"What are the four stages of the computing process?", "Input, processing, storage and output (IPSO)" "What is a LAN?", "A Local Area Network (LAN) is a group of computers or other network devices in the same location that can communicate with one another" "What is the device that connect devices on a LAN?", "A switch" "What is a WAN?", "A WAN is a Wide Area Network connecting two or more LANs over a larger geographical area using a device called a router." "How do LANs connect to WANs?", "Via a router which connects to the LAN’s switch" "What are RACS?", "Remotely accessed computer systems (RACS) are servers which give one access to online apps (e.g. Office Online). They enhance local capabilities." "What are specialized computer systems?", "Specialized computer systems perform specific tasks, like ATMs." "What are I/O devices?", "Input/output devices are devices capable of sending data (output) to a computer and receiving data from a computer (input)." "How is a CPU’s speed measured?", "A CPU’s measured based on how many things it can do in one second under perfect conditions. It is measured in Hertz, typically gigahertz, that is billions of cycles per second." "In terms of complexity, what are the two types of modern CPUs available?", "64-bit vs 32-bit" "How do 64-bit and 32-bit processors compare?", "Sixty-four bits CPUs are vastly more powerful and complex than thirty-two bits. 32-bit CPU/OS can only handle up to 4 GB of RAM." "What is passive cooling?", "Passive cooling utilizes natural conduction, convection, and radiation to cool a component. The most common type uses a heat sink which is a block of heat-conductive metal such as aluminum affixed to a chip with some heat-conductive thermal paste. The heat sink has spikes or baffles that increase its surface area. Heat wicks away from the chip into the heat sink and dissipates into the air." "What is active cooling?", "Active cooling requires the use of energy specifically dedicated to cooling the component. In most PCs, a fan is strapped to the CPU’s heat sink in an attempt to circulate air through the heat sink and away from the CPU to keep it cool." "What do heat sinks do?", "They help heat dissipate into air." "How does liquid cooling work?", "Liquid cooling pulls heat into fluid." "What is RAM?", "Random access memory holds all active programming on a computer including the OS and running applications and data. RAM only temporarily stores data. When you turn off the computer, all the data stored in RAM disappears." "What is the amount of usable RAM on a computer called?", "System memory, the total capacity of which puts a hard limit on how much stuff a computing device can work on at one time. Total capacity is measured in GB." "What are common RAM capacities?", "The most common RAM size you can find in everyday laptop PCs nowadays is 8GB. Some lower-end models come with 4GB and in some cases only 2GB. Higher-end mainstream laptop models oftentimes feature 12GB and 16GB. You can find high-performance gaming laptops and mobile workstations with 24 or even 32 Gigabytes, too." "What is a motherboard?", "A device that provides connectivity for the various components of a computer. Everything plugs directly into the motherboard." "What style of electricity does the US electric grid run on?", "Alternating Current (AC)" "What style of electricity do computing devices run on?", "Direct Current (DC)" "What is a PSU?", "A power supply unit (PSU) is a component found in desktop computers that handles the conversion from AC to DC." "What kind of connector is used by very old mice and keyboards", "PS/2 connectors" "What are the most common connectors for I/O devices these days?", "Universal Serial Bus (USB)" "What are the different types of video connectors?", "HDMI ports, DisplayPorts (mainly with Apple), VGA ports, DVI ports" "What is an eSATA port typically used for?", "For connecting external hard drives (not currently used much)" "What is the name of the ethernet cable used to connect networks?", "RJ-45" "What is the color coding typically used for audio connectors?", "Pink for microphone, green for speakers, and black for other devices" "What is the name of this connector?", "USB Type A" "What is the name of this connector?", "USB Type B" "What is the name of this connector?", "USB Type C" "What is the name of this connector?", "USB 3.0" "What is the name of this connector?", "USB Mini A" "What is the name of this connector?", "USB Mini B" "What is the name of this connector?", "USB Micro A" "What is the name of this connector?", "USB Micro B" "What is the name of this connector?", "USB Micro B Super Speed" "What is the name of this connector?", "Firewire 400" "What is the name of this connector?", "Firewire 800" "What is the difference between VGA, DVI and HDMI?", "The difference is in both the quality of the signal that they carry and the type of signals. VGA was standard for a long. DVI was an improvement. However, both only carry video signals. HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface), on the other hand, carries high-definition audio and video." "How fast does a black USB port, USB 2.0 run?", "480 Mbps" "How fast does a blue USB port, USB 3.0 run?", "5 Gbps" "How fast does a USB 3.1, USB Type C, port run?", "10 Gbps" "What is a hard drive?", "A hard drive is a device for long term storage. When you power off the PC, the data on the hard drive stays put. It's available when you turn the PC back on. It'll be there until you delete it, or if you're unlucky, until the drive dies." "What are the two important measurements for hard drives?", "Capacity and speed. Capacity is generally more important." "How many bits are there in one byte?", "8 bits" "How many bytes in a kilobyte? Kilobytes in a megabyte? Megabytes in a gigabyte? Gigabytes in a terabyte?", "1024 (102)" "What are the four features common to all operating systems?", "1) It provides a user interface. 