PCCET : Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician Interview Questions
Covering the fundamental concepts of cybersecurity, the Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-Level Technician (PCCET) certification is an entry-level certification. In the interview, your in-depth knowledge will be examined particularly about the Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) products, which are developed by Palo Alto Networks to protect networks from cyber threats. Further, to earn the certification, you will have to master the skills in the below-mentioned domains –
- Firstly, the Palo Alto Networks Security Operating Platform Core requirements
- Then, Simply Passing Traffic
- Traffic Visibility
- Also, Securing Traffic
- Identifying Users
- Finally, Deployment Optimization
The good news is that you can increase your chances of getting the job by reading the list of top PCCET interview questions, below. Here we go!
1. How would you explain the need for Cybersecurity?
Advanced technological advancements have opened new possibilities for cybersecurity tools and technologies, trading convenience for improved usability. Unfortunately, adversaries benefit from these advancements as well. Thus, Cybersecurity is essential for organizations of all sizes. At its core, cybersecurity involves protecting information and systems from cyber threats, with traditional threats and new, emerging threats. Cyberthreats take many forms – application attacks, malware, and ransomware are all examples of how attackers can take advantage of vulnerabilities in applications or systems to infiltrate endpoints.
2. Is Palo Alto a stateful firewall?
Palo Alto should be regarded as a stateful firewall because they are not only able to control your traffic, but also check that traffic against the appropriate cybersecurity policy. Technically, the authority on cyberattacks is essential and critical to discover which website or application was compromised. Therefore, the Palo Alto firewall works in advance of an attack and needs to analyze what is happening to your systems.
3. Can you describe the purpose of Palo Alto Focus?
Palo Alto Focus is a service in Palo Alto to identify the critical attacks and take necessary action without using any additional resources. What Palo Alto Focus does is that it gather data from different sources, analyzes them, and creates alerts and learning rules based on the past cyber-attacks. It then further sends the learning rules to other endpoints initiated by Palo Alto, which will attach them to their IDS/IPS sensors and take actions when a new similar attack occurs.
4. What are the types of deployment modes in Palo Alto?
The Palo Alto firewall offers four different modes of deployment.
- There is a Tap mode that enables users to monitor traffic across the networking system with the help of a tap or switch SPAN/mirror port
- The Virtual wire mode allows firewalls to be network passively by combining two interfaces
- Layer 2 mode enables multiple networking interfaces to be configured in a “virtual-switch” or VLAN mode or in
- In Layer 3 deployments, the Palo Alto Firewall routers allow for traffic between multiple interfaces. The user should add an IP address to each interface.
5. Can you explain the Security Operating Platform?
The Security Operating Platform (SOP) is a new term for the technology that underlies security analytics and security automation. To be considered the SOP, a technology product must be able to:
- Firstly, the elements of a Security Operating Platform must be implemented in the correct positions within a security architecture to be able to enforce security rules across an organization’s security posture.
- Then, it must neccesarily be agile and also have the ability to very quickly turn unknown threats into known threats, on a global level, and automatically share the new threat data.
- Finally, it should have the capability to automatically extend new protections within an organization’s security posture based on this new data to stop the spread of an attack.
6. What is the purpose of Palo Alto’s autofocus?
Palo Alto is a kind of threat intelligence service that helps in identifying critical attacks and taking effective action without the need for additional resources. The service helps in collecting data from a world-class system of indicators.
7. How would you define U-turn in Palo Alto?
In the networking system, U-turn in Palo Alto is nothing but a logical path used for accessing DMZ. To access the internal network, it should be done through the NAT server and ANAT is nothing but the profile used for this aspect. In this paper, we will study an analytical model called ANAT (address assigned NAT) Protocol Design.
8. Can you name the types of protections used in Palo Alto?
The following are the major protections used in Palo Alto –
- Firstly, the zone protection profile: examples are floods, reconnaissance, and also packet-based attacks.
- Then, configured under network tab protection: Network profiles, and zone protections.
9. What are the advantages of the Palo Alto firewall?
The Palo Alto firewall provides:
- Firstly, high throughput and low latency
- It also supports high-level active security functions such as IPS, Web Application Firewall (WAF), URL Filtering, Anti-phishing, Anti-Spam, and Anti-virus.
- Finally, it’s easy to manage the security configuration without worrying about the underlying platform.
10. What is WAF? Explain its purpose.
Web Application Firewall or WAF is a security pattern to protect web applications hosted on a server against internet users. The application firewall protects the web application by filtering the traffic between the internet and the application.
11. How would you define APP-ID?
App-ID is a component of Palo Alto’s Application Visibility and Control (AVC) platform. It can be used to independently identify the applications on the network. Some of its main responsibilities are identifying the applications on a network and passing them independently through firewalls and other security devices.
12. What is the type of Palo Alto architecture?
Single-pass parallel processing is followed by the Palo Alto architecture.
13. What are the virtual system and virtual routers in Palo Alto?
The Virtual System and Virtual Router in Palo Alto is an exclusive function of Layer 3. The traffic here is independent, and it separates the traffic. Users can get special addresses such as VPN or DMZ, which are very helpful.
14. Can you tell why Panorama in Palo Alto is beneficial?
Putting in a Panorama management platform in Palo Alto will offer distributed administration with control and delegate assessment to the Palo Alto firewall configurations. It gives a centralized configuration system and deployment framework to help you evaluate your security requirements or business needs. Essentially, it provides logging or aggregated management with central oversight for reporting and analyzing purposes.
