Exam SC-200: Microsoft Security Operations Analyst Interview Questions

Exam for Microsoft Security Operations Analyst (SC-200) The exam assesses your ability to do technical activities such as defending against threats with Microsoft 365 Defender, defending against threats with Azure Defender, and defending against threats with Azure Sentinel.

The Microsoft Security Operations Analyst works with organizational stakeholders to secure the organization’s information technology systems. Their mission is to reduce corporate risk by quickly resolving active attacks in the environment, advising on threat protection practices, and reporting policy violations to appropriate stakeholders.

1.) What is an intrusion prevention system (IPS) and how does it differ from an intrusion detection system (IDS)?

An intrusion detection system (IDS) is different from an intrusion prevention system (IPS). An IDS will only detect the intrusion and leave the rest up to the administrator to handle, whereas an IPS will notice the intrusion and take additional steps to prevent it. Another distinction is the device placement in the network. Despite the fact that they are based on the same basic notion, the location is different.

2.) What is XSS and how will you protect yourself from it?

In web applications, cross-site scripting is a JavaScript vulnerability. The simplest example is when a user types a script into the client-side input fields and the information is processed without being verified. As a result, untrustworthy data is saved and executed on the client-side. Input validation, implementation of a CSP (Content security policy), and other XSS countermeasures are available.

3.) What is the difference between hashing and encryption?

Point 1: Encryption may be reversed, whereas hashing cannot. Rainbow tables and collision attacks can be used to crack hashing, however, it is not reversible.

Point 2: Encryption guarantees confidentiality, whereas hashing guarantees integrity.

4.) What exactly is CSRF?

Cross-Site Request Forgery is a web application vulnerability in which the server does not verify whether or not the request came from a trustworthy client. The request is simply processed in its entirety. It is followed by methods for detecting it, demonstrations, and countermeasures.

5.) What is the definition of a security misconfiguration?

When a device, program, or network is configured in a way that can be abused by an attacker, it is called a security misconfiguration vulnerability. This can be as simple as not changing the default username/password, or it can be too simple for device accounts and other accounts.

6.) Is there a CIA triangle?

• Confidentiality refers to keeping information private.
• Integrity refers to the preservation of data that has not been tampered with.
• Availability: Information is always available to authorised persons.

7.) Which is better, HIDS or NIDS, and why?

A host intrusion detection system (HIDS) and a network intrusion detection system (NIDS) are two types of intrusion detection systems. Both systems operate in a similar manner. It’s simply that the location isn’t the same. HIDS is installed on each host, while NIDS is installed throughout the network. NIDS is favored in an organization because HIDS is difficult to manage and uses the host’s processing power.

8.) What is port scanning and how does it work?

By evaluating the response obtained, port scanning is the process of sending messages in order to gather information about the network, system, and so on.

9.) What is the distinction is between VA and PT?

Vulnerability assessment is a technique for identifying faults in an application or network, whereas penetration testing is the process of identifying exploitable flaws in the same way that a real attacker would. The difference between VA and PT is that VA is like travelling on the surface while PT is like digging for gold.

10.) What are the items that a good penetration testing report should include?

An executive summary of the observations, as well as the scope, period of testing, and other pertinent information, should be included in a VAPT report.

This is followed by the number of observations, which are divided into three categories: high, medium, and low. Include specific observations, replication processes, and proof of concept screenshots throughout the remediation.

11.) What is compliance, exactly?

Following a set of guidelines established by a government/independent party/organization. For example, a business that stores, processes, or transmits payment-related data must comply with the PCI DSS (Payment card Industry Data Security Standard). Other examples of compliance include a business adhering to its own policies.

12.) What is DDoS and how can it be mitigated?

A distributed denial-of-service assault is referred to as a DDoS attack. When a network/server/application is inundated with requests it wasn’t designed to handle, the server becomes unresponsive to legitimate requests. Because the demands might originate from a number of unconnected sources, it’s a distributed denial-of-service assault. It may be decreased by using scrubbing centres to analyse and filter traffic. Scrubbing centres are centralized data cleansing stations where malicious traffic is identified and removed from a website’s traffic.