2) It provides coordination among hardware components. 3) It monitors health and functionality. 4) And it provides a way to store and retrieve data." "What is HWMonitor?", "HWMonitor is a hardware monitoring program that reads PC systems main health sensors : voltages, temperatures, powers, currents, fans speed, utilizations, clock speeds" "What is the equivalent of the taskbar for macOS?", "The Dock" "What is the equivalent of File Explorer for macOS?", "Finder" "What is the ideal temperature and humidity for a work area where PCs are in use?", "72 degrees Fahrenheit or about 22 degrees Celsius with 50%" "Where should a monitor be placed?", "At eye level, about 16 to 24 inches away" "What are the basic steps of setting up a Desktop PC?", "1) Start with hardware connectivity – connect power, monitor, keyboard and mouse 2) connect to the network 3) localization and user account setup connect to the network 4) update OS and security 5) uninstall programs and features to personalize" "What does a surge protector do?", "Protects the computer against a power surge like when lightening hits and there’s extra juice in the wires" "What is a UPS?", "Uninterruptible power supply provides surge protection but also protects the computer from brownouts and blackouts." "What are the basics of setting up a mobile device like a tablet?", "Accept the EULA, connect to the internet and update the device’s firmware and OS, customize the device by adding email and apps." "What kind of file needs to run to install an application?", "An executable file" "How can applications between updated?", "Via properties or an update feature" "How can application be uninstalled on Windows?", "Via Control Panel or through uninstall routines" "What are the basic image file extensions?", ".tif, .png, .jpg" "What are the basic compressed file/folder extensions?", ".zip, .rar, .tar" "How is Wi-Fi setup?", "1) Connect a to Small Office/Home Office router (SOHO router) with an ethernet cable 2) Use a browser to access the router homepage 3) Change admin password and network name, aka the service set identifier (SSID) 4) Add security" "What are the three internet access options for computing devices?", "1) wired, 2) plugged the device into the wall Jack, 3) Wireless, that's Wi-Fi" "What are the criteria for determining the best connection?", "Mobility, availability, reliability, throughput, connection delay (latency), number of concurrent connections, and level of security" "What is throughput?", "The data transfer rate" "How do wired and wireless connections compare?", "Wired always beats wireless and cellular, except for in the first category mobility. Their cellular is king. Wired always wins for availability, reliability, throughput latency, number of connections and level of security." "How is a printer set up?", "1) Install printer drivers and assure good connectivity. 2) Devices and Printers | Printer Properties | Print a test page 3) Printer properties | Sharing | Share this printer" "What are some basic physical security measures which can be taken to protect data?", "Lock computers and use screen filters to avoid unwanted eyes. Shred all documents that contain any sensitive information." "What is spyware?", "Spyware gathers information about system usage, as the name would suggest. Spyware generally installs as part of some otherwise benign program or media. Some spyware collects information about websites you visit or things you purchase. The more vicious kind like cloggers literally report the keystrokes you make." "What is ransomeware?", "Ransomware installs on a computer and at a predetermined time locks up the data. Some will encrypt the entire contents of a hard drive. The ransomware will have some kind of payment mechanism demanding money in exchange for access to your data." "How can a system be protected from malware/ransomeware?", "Protecting against malware starts with keeping the operating system up to date. Both Windows and Mac OS do this automatically as long as the machine is connected to the Internet. The exam might ask about antivirus programs, treat these older applications like modern anti malware software, keep both the applications and definition files updated." "What are the steps for dealing with malware?", "Recognize, quarantine, search and destroy, remediate, educate" "What makes a good password?", "Long mix of cases, numbers and symbols" "How can one remain protected when using public