Cyber Security.

Cybersecurity professionals and experts can be asked a wide range of questions to gain insights, address concerns, and improve security practices. Here's a categorized list of more than 150 questions you can ask them:

https://www.springboard.com/blog/cybersecurity/what-is-cybersecurity/

General Cybersecurity Knowledge:

1. What is cybersecurity, and why is it important?
2. What are the main objectives of cybersecurity?
3. Can you explain the CIA triad in cybersecurity?
4. What is the difference between cybersecurity and information security?
5. What is the current state of global cybersecurity threats?
6. How do cybersecurity threats evolve over time?
7. What is the role of cybersecurity in protecting personal data?
8. How does cybersecurity impact businesses and organizations?
9. What are some common misconceptions about cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity Fundamentals:

1. What are the most common types of cyber threats?
2. Can you explain the difference between viruses, worms, and Trojans?
3. What is the role of firewalls in cybersecurity?
4. How do intrusion detection systems work?
5. What is encryption, and why is it important in cybersecurity?
6. Explain the concept of zero-day vulnerabilities.
7. What is penetration testing, and how is it conducted?
8. How does social engineering pose a threat to cybersecurity?
9. What is multi-factor authentication (MFA), and why is it essential?
10. How do you stay updated on the latest cybersecurity threats and trends?

Network Security:

1. What are the best practices for securing a network?
2. Can you explain the principles of network segmentation?
3. How does a Virtual Private Network (VPN) enhance network security?
4. What is a DMZ, and why is it important for network security?
5. How can you protect a wireless network from unauthorized access?
6. What are the risks associated with Internet of Things (IoT) devices in networks?

Endpoint Security:

1. What is endpoint security, and why is it crucial?
2. How can you protect against malware on endpoints?
3. What is the role of antivirus software in endpoint security?
4. How should organizations manage and secure employee devices (BYOD)?

Cloud Security:

1. What are the unique challenges of cloud security?
2. How can organizations secure their data in the cloud?
3. What is Identity and Access Management (IAM) in cloud security?
4. What are the best practices for securing cloud-based applications?

Security Protocols and Standards:

1. What is the significance of the SSL/TLS protocol in web security?
2. Can you explain the differences between HTTP and HTTPS?
3. What is the purpose of the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP)?
4. How does the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) impact businesses?

Incident Response and Recovery:

1. What is an incident response plan, and why is it necessary?
2. How do you handle a cybersecurity breach or incident?
3. What are the key steps in the incident response process?
4. What role does digital forensics play in incident response?

Risk Management:

1. How do you assess cybersecurity risks for an organization?
2. What is the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, and how can it be used?
3. Can you explain the concept of risk appetite in cybersecurity?
4. What are the best practices for risk mitigation in cybersecurity?

Regulations and Compliance:

1. What are the regulatory requirements that organizations need to comply with in cybersecurity?
2. How does GDPR impact data protection and privacy?
3. Can you explain the role of HIPAA in healthcare cybersecurity?
4. What is the role of ISO 27001 in information security management?

Security Awareness and Training:

1. How can organizations raise cybersecurity awareness among employees?
2. What are the best methods for educating employees about cybersecurity?
3. How can security training be tailored to different employee roles?

Secure Development Practices:

1. What are secure coding practices, and why are they important?
2. How can organizations integrate security into the software development lifecycle?
3. What is the role of DevSecOps in application security?

Threat Intelligence:

1. How can organizations leverage threat intelligence for better cybersecurity?
2. What sources of threat intelligence do you recommend?
3. How can organizations share threat intelligence with others in the industry?

Security Tools and Technologies:

1. What are some essential cybersecurity tools and technologies?
2. Can you recommend antivirus and anti-malware software?
3. What is the purpose of a SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) system?

Network and Application Vulnerabilities:

1. What are common vulnerabilities found in networks and applications?
2. How can organizations discover and address vulnerabilities effectively?
3. What is the significance of the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS)?