13.) How do you deal with AntiVirus warnings?

Examine the AV policy first, then the alert. If the warning is for a genuine file, it can be whitelisted; if the file is malicious, it can be quarantined or removed. Virustotal, malwares.com, and other websites can check the hash of the file for reputation. AV needs to be fine-tuned to limit the number of alerts.

14.) In the case of IDS, what is the difference between a false positive and a false negative?

A false positive occurs when the device generates an alert for an intrusion that has not occurred, while a false negative occurs when the device does not generate any alert but the intrusion has occurred.

15.) Give us two quick tips on how to harden your Web server.

Web server hardening entails removing default-test scripts from the servers and filtering superfluous services running on multiple ports. Although web server hardening entails much more, most firms have their own checklist for hardening their servers. Any new server must be hardened, and the hardening must be checked on a yearly basis. Every year, the hardening checklist must be evaluated for new additions.

16.) What is the definition of data leakage? What methods will you use to detect and prevent it?

When data leaves an organization in an unlawful manner, it is referred to as a data leak. Data can be leaked in a variety of methods, including emails, prints, lost laptops, illicit data uploads to public portals, portable drives, pictures, and so on. There are a variety of restrictions that may be implemented to guarantee that data is not leaked, including banning uploads to websites, implementing an internal encryption solution, confining mails to the internal network, and prohibiting secret material from being printed.

17.) What are the many layers of data classification and why do they matter?

Data must be separated into multiple categories in order to determine its severity; without this separation, a piece of information may be significant for one person but not for another. Data can be categorized at multiple levels depending on the organization, but in general, data can be divided into the following categories:

• Top secret — If it is leaked, it can have a significant negative impact on the organisation, such as trade secrets.
• Confidential – Information that is kept within the firm, such as policies and procedures.
• Public – Information that is available to the whole public, such as newsletters.

18.) What should be done if a user need admin permissions on his system to perform everyday tasks? Should admin access be allowed or restricted?

To decrease risk, users are rarely given admin access; but, in some instances, users may be granted admin access. Simply make sure that the users are aware of their responsibilities. If an event occurs, access should be granted for a short time only after receiving consent from top management and a good business explanation.

19.) What are the different methods for informing employees about information security policies and procedures?

This can be accomplished in a variety of ways:

• After joining the company, employees should receive mandatory information security training. This should be done at least once a year, and it can be a classroom session with a quiz or an online course.
• Regularly sending out reminders in the form of slides, one-pagers, and other means to keep employees informed.

20.) When is it appropriate to update a security policy?

The security policy should be reviewed at least once a year, but there is no set schedule for this. Any modifications made should be recorded in the document’s revision history and versioning. If there are any significant changes, the users must be informed.

21.) From a security aspect, what should be included in a CEO level report?

A CEO report should be no more than two pages long:

• A summary of the current situation of the organization’s security framework.
• Risk quantification and ALE (Annual Loss Expectancy) findings, as well as countermeasures.

22.) What method do you use to report risks?

Risk can be reported, but it must first be assessed. There are two methods for assessing risk: quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis. This strategy will appeal to both technical and business professionals. The business person can see a possible reduction in numbers, while the technical person can observe the impact and frequency. The danger can be assessed and reported depending on the audience.

23.) What exactly is an incident, and how do you deal with one?

An incident is any occurrence that results in a breach of an organization’s security. The incident procedure is as follows:

• The Incident’s Identification
• Keeping track of it (Details)
• Root cause analysis and investigation (RCA)
• Keeping higher management/parties informed or escalating
• Steps to Remediation
• Report on the conclusion.

24.) What exactly is a SIEM?

• SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) software gives cybersecurity analysts a comprehensive perspective of what’s going on on a network in real time, allowing them to be more proactive in the fight against security threats.
• To enable event correlation, threat monitoring, and incident response, SEM security event management analyses the event and logs data in real-time.
• SIM security information management retrieves, analyses, and generates a report from log data. SIEM solutions are essential for organisations that want comprehensive visibility and control over what is occurring on their network in real time.

