Certified Network Defender (CND) Interview Questions

While some interviewers have their own style of questioning, most job interviews follow a set of questions and responses (including some of the most often-asked behavioural interview questions). Here are some of the most common interview questions, as well as some of the best answers. Let’s start with some professional advice on how to prepare for your Certified Network Defender (CND) Interview:

1. How well-informed are you about network security issues, and how frequently do you read about them? What sources do you use to acquire your security news?

Today’s network security incidents are huge news, and there have been a lot of high-profile news articles concerning data breaches and hackers in recent years. An employer will want to know how up-to-date you are on the newest security incidents and news. Your best choices for news sources are Team Cymru, Twitter, and Reddit. However, make sure to double-check the authenticity of the authorities.

2. What are the best ways to protect yourself from a brute force login attack in Certified Network Defender?

To defend against a brute force login attack, you can take three primary steps. To begin with, there is an account lockout. Offending accounts are disabled unless the administrator decides to reactivate them. The progressive delay defence comes next. After a few unsuccessful login attempts, the account is locked for a specified amount of days. Finally, there’s the challenge-response test, which prevents the login page’s automatic submissions.

3. Define the terms “symmetric” and “asymmetric” encryption in Certified Network Defender.

To summarise, symmetric encryption utilises the same key for both encryption and decryption, whereas asymmetric encryption uses separate keys for the two operations. For obvious reasons, symmetric is faster, but it necessitates transferring the key over an unencrypted channel, which is risky.

4. Define the terms “white hat” and “black hat” hacker in Certified Network Defender.

White hat and black hat hackers are two sides of the same coin. Both gangs are proficient at breaking into networks and acquiring access to data that is otherwise protected. Black hats, on the other hand, are driven by political goals, personal avarice, or malice, whereas white hats aim to thwart the former. To determine the effectiveness of security, many white hats conduct tests and practise runs on network systems.

5. Define the process of salting and what it’s used for in Certified Network Defender.

Salting is the practise of adding special characters to a password to make it more secure. This strengthens the password in two ways: it lengthens it and adds another group of characters from which a hacker would have to guess. It’s a decent precaution to take for users who have a history of creating weak passwords, but it’s a low-level defensive in general because many experienced hackers are already aware of the procedure and take it into account.

6. What are your strategies for dealing with “Man In The Middle” attacks?

A Man in the Middle assault occurs when a third party monitors and controls a communication between two parties while the latter is entirely unaware of the scenario. This attack can be dealt with in two ways. First and foremost, avoid open Wi-Fi networks. Second, end-to-end encryption should be used by both parties.

7. Which is the more secure option: HTTPS or SSL in Certified Network Defender?

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) combines HTTP and SSL to encrypt and secure a user’s browsing activities. SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a security technology that encrypts data sent over the Internet between two or more parties. However, it’s a close call; SSL comes out on top in terms of overall security, though any of them are helpful to know for web development.

8. Which project is more secure, open-source or proprietary in Certified Network Defender?

Don’t be tricked; this is a trick question! The security mechanisms employed to safeguard a project, the number of users/developers having access, and the project’s overall size all contribute to its security. It makes no difference what kind of project you’re working on.

9. What are the three most important actions you must take to safeguard a Linux server if you work with one?

You must do the following in order to safeguard your Linux server:

• Audit. Lynis should be used to scan the system. Each category is scanned separately, and a hardening index is created for the following stage.
• Hardening. Hardening is done after auditing, depending on the level of security to be used.
• Compliance. This is a continuous process, as the system is checked on a daily basis.

10. You come across an active problem on your company’s network, but it’s outside your area of influence. However, there’s no doubt in your mind that you can fix it; so what do you do?

While your initial instinct may be to address the situation right away, you must follow the necessary procedures. It’s possible that things are the way they are for a purpose. To notify the person in charge of that department, send an e-mail stating your concerns and requesting clarification. Make sure your supervisor is copied on the email chain, and save a copy for yourself in case you need to go back to it later.

11. What is the most effective way to deal with a CSRF?

A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attack allows an already-authenticated end-user to run unauthorised instructions on a website. There are two defensive strategies that are both successful. To begin, give each field on a form a separate name to increase user anonymity. Second, with each request, include a random token.

12. Why are internal threats more effective than external threats most of the time?

It all boils down to a matter of physical proximity. Because they are on-site, a dissatisfied soon-to-be ex-employee, a hacker disguised as a deliveryman, or even a careless curious user, all have better access to the system. It’s simpler to become “inside” online when you’re physically “inside.”

13. Which is the worse at detecting firewalls, and why? What’s the difference between a false positive and a false negative?

A false negative is a lot worse. A false positive is merely a valid result that was flagged wrongly. It’s inconvenient, but it’s neither fatal or difficult to fix. A false negative, on the other hand, suggests that something terrible has gotten past the firewall and is causing a slew of problems down the line.

14. What do you believe is the most serious security danger to businesses?

Since the dangers are complex—and numerous—cybersecurity is difficult. Hackers are on the lookout for flaws, and organisations frequently provide them unintentionally. When employees use personal devices for work, when IT teams fail to apply updates on time, when passwords are weak, when vendors are lax in their own cybersecurity, and so on, companies are put at danger. There are many ways to respond to this question, so plan ahead of time so you can demonstrate that you’re paying attention and thinking about potential threats—and how to avoid them.

