What Questions Do They Ask In a Cyber Security Interview?

If you are an aspiring cyber security expert professional, a major step to becoming one is to crack the interview process. Your whole preparation, starting from your cyber security course to the accumulation of certification, will only have meaningful results if you can get through the interview. Giving a great deal of attention to the interview and going through the most probable cyber security interview questions & answers will boost your career plan significantly.

We have outlined the best cyber security interview questions to help you polish your frame of ideas for your interview preparation.

Check out Cyber Security Benefits: Why You Should Use Cyber Security?

Important Cyber Security Interview Questions & Answers

Explain Traceroute and its application in cyber security

Traceroute is a security tool that displays a packet’s path. It traces and tallies all of the locations, especially routers following through which the packet goes. Typically a traceroute is use in the event of a packet failing to reach the intended or desired destination/end-point. To find the point of failure, use Traceroute to see where the connection pauses or breaks.

What is SSL Encryption?

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a security technology that allows a Web server and a browser to communicate securely by application of encryption. This is use to secure data privacy and protect the information in online transactions. The steps for setting up an SSL connection are as follows:

• A browser attempts to connect with a Web server secured with SSL
• Sending a copy of the SSL certificate to the browser
• The browser verifies whether the SSL certificate is valid. Upon verification of it being valid, the browser sends a message requesting the webserver for establishing an encrypted connection.
• For establishing the encrypted SSL connection, an acknowledgment is sent by the webserver.
• The SSL encrypted communication occurs between the web server and the browser

What are the essential steps for securing a server?

To prevent data from illegal interception, secure servers employ the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol for data encryption and decryption.

The steps to securing a server include the following techniques: 

• Step 1: Make sure your root and administrator users have strong passwords.
• Step 2: The following step is to add new users to your system. These are the users who will be in charge of the system.
• Step 3: Disable remote access for the root and administrator accounts by default.
• Step 4: The final step is to set up your remote access firewall rules.

Give some commonly prevailing cyber attacks

Some of the most popular known cyber-attacks occurring regularly are:

• Malware
• Phishing
• Password Attacks
• DDoS
• Man in the Middle
• Drive-By Downloads
• Malvertising
• Rogue Software

Explain Data Breach

Data leakage is the deliberate or accidental transmission of data from inside an organization to an external, unauthorized location. It is the unlawful revealing of confidential information to a third party.

Based on the nature of how data leakage occurs, it can be categorized into the following three types:

• Due to a mistake or a mishap, an entity unintentionally sends data to an unauthorized person.
• Intentional Breach: When data is sent deliberately by an authorized entity to an unauthorized entity
• Hacking Techniques: To cause data leaks in the system, hackers employ hacking techniques.

Explain Brute Force Attack? What are the ways to prevent a Brute force attack?

Brute Force is a means of evaluating the proper credentials by continually trying all possible combinations and permutations. The majority of brute force attacks are mechanize, with a program or software trying to log in with a set of credentials.

There are several strategies to avoid brute force attacks. The most relevant ones are:

• Password Length: A password of a minimum length can be specified. It is harder to remember the more complicated ones.
• Password Complexity: The complexity of alphanumeric passwords with special characters, upper and lower case letters, and upper and lower case numerals rises, making them more difficult to crack.
• Limiting Login Attempts: Restrict the number of failed login attempts. For Instance, specify the failed log-in attempts up to three times. when user fails to log in three times in a row, either prevent them from logging in for a period of time or give them an email or an OTP to use for future log in. Limiting login attempts will help because brute force is an automated procedure.

Define Port scanning and mention some of the techniques

Port scanning is a technique for detecting open ports and services on a host. Port scanning is a technique used by hackers to hunt for information that can be use to exploit security weaknesses.

Below are the most prevalent techniques of port scanning

• Ping Scan
• TCP Half-Open
• TCP Connect
• UDP
• Stealth Scanning

Describe the three primary first steps in safeguarding your Linux server.

 The following are the three major steps to protecting a Linux server:

Auditing – A server audit is carried out to uncover hidden flaws that could jeopardize the server’s security or stability. Lynis is an application that scans or audits the system for security issues. Each category was scanned separately, and the auditor is given a hardening index to take action on.

Hardening: After the audit, the system must be hardened to meet the needed level of security. This approach mostly comprises responding appropriately to security concerns. But uncovered during audits.

Compliance: In order to maintain a consistent standard it is critical to adhere to the policy framework and technology baseline.

What measures are utilize to avoid a brute force login attack?

A brute force login attempt can be prevent in three ways:

Account Lockout Policy: After a set number of failed tries, the account is lock out until the administrator unlocks it.

Progressive Delays: After three failed login attempts, your account will be lock for a period of time. The lock-out period grows with each failed login attempt, making forced login hard for automated systems to attempt.

Challenge-response test: This is mostly done to avoid automated login page entries. Tools like free reCaptcha can be use to verify that a user is a real person by requiring them to manually enter some text or answer a simple question.

These best cyber security interview questions will put you ahead in the interview and help you have a clear-cut idea of what you can expect in an interview.