25.) What does it mean to have a weak information security policy?

In terms of distribution, review, comprehension, compliance, and uniformity, an information security policy must be solid. If the following conditions exist, information security is said to be weak:

The policy has not been made publicly available for all workers to evaluate.
An organization cannot demonstrate that employees read and comprehended the policy’s substance.

26.) What exactly is a brute-force attack, and how can it be avoided?

In a brute force attack, the attacker uses a permutation or fuzzing technique to try to guess a target’s password. Because it is a time-consuming effort, attackers often use software like fuzzer or hydra to automate the process of crafting a large number of passwords to test against a target.

Password best practices should be followed to avoid such attacks, especially on important resources such as servers and routers.

27.) What are the three main transmission modes between devices in computer network?

• Simplex mode: data can be sent only in one direction i.e. communication is unidirectional. We cannot send a message back to the sender.
• Half-duplex mode: data can be transmitted in both directions on a signal carrier, but not at the same time.
• Full duplex mode: we can send data in both directions as it is bidirectional at the same time, in other words, data can be sent in both directions simultaneously.

28.) What is the difference between ARP and ARP poisoning (Flooding)?

• ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is a protocol for translating an IP address to a local network-recognized physical machine address (MAC address).
• When a gateway receives an incoming packet destined for a host machine on a specific local area network, the gateway uses the ARP programme to look for a physical host or MAC address that matches the IP address.
• If the address is found in the ARP cache, the ARP programme supplies the MAC address so that the packet can be transformed to the correct packet length and format before being transmitted to the destination machine.
• If no IP address is detected, ARP sends a specific format request to all machines on the LAN to determine if any of them know the IP address connected with it.
• ARP poisoning, also known as ARP spoofing, ARP cache poisoning, or ARP poison routing, is a method of sending faked Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) messages via a local area network. The goal is to link the attacker’s MAC address to the IP address of another host, such as the default gateway, so that any traffic intended for that IP address is instead delivered to the attacker.
• An attacker may be able to intercept data packets on a network, change the traffic, or stop all transmission using ARP spoofing. The assault is frequently used as a springboard for other types of attacks, such as denial of service, man-in-the-middle, and session hijacking.

29.) What precisely is traceroute and how does it work?

Tracert or traceroute is a command that records the internet route between your computer and a specified target computer (including the specific gateway computers at each hop). It also calculates and displays the time it took for each jump. Traceroute uses a port number that is beyond the regular range to determine when a packet has arrived at its destination.

A Port Unreachable message is returned when it is received, allowing the traceroute to calculate the time length of the final hop. Traceroute is a useful tool for determining where faults exist in the Internet network as well as gaining a complete understanding of the Internet.

30.) Can you describe the SSL (Secure socket layer) handshake and encryption? SSL vs TLS (Transport Layer Security): one is more secure?

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is a security protocol that encrypts data sent over the internet. It’s a protocol that allows two or more participants to have a secure discussion. Its purpose is to identify and confirm that the person on the other end of the line is who they claim they are. HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure), for example, is HTTP paired with SSL to offer secure browsing.

TLS (Transport Layer Security) is another cryptographic technology that enables server, machine, and application authentication and data encryption. SSL is TLS’s forerunner, and the two can be used together.

SSL Handshake

• The client sends a secure connection request to the server. The server responds with a list of cypher suites—algorithmic toolkits for establishing secure connections—that it is familiar with. The client compares this to its own list of supported cypher suites, chooses one, and informs the server that it will be used by both of them.
• After that, the server presents its digital certificate, which is an electronic document issued by a third-party authority that verifies the server’s identity. The public cryptographic key of the server is contained in this digital certificate. The legitimacy of the certificates is confirmed once the client receives them.
• The client and server create a session key using the server’s public key, which they will both use to encrypt communication for the rest of the session.