internet?", "Use secure protocols (HTTPS rather than HTTP, IMAP instead of POP3 for email); Assume every public internet station is compromised" "What strategies can be used to reduce energy usage on Windows?", "Adjust the energy usage with the power option applet in the Control Panel, adjust the screen brightness, set aggressive sleep options for moving parts like hard drives" "What should be used to clean the exterior of a computer?", "A microfiber towel and mild electronic cleaner" "What should be used to clean the interior of a computer?", "Compressed air" "Where should the interior of a computer be cleaned with compressed air?", "Outside" "What should not be used on a monitor?", "Glass cleaner" "Where should lithium ion batteries be disposed of?", "Specifically designated recycling centers" "What should be checked first for a “dead” computer?", "Power and connectivity" "What should be done first for a “stuck” system?", "Reboot" "What should be the first step for specific application problems?", "Web search" "What are the benefits of databases?", "Beyond flat-file storage and spreadsheets, databases enable multiple simultaneous user access and queries on multiple fields and records." "What is a relational database?", "A relational database interlink multiple tables" "What is the overall layout and structure of a database called?", "The schema" "What is used for unique identification of records?", "A primary key" "What are primary keys called when used in another table?", "Foreign keys" "What kind of file is often used to import data into a table?", "A CSV file" "What language do computers “understand”?", "Machine language" "What programming language is closest to machine language?", "Assembly language" "What do programmers often start with?", "A flow chart of expected steps and outcomes (pseudocode)" "What is data?", "Raw facts that are systems and processes generate and collect on a regular basis" "What is information?", "Data that has been processed and analyzed" "What are the three different ways that businesses can legally protect their intellectual property against theft and misuse?", "Copyrights, trademarks, and patents" "What is copyright used to protect?", "Creative works against theft" "How is copyright granted?", "Copyright protection is automatically granted to the creator of a work once they create it" "What are trademarks used to protect?", "Trademarks are used to protect the words and symbols used to identify products and services. The information protected by trademark includes brand names, logos and slogans." "How are trademarks granted?", "The owners of trademarks must register their marks with the government to achieve full protection in the US." "What are patents for?", "Patents protect inventions providing the inventor with the exclusive use of their invention for some period of time." "What are the criteria for granting a patent?", "An inventor must demonstrate that their idea meets three criteria. First, it must be novel, meaning it's a new idea that nobody has thought of in the past. Second, it must be useful, meaning that it provides some benefit and then it's actually possible to use the invention. And third, it must be non-obvious, meaning that there was some inventive work involved." "What are the basic units of storage in any computer system?", "A bit, a single value that can either be one or zero. A byte, eight bits." "How is data stored on magnetic and solid-state drives?", "When we store data on a magnetic hard drive, the computer divides that drive up into billions of tiny little spaces, each designed to store a single bit. If the value of the bit is one, the computer places a magnetic charge in the location used by that bit. If the value of the bit is zero, the computer leaves no magnetic charge in that location. When data is stored on a solid state, hard drive or in memory, the process works the same way, but it uses electric charges instead of magnetic charges. If the value of a bit in memory is one, there was a small electrical charge in that memory location." "What is a petabyte?", "1000 terabytes" "How is network capacity measured?", "Throughput which is the speed by which a network can transfer data in bits per second" "What do wired networks use?", "Copper wires to transmit pulses of electricity" "What do wireless networks use?", "Radio waves to transmit radio signal pulses" "What do fiber optic networks use?", "Strands of glass to transmit pulses of light" "What are the terms used to discuss network speed, aside from throughput?", "Capacity and bandwidth" "What is the unit of measurement for the speed of a CPU?", "Multiples of Hertz" "What is a hertz in relation to a CPU?", "CPUs have internal clocks that time, how quickly they can perform a single mathematical operation. Their internal clocks tick billions of times per second. We measure the speed of a CPU based on how fast that clock ticks, and we count those ticks using a unit called Hertz, where each hertz is a single tick." "What is the typical Hertz multiple used for modern computer processors?", "Gigahertz, billions of ticks per second" "What is hexadecimal notation?", "Each digit can store 16 possible values, ranging