Identity and Access Management:

1. How can organizations implement strong identity and access management practices?
2. What is role-based access control, and how does it work?
3. Can you explain the principles of least privilege?

Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Security:

1. How can cryptocurrencies be secured from theft and fraud?
2. What are the security implications of blockchain technology?
3. How can organizations secure their blockchain implementations?

IoT and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Security:

1. What are the security challenges in IoT devices and ICS?
2. How can organizations protect against IoT-related threats?
3. Can you explain the concept of a digital twin in ICS security?

Mobile Device Security:

1. What are the key security considerations for mobile devices?
2. How can organizations secure mobile applications and data?
3. What is mobile device management (MDM), and how does it enhance security?

Wireless Security:

1. What are the best practices for securing Wi-Fi networks?
2. How can you protect against wireless network attacks like man-in-the-middle?
3. What is WPA3, and how does it improve Wi-Fi security?

Social Engineering and Phishing:

1. How can organizations protect against social engineering attacks?
2. What are the common tactics used in phishing attacks?
3. How can individuals recognize and avoid phishing attempts?

Security for Remote Work:

1. What are the security challenges of remote work and telecommuting?
2. How can organizations secure remote access to their networks?
3. What is a virtual private network (VPN), and how does it protect remote workers?

Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure:

1. How is critical infrastructure vulnerable to cyberattacks?
2. What are the best practices for securing critical infrastructure systems?

Cybersecurity for Small Businesses:

1. What are the unique cybersecurity challenges faced by small businesses?
2. What budget-friendly security measures can small businesses implement?

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Cybersecurity:

1. How are AI and ML technologies being used in cybersecurity?
2. What are the benefits and limitations of AI/ML in threat detection?

Threat Hunting and Detection:

1. How can organizations proactively hunt for threats within their networks?
2. What tools and techniques can be used for threat detection?

Zero Trust Security Model:

1. Can you explain the principles of the Zero Trust security model?
2. How can organizations implement Zero Trust in their network architecture?

Ransomware:

1. What is ransomware, and how does it work?
2. What are the best practices for preventing and responding to ransomware attacks?

Cybersecurity for Healthcare:

1. What are the specific security challenges in the healthcare sector?
2. How can healthcare organizations protect patient data and medical devices?

Cybersecurity for Financial Institutions:

1. What are the primary cyber threats faced by financial institutions?
2. How can banks and financial organizations protect against cyberattacks?

Cybersecurity for Government and Defense:

1. How does cybersecurity differ in government and defense sectors?
2. What are the unique security considerations for classified information?

Cybersecurity for Education:

1. What are the main cybersecurity challenges in educational institutions?
2. How can schools and universities safeguard student and staff data?

Cybersecurity for E-Commerce:

1. How can e-commerce websites protect customer payment information?
2. What are the best practices for secure online shopping?

Cybersecurity for Critical Data:

1. How can organizations protect highly sensitive data, such as trade secrets or intellectual property?
2. What encryption methods are recommended for safeguarding critical data?

Cybersecurity for Supply Chain:

1. How can organizations secure their supply chain against cyber threats?
2. What risks are associated with third-party vendors and suppliers?

Cybersecurity for Internet Service Providers (ISPs):

1. What are the security responsibilities of ISPs in protecting customer data?
2. How can ISPs prevent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks?

Cybersecurity for Nonprofits:

1. What are the unique cybersecurity challenges faced by nonprofit organizations?
2. How can nonprofits protect donor and beneficiary data?

Cybersecurity for Legal Firms:

1. How can law firms protect sensitive client information and legal documents?
2. What are the key ethical considerations in legal cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity for Manufacturing:

1. What are the security risks to manufacturing processes and industrial control systems?
2. How can manufacturers prevent cyberattacks that disrupt production?

Cybersecurity for Retail:

1. What are the common threats to retail businesses and customer data?
2. How can retailers secure point-of-sale (POS) systems and online transactions?

Cybersecurity for Transportation:

1. What are the security implications in the transportation and logistics sector?
2. How can transportation companies protect against cyberattacks on vehicles and infrastructure?