15. How can you persuade coworkers to follow security best practises?

You can implement best practises, such as requiring secure passwords, encouraging staff to be more email literate, and developing mobile device usage guidelines—but how can you persuade people to obey the rules? Your interviewer will want to know that you’ve given this issue some attention, because even the best practises won’t keep your organisation safe if they aren’t followed.

16. What exactly is a traceroute? What is its purpose of it?

Traceroute is an utility that displays a packet’s journey. It lists all of the locations (mostly routers) through which the packet goes. This is typically used when a packet fails to reach its intended destination. To find the point of failure, use Traceroute to see where the connection stops or breaks.

17. What is the distinction between HIDS and NIDS?

Both HIDS (Host IDS) and NIDS (Network IDS) are Intrusion Detection Systems that have the same goal of detecting intrusions. The only distinction is that HIDS is configured on a specific host or device. It keeps track of a device’s traffic as well as questionable system activity. NIDS, on the other hand, is a networked system. It keeps track of all network devices’ traffic.

18. Explain Data Breach.

The purposeful or unintentional transportation of data from within an organisation to an external, unauthorised destination is known as data leakage. It is the unintentional revealing of confidential information to a third party.

19. What is Port Scanning and how does it work?

The port scanning technique is used to identify open ports and services on a host. Hackers employ port scanning to look for information that can be used to exploit security flaws. Administrators use Port Scanning to check the network’s security policies.

20. What can be done to avoid identity theft?

Here are some things you can do to protect yourself from identity theft:

• Make sure your password is strong and unique.
• Avoid disclosing personal information online, particularly on social media.
• Shop on well-known and reputable websites.
• Make sure your browsers are up to date.
• Install anti-malware and anti-spyware software.
• Against financial data, use specialised security measures.
• Always keep your system and software up to date.
• Keep your Social Security number safe (Social Security Number)

21. How often should Patch management be performed?

Patch management should begin as soon as the patch is available. When a patch for Windows is released, it should be applied to all machines within one month. The same is true for network devices; apply the patch as soon as it is available. Patch management should be done correctly.

22. How would you reset a BIOS setup that is password-protected?

BIOS has its own storage mechanism for settings and preferences because it is a pre-boot system. A easy approach to reset is to remove the CMOS battery, which causes the memory that stores the settings to lose power and, as a result, loses its setting.

23. What is an MITM attack, and how may it be avoided?

A MITM (Man-in-the-Middle) attack occurs when a hacker inserts himself between two parties’ communications in order to collect information. Assume there is a communication between two parties A and B. The hacker then joins the conversation. In front of A, he impersonates party B, and in front of B, he impersonates party A. Both parties’ data is transmitted to the hacker, who then redirects it to the destination party after stealing the necessary information. While both parties believe they are conversing with one another, they are actually communicating with the hacker.

24. What exactly is an ARP and how does it function?

XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) is a type of cyberattack in which hackers inject harmful client-side scripts into web sites. XSS can be used to steal cookies, hijack sessions, change the DOM, execute remote code, and crash the server, among other things.

The following practises can help you avoid XSS attacks:

• Firstly, verify user inputs.
• Secondly, user inputs should be sanitised.
• Special characters must be encoded
• Anti-XSS services/tools should be used.
• XSS HTML Filter is a useful tool for preventing cross-site scripting attacks.

25. What exactly is an ARP and how does it function?

The Address Resolution Mechanism (ARP) is a protocol for mapping an Internet Protocol address (IP address) to a local network-recognized physical machine address.

When an incoming packet designated for a host machine on a specific local area network arrives at a gateway, it instructs the ARP programme to look for a physical host or MAC address that matches the IP address.

The ARP programme searches the ARP cache for the address and provides it if it is found, so that the packet can be transformed to the correct packet length and format before being sent to the machine.

26. In a LAN, what is port blocking?

Port blocking is the process of preventing users from accessing a set of services on a local area network. Stopping the source from using ports to communicate with the destination node. Because the programme uses ports, ports are restricted to limit access, closing security gaps in the network infrastructure.

27. What is the definition of a botnet?

A botnet is a collection of machines linked to the internet, each of which runs one or more bots. Bots and malicious programmes were utilised to hack a victim’s device. Botnets can be used to steal data, send spam, and launch a distributed denial-of-service attack.

28. What exactly are salted hashes?

Salt is a set of random numbers. When a password system is correctly safeguarded, it generates a hash value for the password, a random salt value, and then stores the combined result in its database. This provides protection against dictionary and known hash attacks.

29. What is two-factor authentication (two-factor authentication) and how can it be used on public websites?

“Multi-factor authentication” is an additional layer of protection. Not only does it require a password and username, but it also necessitates something that only that user has on them, such as a piece of information that only they should know or have on hand – such as a physical token. Authenticator apps eliminate the requirement for a verification code to be sent via text, voice, or email.

30. What is Cognitive Cybersecurity, and how does it work?

Cognitive cybersecurity is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to detect risks and secure physical and digital systems based on human mental processes. Data mining, pattern recognition, and natural language processing are used in self-learning security systems to replicate the human brain, although in a high-powered computer model.