: this permits a traceable finding about whether non-person identity persistence remains before the team makes a disruptive change.

E:

Recovery restores legitimate operation without hidden privileges; within the combined response for whether non-person identity persistence remains, this supplies trusted restoration: technical closure should demonstrate that the control gap behind whether non-person identity persistence remains is actually corrected.

Incorrect Answers

B:

Lifecycle coverage prevents retained backdoors; future hardening is not current-state recovery in the decision about whether non-person identity persistence remains.

C:

Individual authorization improves incident control; the relevant condition for that step is whether access containment is complete, which is not shown for whether non-person identity persistence remains.

F:

Account deletion alone may not remove delegated exposure; this serves whether resource-level sharing survives identity disablement, whereas the requested result is trusted restoration involving whether non-person identity persistence remains.

Question 960

The response team seeks the relevant control point for this problem: A multinational company has no secure mechanism for employees to report suspicious actions by senior managers. What protection would be proportionate to the observed incident?

  1. Inspect whistleblowing escalation and confidential incident intake procedures
  2. Set restricted case access and documented investigation oversight
  3. Route the concern to an authorized independent ethics/security channel
  4. Establish an authorized joint case lead before intrusive inquiry

Explanation

Correct Answer

C:

A protected path preserves evidence and reporter confidentiality; the immediate response addresses whether reporting channels bypass a conflict of interest while the team preserves relevant case records.

Incorrect Answers

A:

Reports against executives require independent handling to prevent suppression; the case needs initial containment or preservation addressing whether reporting channels bypass a conflict of interest; investigation alone does not control current conditions.

B:

Appropriate governance supports fair fact-finding; when judging whether reporting channels bypass a conflict of interest, corrective follow-through follows initial protection; this is instead trusted restoration.

D:

A coordinated process protects the investigation and affected employee; the relevant condition for that step is whether insider investigations have accountable authority, which is not shown for whether reporting channels bypass a conflict of interest.

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