Cybersecurity for Energy and Utilities:

1. What are the risks to the energy and utilities sector, including the power grid?
2. How can these industries enhance their cybersecurity measures?

Cybersecurity for Entertainment and Media:

1. How can the entertainment and media industry protect intellectual property and digital content?
2. What are the challenges in securing online streaming platforms?

Cybersecurity for Hospitality:

1. What are the specific threats to the hospitality sector, including hotels and restaurants?
2. How can hospitality businesses protect guest data and payment information?

Cybersecurity for Real Estate:

1. What are the cybersecurity challenges in the real estate industry?
2. How can real estate firms safeguard sensitive property and client information?

Cybersecurity for Agriculture:

1. How can the agricultural sector protect against cyber threats in farming and food production?
2. What are the risks to precision agriculture and IoT devices in farming?

Cybersecurity for Aviation:

1. What are the security challenges in the aviation industry, including aircraft systems?
2. How can aviation companies protect against cyberattacks on flight systems?

Cybersecurity for Telecommunications:

1. What are the key security concerns in the telecommunications sector?
2. How can telecom providers secure their infrastructure and customer data?

Cybersecurity for Automotive:

1. How can the automotive industry protect connected vehicles from cyber threats?
2. What are the implications of autonomous driving technology on cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity for Water and Wastewater:

1. What are the vulnerabilities in water and wastewater systems?
2. How can utilities secure critical infrastructure in this sector?

Cybersecurity for Chemical Industry:

1. How can chemical companies protect against cyber threats to industrial processes and safety?
2. What are the security implications of chemical supply chain operations?

Cybersecurity for Pharmaceuticals:

1. What are the specific security challenges in the pharmaceutical industry?
2. How can pharmaceutical companies protect research data and drug development information?

Cybersecurity for Aerospace:

1. How can aerospace and defense companies safeguard sensitive technology and data?
2. What are the security concerns in the aerospace supply chain?

Cybersecurity for Oil and Gas:

1. What are the risks and vulnerabilities in the oil and gas industry, including drilling and production operations?
2. How can energy companies protect against cyberattacks on critical infrastructure?

Cybersecurity for Government Contractors:

1. What are the security requirements for organizations working with government agencies?
2. How can government contractors ensure compliance with cybersecurity standards?

Cybersecurity for Space Exploration:

1. How can space agencies and companies protect satellite and space mission data?
2. What are the security challenges in space exploration and satellite communications?

Cybersecurity for Gaming Industry:

1. What are the security threats in the gaming industry, including online gaming platforms?
2. How can gaming companies protect user accounts and in-game assets?

Cybersecurity for Environmental Protection:

1. How can environmental organizations secure data related to conservation efforts?
2. What are the cybersecurity challenges in protecting the environment?

Cybersecurity for Human Resources:

1. What are the HR-related security concerns in managing employee data?
2. How can HR departments protect personal and sensitive information?

Cybersecurity for Marketing and Advertising:

1. What are the security considerations in marketing and advertising, including customer data?
2. How can marketing companies protect user privacy and advertising campaigns?

Cybersecurity for Social Media:

1. What are the challenges in securing social media platforms and user data?
2. How can social media companies prevent account breaches and data leaks?

Cybersecurity for Cryptocurrency Exchanges:

1. How can cryptocurrency exchanges protect user accounts and digital assets?
2. What are the security measures in place to prevent exchange hacks?

Cybersecurity for Digital Health:

1. What are the security implications of digital health records and telemedicine?
2. How can healthcare technology companies protect patient data and telehealth services?

Cybersecurity for Online Education:

1. What are the security concerns in online education platforms and student data?
2. How can online education providers safeguard student privacy and course content?

Cybersecurity for Sports and Athletics:

1. What are the cybersecurity threats in the sports industry, including athlete data?
2. How can sports organizations protect against cyberattacks on events and competitions?

Cybersecurity for Smart Cities:

1. What are the security challenges in building and maintaining smart city infrastructure?
2. How can municipalities protect against cyber threats to public services and IoT devices?