15. Can you describe HA, HA1, and HA 2 in Palo Alto?
HA is short for High Availability, a deployment model in Palo Alto products. HA includes two firewalls with a synchronized configuration. In case a firewall crashes, then the security features are applied via another firewall. This helps you avoid single point failure in the network and keep working without any downtime. Now, the HA1 and HA2 are the two different ports in HA. Here, HA1 is known as a control link, while the HA2 is called a Datalink. The purpose of these ports is to maintain the state information and also to synchronize the data.
16. Can you name the media types that the firewall supports?
Copper and Fiber optic are the two media supported by the Palo Alto firewall. Copper interfaces can be utilized for passive or active-based services.
17. Being a PCCET, can you elaborate on the incomplete and application override in Palo Alto?
Application Incomplete – A TCP packet is seen at the firewall, but with no information to classify it, meaning that the 3-way TCP handshake was not completed or was completed and there was no information to classify the process after the handshake. If a TCP packet arrives after an RST, it’s assumed to be a new connection attempt, so an Initial Time-out exception rule can be used to provide an application override to bypass App-ID (Normal Application Identification) for this traffic.
18. What is the Quality of Service (QoS)?
Quality of Service (QoS) is a set of technologies that work on a network to provide insurance, that under limited network capacity, it can run high-priority applications and traffic. QoS technologies achieve this by providing distinctive handling and capacity allocation to particular flows in network traffic. This allows the network administrator to allocate the order in which packets are handled, and the amount of bandwidth granted to that application or traffic flow.
19. How would you explain the concept of port scanning?
A port scan is an activity performed to check a computer’s IP address and see which ports are open on the network. Port scanning is used by administrators to test the firewall strength of their systems, but it is also often performed by hackers as part of a reconnaissance phase in which they attempt to locate system weaknesses so they can break in successfully.
Some of the most prevalent basic port scanning techniques are –
- UDP
- Ping scan
- TCP connect
- TCP half-open
- Stealth scanning
20. What is an HSCI port?
The HSCI port is part of the SFP+ interface on the PA -200 firewall series. HSCI stands for High Availability Continual Interest and is used in an HA configuration to connect any two PA -200 firewalls.
21. What is a brute force attack and how to avoid it?
Brute force attacks are hacks in which the attacker uses trial and error to guess the target password. This is generally done by an automated software that logs you in using your credentials. A brute force attack differs from a dictionary or reality-based attack, in which the attacker uses a file of common words or phone numbers that might be used to break into your account.
Some measures to avoid the brute force attacks –
- Creating long and complicated passwords to guess.
- Setting a limit to the number of incorrect attempts.
22. How would you explain virtual private network (VPN)?
A virtual private network (VPN) is a private network that allows you to remain anonymous and private online while using a public Internet connection. You can say it’s like a tunnel that you install on your computer and all of the data that travels through it remains under your control.
23. As a Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET) Can you elaborate on the working of a VPN?
- VPN has a private server that is used by your device once you connect to it. It replaces your Internet service provider’s server.
- Secondly, during this transmission, the data is encrypted and sent via another point on the internet.
- Then, on reception of data, it is decrypted.
- The response from the server is also encrypted before reaching the VPN. Here, it will be decrypted by another VPN point.
- Finally, you get the decoded information.
24. How would you define Single-pass parallel processing?
Single-pass parallel processing is a type of distributed-processing architecture that manages to eliminate the challenges associated with scanning entire files with large threats. This feature allows the system to operate one packet at a time. The crucial features include policy lookup, identifying applications, performing networking functions, decoding, and signature matching.
25. What is the MITM (Man-in-the-middle) assault. How to avoid it?
MITM attacks are a type of cyber-attack whereby the hacker intercepts communication between two users. The attacker makes this communication appear normal to the other parties while they steal information, manipulate or sabotage data.
Few measures to avoid MITM –
- Firstly, use a VPN on public networks
- Install firewalls and strong intrusion detection systems.
- Also, use a secure WiFi protocol like WPA2 or WPA3.
- Subsequently, keep your router firmware up-to-date, and change login credentials periodically.
26. What do you know about parallel processing?
Palo Alto architecture is designed for improved performance and for delivering high-quality graphics. It makes use of parallel processing to produce great results. The hardware elements in the processing of graphics create a multiplexed parallel and serial stream that generates high performance in three-dimensional imaging, video, and graphics processing.
27. What do you know about endpoint security in Palo Alto?
Endpoint security is the most prominent part of a wide spectrum of security solutions. It is all about protecting the servers, desktops, laptops, and mobile devices using the designed tools and products to cover the attacks and threats. Palo Alto has various endpoint security solutions which grant the highest level of protection to both the data and applications against various risks.
28. What is Wildfire?
Wildfire is a cloud-based solution that protects you from unknown files and threats. Real-Time Malware Protection creates intelligence data in the blink of an eye and delivers it to the organizations. Wildfire analyses the malware and its features that help protect the network with ease.
29. Why Palo Alto is being called a next-generation firewall?
Palo Alto Networks is the next-generation firewall company that offers cybersecurity applications in its portfolio. The reason why it is different from the other cybersecurity vendors is that each product from Palo Alto has an infusion prevention system and control features. With these features, the productivity of enterprises will certainly increase.
30. What is Palo Alto NGFW?
Palo Alto Network’s Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) utilizes three different identification technologies to come up with policy-based access and control over applications, users, and content: App-ID, User-ID, and Content-ID. Traditional firewalls are passive, reactive instruments that merely attempt to detect a known application or user engaging in hostile activity. In this next-generation firewall (NGFW) approach, applications and users are actively identified by their “signature” and can then be incorporated into policy creation based on the threat level they pose to your enterprise or service.
