Palo Alto Networks Cybersecurity Apprentice Questions and Answers
Question 33
Which components are secured by the cloud provider in a shared responsibility model?
Options:
A.
Virtual machines
B.
On-premises connectivity to hosts
C.
Website authentication
D.
Host servers
Answer:
D
Explanation:
In the cloud shared responsibility model, the provider secures the underlying cloud infrastructure, including physical host servers. These servers are part of the provider-operated environment that supports customer workloads. Customers generally do not manage physical access, hardware maintenance, power, cooling, or the foundational physical network in public cloud services. Virtual machines are usually customer-managed in IaaS because the customer controls the guest operating system, configuration, applications, and data. On-premises connectivity to hosts remains the customer’s responsibility because it involves the customer’s network, VPN, routing, or direct connectivity. Website authentication is an application and identity responsibility controlled by the customer or application owner. The provider secures the cloud; the customer secures what they deploy and configure in the cloud. Understanding this boundary prevents dangerous assumptions, such as believing the provider automatically secures customer workloads or identities. Reference/topics: Cloud Security 5.3, shared responsibility model; Cloud Security 5.2, IaaS and SaaS.
Question 34
Which scenario is an example of a DDoS attack?
Options:
A.
Information is extracted without host knowledge.
B.
A target overwhelmed by a flood of traffic.
C.
A malicious payload is concealed in a file.
D.
An email with a malicious attachment is sent.
Answer:
B
Explanation:
A distributed denial-of-service attack occurs when multiple systems generate large volumes of traffic or requests to overwhelm a target. The goal is to degrade or deny availability of a service, application, or network resource. A target overwhelmed by a flood of traffic is therefore the correct scenario. Information extracted without host knowledge describes data exfiltration. A malicious payload concealed in a file may describe a trojan or weaponized document. An email with a malicious attachment is a delivery mechanism, often used in phishing or malware campaigns. DDoS attacks often use botnets made of compromised devices, including servers, endpoints, and IoT systems. Defenses may include rate limiting, upstream filtering, content delivery networks, scrubbing services, resilient architecture, and incident response planning. DDoS is fundamentally an availability attack: it tries to make legitimate users unable to access services by exhausting capacity or application resources. Reference/topics: Cybersecurity 1.3, common attack types; Security Operations 6.3, incident response planning.