Cybersecurity for Artificial Intelligence:

1. How can AI systems be secured to prevent adversarial attacks and data tampering?
2. What are the ethical considerations in AI security and bias mitigation?

Cybersecurity for Quantum Computing:

1. What are the potential threats and solutions for quantum-resistant cryptography?
2. How can organizations prepare for the cybersecurity implications of quantum computing?

Cybersecurity for Blockchain and Cryptocurrency:

1. What are the security challenges in blockchain-based applications and digital currencies?
2. How can blockchain and cryptocurrency systems be protected from vulnerabilities and fraud?IT security professionals with the right skills are in high demand. In 2015, the unemployment rate for information security managers averaged 0.9%, which is as close to full employment as you can get.However, one of the things hiring managers still complain about is a lack of skilled IT professionals, as evidenced by the frustration CISOs and others express after interviewing candidates. Below is a list of interview questions categorized by different cybersecurity job roles intended to reveal a candidate’s strengths and most glaring weaknesses. Categories include:

• General IT Security Administration
• Network Security
• Application Security
• Security Architect
• Risk Management
• Security Audit, Testing and Incident Response
• Cryptography

The questions evaluate a broad range of candidate’s technical skills, understanding of cybersecurity terminology and technology as well as their ability to think and solve problems.

1. What is information security and how is it achieved?

2. What are the core principles of information security?

3. What is non-repudiation (as it applies to IT security)?

4. What is the relationship between information security and data availability?

5. What is a security policy and why do we need one?

6. What is the difference between logical and physical security? Can you give an example of both?

7. What’s an acceptable level of risk?

8. What are the most common types of attacks that threaten enterprise data security?

9. What is the difference between a threat and a vulnerability?

10. Can you give me an example of common security vulnerabilities?

11. Are you familiar with any security management frameworks such as ISO/IEC 27002?

12. What is a security control?

13. What are the different types of security control?

14. Can you describe the information lifecycle? How do you ensure information security at each phase?

15. What is Information Security Governance?

16. What are your professional values? Why are professional ethics important in the information security field?

17. Are open-source projects more or less secure than proprietary ones?

18. Who do you look up to within the field of Information Security? Why?

19. Where do you get your security news from?

20. What’s the difference between symmetric and public-key cryptography?

21. What kind of network do you have at home?

22. What are the advantages offered by bug bounty programs over normal testing practices?

23. What are your first three steps when securing a Linux server?

24. What are your first three steps when securing a Windows server?

25. Who’s more dangerous to an organization, insiders or outsiders?

26. Why is DNS monitoring important?

27. How would traceroute help you find out where a breakdown in communication is?

28. Why would you want to use SSH from a Windows PC?

29. How would you find out what a POST code means?

30. What is the difference between a black hat and a white hat?

31. What do you think of social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn?

32. Why are internal threats often more successful than external threats?

33. Why is deleted data not truly gone when you delete it?

34. What is the Chain of Custody?

35. How would you permanently remove the threat of data falling into the wrong hands?

36. What is exfiltration?

37. How do you protect your home wireless access point?

38. If you were going to break into a database-based website, how would you do it?

39. What is the CIA triangle?

40. What is the difference between information protection and information assurance?

41. How would you lock down a mobile device?

42. What is the difference between closed-source and open-source? Which is better?

43. What is your opinion on hacktivist groups such as Anonymous?

Network Security:

44. What port does ping work over?

45. Do you prefer filtered ports or closed ports on your firewall?

46. How exactly does traceroute/tracert work at the protocol level?

47. What are Linux’s strengths and weaknesses vs. Windows?

48. What is a firewall? And provide an example of how a firewall can be bypassed by an outsider to access the corporate network.

49. Besides firewalls, what other devices are used to enforce network boundaries?

50. What is the role of network boundaries in information security?

51. What does an intrusion detection system do? How does it do it?

52. What is a honeypot? What type of attack does it defend against?

53. What technologies and approaches are used to secure information and services deployed on cloud computing infrastructure?