from zero to 15. the values zero through nine to represent the numbers zero through nine, but then using the values A through F to represent 10 through 15." "What is ASCII?", "The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) is the most common character encoding format for text data. In standard ASCII-encoded data, there are unique values for 128 alphabetic, numeric or special additional characters and control codes." "What is Unicode?", "an international encoding standard for use with different languages and scripts, by which each letter, digit, or symbol is assigned a unique numeric value that applies across different platforms and programs." "What is the most basic data type?", "A Boolean object, which consists of a single bit and thus has only two possible values, zero or one (false and true)" "What are the two basic form of numeric values stored in memory?", "1) Integers are values that do not have decimal or fractional parts. 2) Floating point numbers or floats are numbers that do have decimal places associated with them. The precision of a floating-point number indicates how many decimal places may be used with that number." "What is the data type of a single character of text and how much memory does it consume?", "Char, a byte (eight bits)" "What are character strings?", "Character strings consist of one or more characters strung together, such as in a word sentence or paragraph, and these character strings consume one byte per character." "What are the eight steps for troubleshooting technology?", "1) Identify the problem 2) Conduct some research" "What are servers?", "Servers are powerful computers that carry out a dedicated function. Companies might use servers to share files internally, host a website, run a database or perform many other functions." "What is IoT?", "We use the term Internet of Things or the acronym IoT to describe the way that we connect many everyday devices to the internet." "What are ICS systems?", "Industrial control systems, or ICS systems are the devices and systems that control industrial production and operations. These include systems that monitor electrical, gas, water and other utility infrastructure and production operations, as well as the systems that control sewage processing and control irrigation and other industrial processes." "What are the two brands of processors used in Windows and Macs respectively?", "Windows: Intel and AMD Mac: Intel and Apple" "What processor did Apple release in 2020?", "The M1 processor" "Aside from the clock speed, what are two other measurements for CPUs?", "CPUs are also measured in terms of their number of processing cores. Basically, each core is a separate CPU within the same chip. Having multiple cores allows a computer to think about more than one thing at the same time. We can also measure CPUs in terms of how much memory they can manage at the same time. We measured this by describing the number of bits that may be in a memory address, either 34-bit or 64-bit." "Why can we expect that 64-bit processors will be around for quite some time?", "A 64-bit processor can manage 17 billion gigabytes of memory, which is far more memory than any computer will be using any time soon" "Who is leading provider of microprocessors?", "ARM" "What is UEFI? What is its role? What use to perform its function?", "When a computer starts up, it uses a very small operating system, called the unified extensible firmware interface or UEFI, that's stored on the motherboard to get the system up and running and load the full operating system from the hard drive. This task was once performed by the basic input output system called BIOS." "What are the two types of disk drives?", "Magnetic or solid-state" "What is a NIC and where are there typically?", "A network Interface Card is typically directly on the motherboard; they provide the ability to connect to both wired and wireless networks." "What is a GPU?", "A graphic processing unit are powerful processors designed to perform the intensive calculation that are required to render complex graphics on the display." "What technology is used by most peripherals to make it easier for users to install them?", "Plug and play" "What is this connector? What should you know about it?", "VGA; used by older displays and can only support a low resolution (640 x 480)" "What is this connector? What should you know about it?", "HDMI; able to carry both audio and video on the same wire and support high resolution video up to 5K an beyond" "What is this connector? What should you know about it?", "Mini Displayport; offers high-resolution up to 5K and beyond" "What is this connector? What should you know about it?", "Displayport; offers high-resolution up to 5K and beyond" "What is Thunderbolt?", "Thunderbolt is a hardware interface standard designed by Intel that allows both data and power to be sent over the same wire. The first two versions of Thunderbolt used mini- DisplayPort connectors, while newer versions of Thunderbolt, Thunderbolt three and four, use USB-c connectors." "What are the two categories of storage?", "Volatile storage (temporary i.e., RAM) and non-volatile (permanent i.e., HDD)" "How