CompTIA CS0-002 Online Access

A vulnerability scan is a process of identifying and assessing known vulnerabilities in a system or network using automated tools or software1 A vulnerability scan can help improve the security posture of a vulnerability management program by detecting and prioritizing potential weaknesses that could be exploited by attackers. To increase the security posture of a vulnerability scan, the following actions can be taken:

• Expand the ports being scanned to include all ports: This means scanning all possible ports on a system or network, not just the well-known or commonly used ones. This can help discover more vulnerabilities that may be hidden or overlooked on less frequently used ports.
• Increase the scan interval to a number the business will accept without causing service interruption: This means scanning more frequently or regularly, but not so often that it causes performance issues or downtime for the system or network. This can help keep up with new vulnerabilities that may emerge over time and reduce the window of opportunity for attackers.
• Enable authentication and perform credentialed scans: This means using login credentials or SSH keys on an asset to get deeper access to its data, processes, configurations, and vulnerabilities2 This can help discover more vulnerabilities that cannot be seen from the network, such as insecure versions of software or poor security permissions.

Keeping IPS rules up to date is the best way to mitigate attacks that use advanced evasion techniques. An IPS (intrusion prevention system) is a security device that monitors network traffic and blocks or prevents malicious activity based on predefined rules or signatures. Advanced evasion techniques are cyberattacks that combine various evasion methods to bypass security detection and protection tools, such as IPS. Keeping IPS rules up to date can help to ensure that the IPS can recognize and block the latest advanced evasion techniques and prevent them from compromising the network .

A virtualized system is a system that runs on a software layer called a hypervisor that emulates the hardware resources of a physical machine. A virtualized system can have its own operating system, applications, and data that are isolated from other virtualized systems or the host machine3 A virtualized system can be a solution for a small organization that has proprietary software that is used internally but cannot be updated with the rest of the environment. By virtualizing the system and decommissioning the physical machine, the organization can achieve several benefits, such as:

• Reducing hardware costs and maintenance
• Improving performance and scalability
• Enhancing security and compliance
• Simplifying backup and recovery
• Enabling portability and compatibility

Stress testing is a software assessment method that tests how an application performs under peak times or extreme workloads. Stress testing can help to identify any performance issues, bottlenecks, errors or crashes that may occur when an application faces high demand or concurrent users. Stress testing can also help to determine the maximum capacity and scalability of an application .