54. What information security challenges are faced in a cloud computing environment?

55. Can you give me an overview of IP multicast?

56. How many bits do you need for a subnet size?

57. What is packet filtering?

58. Can you explain the difference between a packet filtering firewall and an application layer firewall?

59. What are the layers of the OSI model?

60. How would you login to Active Directory from a Linux or Mac box?

61. What is an easy way to configure a network to allow only a single computer to login on a particular jack?

62. What are the three ways to authenticate a person?

63. You find out that there is an active problem on your network. You can fix it, but it is out of your jurisdiction. What do you do?

64. How would you compromise an “office workstation” at a hotel?

65. What is worse in firewall detection, a false negative or a false positive? And why?

66. How would you judge if a remote server is running IIS or Apache?

67. What is the difference between an HIDS and a NIDS?

Application Security:

68. Describe the last program or script that you wrote. What problem did it solve?

69. Can you briefly discuss the role of information security in each phase of the software development lifecycle?

70. How would you implement a secure login field on a high traffic website where performance is a consideration?

71. What are the various ways to handle account brute forcing?

72. What is cross-site request forgery?

73. How does one defend against CSRF?

74. If you were a site administrator looking for incoming CSRF attacks, what would you look for?

75. What’s the difference between HTTP and HTML?

76. How does HTTP handle state?

77. What exactly is cross-site scripting?

78. What’s the difference between stored and reflected XSS?

79. What are the common defenses against XSS?

80. You are remoted in to a headless system in a remote area. You have no physical access to the hardware and you need to perform an OS installation. What do you do?

81. On a Windows network, why is it easier to break into a local account than an AD account?

Security Architect:

82. Explain data leakage and give examples of some of the root causes.

83. What are some effective ways to control data leakage?

84. Describe the 80/20 rules of networking.

85. What are web server vulnerabilities and name a few methods to prevent web server attacks?

86. What are the most damaging types of malwares?

87. What’s your preferred method of giving remote employees access to the company network and are there any weaknesses associated to it?

88. List a couple of tests that you would do to a network to identify security flaws.

89. What kind of websites and cloud services would you block?

90. What type of security flaw is there in VPN?

91. What is a DDoS attack?

92. Can you describe the role of security operations in the enterprise?

93. What is layered security architecture? Is it a good approach? Why?

94. Have you designed security measures that span overlapping information domains? Can you give me a brief overview of the solution?

95. How do you ensure that a design anticipates human error?

96. How do you ensure that a design achieves regulatory compliance?

97. What is capability-based security? Have you incorporated this pattern into your designs? How?

98. Can you give me a few examples of security architecture requirements?

99. Who typically owns security architecture requirements and what stakeholders contribute?

100. What special security challenges does SOA present?

101. What security challenges do unified communications present?

102. Do you take a different approach to security architecture for a COTS vs a custom solution?

103. Have you architected a security solution that involved SaaS components? What challenges did you face?

104. Have you worked on a project in which stakeholders choose to accept identified security risks that worried you? How did you handle the situation?

105. You see a user logging in as root to perform basic functions. Is this a problem?

106. What is data protection in transit vs data protection at rest?

107. You need to reset a password-protected BIOS configuration. What do you do?

Risk Management:

108. Is there an acceptable level of risk?

109. How do you measure risk? Can you give an example of a specific metric that measures information security risk?

110. Can you give me an example of risk trade-offs (e.g. risk vs cost)?

111. What is incident management?

112. What is business continuity management? How does it relate to security?

113. What is the primary reason most companies haven’t fixed their vulnerabilities?114. What’s the goal of information security within an organization?

115. What’s the difference between a threat, vulnerability, and a risk?

116. If you were to start a job as head engineer or CSO at a Fortune 500 company due to the previous guy being fired for incompetence, what would your priorities be? [Imagine you start on day one with no knowledge of the environment]

117. As a corporate information security professional, what’s more important to focus on: threats or vulnerabilities?

118. If I’m on my laptop, here inside my company, and I have just plugged in my network cable. How many packets must leave my NIC in order to complete a traceroute to twitter.com?