do magnetic and solid-state drives compare?", "Magnetic drives provide inexpensive storage that's relatively slow. These magnetic hard drives contain platters of magnetic material that spin around very quickly inside the computer, where a head reads and writes magnetic charges to the platter. Solid state drives are a modern replacement for magnetic drives. Instead of using spinning magnetic discs, they use stored electric charges, and these solid-state drives have no moving parts. This makes them less likely to break and allows them to work more quickly than magnetic drives." "How is an RJ-11 different from an RJ-45?", "The RJ-11 is smaller and only has six pins." "What is a PAN?", "Personal Area Network, such as one created using Bluetooth" "What is NFC?", "Near field communication or NFC technology allows extremely short-range wireless connections for two devices to communicate using NFC. They need to be no more than a couple of inches apart." "What is DSL?", "The digital subscriber line, or DSL connection. DSL is the modern equivalent of that old dial up modem, except it's much faster and offers an always on connection. DSL connections do use a special DSL modem, but there's no dialing up. You'll still find DSL technology in homes and small businesses. DSL is popular because it takes advantage of the telephone wires that are already in our homes and offices." "How do cable internet connections work?", "Cable internet connections use a modem to convert the digital signals of a computer network to the analog signals that travel on copper wires." "How do fiber optic cables work?", "These cables are strands of glass that run between locations on a fiber optic network. The fiber optic modems job is also to convert signals between our LAN and the internet connection. The modem contains a laser that it uses to convert the digital signal to pulses of light that can travel over the glass at extremely high speeds." "What speeds are modern 5G networks capable of?", "20 gigbits per second" "What speeds are modern 5G networks capable of?", "14 megabits" "How might remote locations access the internet?", "They may use fixed wireless services. These services are point to point services that use radio frequency or RF communications. They could also use satellite internet connections." "What is TCP/IP?", "The Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is the protocol that runs the internet and basically every LAN on the planet." "What should you know about IP?", "IP is responsible for routing information over the network. IP is used both on the internet and on your local area. Network IP assigns each computer on the network its own address called an IP address. IP addresses uniquely identify computers on a network, and they are the way the computers identify each other. The internet protocol breaks up data sent into small pieces called packets, each packet is a few kilobytes of data. (The reason we break data up into packets like this is to make our networks more reliable. If we break that file up into thousands of smaller packets and one of those packets fails, we only need to transmit that one single small packet. Larger packets would also clog up our networks.) We can just send a large file and IP will handle breaking it up into packets and then putting those packets back together again on the other side." "What is TCP responsible for?", "TCP is responsible for setting up connections between systems and tracking the packets that are sent. If a packet is lost or damaged along the way, it's TCP is job to request to the sender, transmit a new packet to replace the one that didn't arrive correctly." "What is the addressing scheme used on the internet?", "Internet Protocol Addresses or IP Addresses" "In what form are IP addresses written in?", "Dotted quad notation, which means there are four numbers separated by periods" "What is the range of values for each number in an IP addresses and why?", "Those numbers may range between zero and two hundred and five-fifty because each number is represented by one byte, or eight binary bits (11111111)" "How many IP addresses are involved in every network communication?", "There are two IP addresses involved in every network communication. The source address belongs to the system that's sending information, and the destination address indicates the system that's receiving the information that's being sent." "What are the two ways that IP addresses can be assigned?", "First, you can assign an IP address statically. This means that you go into the system settings and manually specify its IP address. You'll be responsible for ensuring that you choose a unique address that fits within the allowable range for your network. Second, you can use the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, or DHCP allows you to configure a pool of IP addresses and then DHCP will automatically assign those addresses to systems as they join the network. Typically, servers are configured with static IP addresses, and end user devices are configured with dynamically changing IP addresses." "What is a MAC Address?", "A MAC address or Media Access Control address (aka physical/hardware address) are how computers communicate with their immediate neighbors on a network systems that are directly connected to each other. MAC addresses are used to transfer data. They are assigned to a computer's network interface by the manufacturer of that interface, and they generally never change." "What notation is used for MAC addresses?", "Hexadecimal notation" "What do MAC addresses consist of?", "12 hexadecimal digits. The first six digits identified the manufacturer of the device, and the next six digits are unique identifier assigned by that manufacturer." "What are the rules of thumb for identifying a valid IP address?", "- First, no octet and an IP address should ever be larger than two hundred and fifty-five.<br /> - Second, IP addresses, starting with the number one hundred and twenty-seven are reserved for use as loopback addresses. The most common loopback address is 127.0.0.1, and when it's used in communications, it's the equivalent of telling a system to talk to itself.<br /> - The third rule is that the first number in an IP address should also never be higher than two hundred and twenty-three.<br /> *Addresses with first numbers between 224 and 239 are called multicast addresses. They're used for sending messages to many systems at the same time, and they should never be assigned to an individual system.<br /> *Addresses beginning with values between 240 and 255 are reserved for experimental use and again should not be found on individual systems." "What is DNS?", "Domain name system or DNS allows us to use easily recognizable names in the place of IP addresses, DNS servers translate the names that you're more familiar with into the IP addresses that computers used to communicate." "How does DNS work?", "- Every time you connect to a network, that network provide your computer with the IP address of a local DNS server that your computer can use to look up IP addresses for domain names.<br /> - Then, whenever you type in the domain name of a web site into your browser, your computer sends a request to the local DNS server, asking it for the IP address associated with that name.<br /> - If the server knows the answer to your question, it responds to the request with the IP address and then your web browser can go ahead and connect to the web site using that website's IP address.<br /> - If you're a local DNS server doesn't know the answer to your question, it contacts other DNS servers to determine the correct answer and then it responds to you." "What addresses do switches use to ensure date is sent to the right computer on a network?", "MAC addresses" "What do all switches in a LAN connect to and what manages the traffic headed to them?", "A router" "What is a firewall?", "Firewalls provide security for the network. They sit in between two or more networks and monitor all of the connection attempts that try to cross between those networks. Firewalls contain a set of rules describing the types of connections that are allowed to cross from one network to the other, and then they strictly enforce that policy." "What is the most common example of a firewall?", "The most common example of a firewall is a border firewall. These border firewalls sit between an organization's internal network and the internet. Any internet connections that aren't covered by a firewall rule are automatically blocked." "What is the most common wireless standard used today?", "Wi-Fi technology" "What is Wi-Fi?", "Wi-Fi is a set of standards governed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and it describes the technical details of how wireless devices can communicate with each other and with wireless access points." "What does Wi-Fi replace wires and cables with?", "Wi-Fi works by replacing the wires and cables of wired networks with radio transmitters and receivers. Every device that supports Wi-Fi contains a radio transceiver that's capable of communicating on one or more standard Wi-Fi bands." "What are WAPs?", "Wireless access points or WAPs are used to connect wireless devices within home or business networks." "What are the major factors which differentiate the different wireless standards?", "Maximum speed and radio frequency" "What are the different Wi-Fi standards? Describe their frequency and speed", "" "How do Wi-Fi standards with 2.4 gigahertz and 5.0 gigahertz compare? How does that effect decision making when creating a wireless network?", "Wireless networks using the 2.4 gigahertz frequency range are able to reach a longer range than other networks, but they have slower speeds. Those running in the higher five gigahertz frequency range offer higher speeds, but reduced range. So choosing your frequency range requires thinking through this tradeoff between speed and range. If you want to use a five gigahertz network, you'll need to have more wireless access points because each access point covers a smaller area. If you want to use a five gigahertz network, you'll need to have more wireless access points because each access point covers a smaller area." "Why are their security concerns when using Wi-Fi?", "They are radio transmissions. And as such, they can be picked up by anyone with a suitable antenna