119. How would you build the ultimate botnet?

120. What are the primary design flaws in HTTP, and how would you improve it?

121. If you could re-design TCP, what would you fix?

122. What is the one feature you would add to DNS to improve it the most?

123. What is likely to be the primary protocol used for the Internet of Things in 10 years?

124. If you had to get rid of a layer of the OSI model, which would it be?

125. What is residual risk?

126. What is the difference between a vulnerability and an exploit?

Security Audits, Testing and Incident Response

127. What is an IT security audit?

128. What is an RFC?

129. What type of systems should be audited?

130. Have you worked in a virtualized environment?

131. What is the most difficult part of auditing for you?

132. Describe the most difficult auditing procedure you’ve implemented.

133. What is change management?

134. What types of RFC or change management software have you used?

135. What do you do if a rollout goes wrong?

136. How do you manage system major incidents?

137. How do you ask developers to document changes?

138. How do you compare files that might have changed since the last time you looked at them?

139. Name a few types of security breaches.

140. What is a common method of disrupting enterprise systems?

141. What are some security software tools you can use to monitor the network?

142. What should you do after you suspect a network has been hacked?

143. How can you encrypt email to secure transmissions about the company?

144. What document describes steps to bring up a network that’s had a major outage?

145. How can you ensure backups are secure?

146. What is one way to do a cross-script hack?

147. How can you avoid cross script hacks?

148. How do you test information security?

149. What is the difference between black box and white box penetration testing?

150. What is a vulnerability scan?

151. In pen testing what’s better, a red team or a blue team?

152. Why would you bring in an outside contractor to perform a penetration test?

Cryptography:

153. What is secret-key cryptography?

154. What is public-key cryptography?

155. What is a session key?

156. What is RSA?157. How fast is RSA?

158. What would it take to break RSA?

159. Are strong primes necessary for RSA?

160. How large a module (key) should be used in RSA?

161. How large should the primes be?

162. How is RSA used for authentication in practice? What are RSA digital signatures?

163. What are the alternatives to RSA?

164. Is RSA currently in use today?

165. What are DSS and DSA?

166. What is difference between DSA and RSA?

167. Is DSA secure?

168. What are special signature schemes?

169. What is a blind signature scheme?

170. What is a designated confirmer signatures?

171. What is a fail-stop signature scheme?

172. What is a group signature?

173. What is blowfish?

174. What is SAFER?

175. What is FEAL?

176. What is Shipjack?

177. What is stream cipher?

178. What is the advantage of public-key cryptography over secret-key cryptography?

179. What is the advantage of secret-key cryptography over public-key cryptography?

180. What is Message Authentication Code (MAC)?

181. What is a block cipher?

182. What are different block cipher modes of operation?

183. What is a stream cipher? Name a most widely used stream cipher.

184. What is one-way hash function?

185. What is collision when we talk about hash functions?

186. What are the applications of a hash function?

187. What is trapdoor function?

188. Cryptographically speaking, what is the main method of building a shared secret over a public medium?

189. What’s the difference between Diffie-Hellman and RSA?

190. What kind of attack is a standard Diffie-Hellman exchange vulnerable to?

191. What’s the difference between encoding, encryption, and hashing?

192. In public-key cryptography you have a public and a private key, and you often perform both encryption and signing functions. Which key is used for which function?

193. What’s the difference between Symmetric and Asymmetric encryption?

194. If you had to both encrypt and compress data during transmission, which would you do first, and why?

195. What is SSL and why is it not enough when it comes to encryption?

196. What is salting, and why is it used?

197. What are salted hashes?

198. What is the Three-way handshake? How can it be used to create a DOS attack?

199. What’s more secure, SSL or HTTPS?

200. Can you describe rainbow tables?

Thanks,

With Love and Sincerity,

Contact Center Workforce Management and Quality Optimization Specialist.