and receiver." "What are some factors that can alter the flow or propagation of the radio waves that carry wireless network traffic?", "Building materials, antenna placement, power level" "What is attenuation?", "When office conditions weaken radio signals, we call that situation attenuation. Attenuation limits the range of wireless networks." "What is a basic antenna?", "Known as a omnidirectional antennas, these antennas are used for wireless access points and transmit radio waves in a spherical pattern that looks like a donut shape. Also called rubber ducks." "What is a directional antenna?", "In some cases, network administrators may wish to point a wireless signal in a specific direction, such as when they're creating a point-to-point network between buildings. This greatly increases the range of the network by focusing power in a single direction." "What is beam forming?", "802.11 AC networks include a new technology known as a beam forming. With beam forming, the Access Point uses multiple antennas that look like simple omnidirectional antennas, but they're used to detect the location of a device that's connected to the access point, and then they steer the signal in the direction of that device. You can think of beamforming as a virtual directional antenna that can shift as needed based upon device location." "How are antennas and access points placed in a facility?", "Conduct a site survey using specialized hardware and software to measure signal strength and provide optimal wireless signal coverage. These surveys often produce a heat map that graphically illustrates areas of strong coverage and those that require improvement. They may also identify areas where electromagnetic interference is causing disruptions to your wireless network. You can often improve your wireless coverage by adjusting the channels that you use in your building to avoid overlap with the channels used by other nearby businesses. Network engineers have the ability to manipulate the power levels transmitted by each access point to tweak coverage and prevent interference." "What is SSID?", "The name of a wireless network used by users to identify it." "What is the pre-shared key approach to wireless authentication?", "Pre-shared keys are the simplest kind of wireless authentication and are commonly used on home Wi-Fi networks. In the pre shared key approach, the network uses an encryption key to control access." "What is the enterprise authentication approach to wireless authentication?", "Using enterprise authentication, the organization runs an authentication server that verifies user credentials and ensures that only authorized users access the network. Users enter their individual username and password or provide other individual credentials to access the network." "What is the captive portal approach to wireless authentication?", "Captive portals provide authentication on unencrypted wireless networks. When a user connects to a network using a captive portal, they are redirected to a web page that requires them to authenticate before gaining access to the network." "What is WEP?", "Wired equivalent privacy or WEP is the oldest and most common Wi-Fi security protocol. It's now known to suffer from some very serious security vulnerabilities. These issues are so significant that security professionals no longer consider web secure, and WEP should never be used on a modern network." "What is WPA 1?", "Wi-Fi Protected Access or WPA is a Wi-Fi security protocol that replaced WEP in 2003. The first version, just called WPA, used the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol, or TKIP, to add security that WEP didn't have. TKIP changes the encryption key for each packet, preventing an attacker from discovering the key, even after monitoring the network for a long period of time." "What is WPA 2?", "Wi-Fi Protected Access 2, or WPA 2 is a Wi-Fi security protocol. In 2004, it was released as an upgrade to WPA 1 instead of simply trying to add security on to the old web standard. WPA two uses an encryption protocol that's based upon the advanced encryption standard or AES. The protocol is called Counter Mode Cipher Block Chaining Message Authentication Code Protocol, but you just need know it as CCMP. WPA 2 is still considered secure, and it's very widely used today." "What WPA 3?", "Wi-Fi Protected Access 3, or WPA 3 is a Wi-Fi security protocol. As of 2020, new wireless devices are required to support the WPA three standard. WPA three also supports the CCMP protocol, but it adds a new technology called simultaneous authentication of equals, or SASE. SASE is a secure key exchange protocol that provides a more secure initial setup of encrypted wireless communications." "What is the security status of the different Wi-Fi security protocols?", "" "What is the protocol used for websites?", "Hypertext Transfer Protocol or HTTP." "How does HTTP work?", "When you load up your web browser and type in a URL, the web browser opens a TCP IP connection to the web server that contains the content for that site. The server then uses HTTP to send you all the elements of the web page, text, graphics, ads and anything else that appears on the page. Your web browser then reassembles all of that content into a website that you can view." "What is HTTPS?", "The Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, or HTTPS, adds encryption to web connections to prevent eavesdroppers from seeing what you're doing on a web site." "What is SMTP?", "The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol or SMTP is used to send a message from one server to another for if, for example, the email address is not located on the server of the sender." "What is POP3?", "The Post Office Protocol 3 is an Internet protocol used by email clients to receive emails. It takes new messages that are waiting for you on the server and downloads them to your computer. Once they're downloaded, they're deleted from the server and you won't be able to download them again. Your email lives only on your computer." "What is IMAP?", "The Internet Message Access Protocol or IMAP is an Internet protocol used by email clients to receive messages. All the emails remain on the server and your email client just accesses them each time you connect. This allows you to access your email wherever you are from any device." "What are the secure and insecure email protocols?", "" "What are the principal roles played by an operating system?", "- Interface between user and the computer, between applications and hardware, providing memory storage and network access<br /> - Disk management, bringing order to hard drives<br /> - Memory management<br /> - Application management<br /> - Process scheduling<br /> - Device management<br /> - Cybersecurity" "What is a thin client?", "Simple computer that has been optimized for establishing a remote connection with a server-based computing environment. Ex. Chrome books, which run Chrome OS" "What are operating systems like on servers?", "Servers run operating systems that are similar in function to those that support desktop and laptop computers, but are engineered to support the file sharing, web hosting and other functions specific to servers." "What are the two major server operating systems?", "Windows and the many distributions of Linux" "What are the operating systems that run on IOT devices called?", "Embedded operating systems" "What is a file system?", "The file system is the technology that describes how the data is stored" "What is the most important task performed by the file system?", "The most important task performed by the file system is remembering where the bits comprising a file are stored on the disk and organizing those files into folders or directories that help us remember where our files are stored." "What does it mean that directories in a file system are hierarchical?", "That just means that we can put folders inside of other folders to help us organize our files." "What characters cannot be used for a file name in a file system?", "/, \, *, , |, ? and :" "In the context of a file system, what are permissions?", "We can set permissions on files to allow different users and groups of users the ability to read, write, delete and modify files." "How does compression work?", "Compression works by replacing duplicate chunks of data in a document with smaller values." "What is encryption?", "Encryption is a technology that makes it impossible for someone to read a file unless they have the necessary decryption key." "In the context of a file system, what is journaling?", "In journaling file systems, the file system maintains a log of all the changes that it plans to make to desk to help protect against a power failure or any other interruption to the disks normal operation. If access to the disk is interrupted during a write operation, the file system can then use the journal to restore itself to a consistent state." "What is the most popular file system?", "The NTFS file system used by Microsoft is the most popular file system for the Windows operating system. NTFS provides compression, encryption and journaling." "Can NTFS be used with Mac and Linux systems?", "It's possible to access NTFS file systems for Mac and Linux systems, but doing so requires special configuration." "What was the older file system used by Windows?", "The FAT32 file system is an older file system that used to be the standard for Windows systems (no encryption, compression or journaling, limit of 4GB file)." "What file system is generally used on Linux systems?", "Linux systems generally use a file system called ext4. This is a powerful file system that does support encryption, compression and journaling files on an ext4 or file system, maybe up to 16 terabytes in size." "What are the three different file systems from Apple?", "- the Mac OS extended file system, called HFS, was a simplistic file system created in the 1990s (no encryption, compression or journaling, limit of 2GB file).<br /> - HFS Plus newer HFS Plus now supports encryption, compression and journaling. It also supports file sizes up to 60 and exabytes.<br /> - The newer Apple file system, APFS was released in 2017, and it's a higher performance file system designed to work very well on solid state drives. APFS removed journaling to increase performance and replaced it with other crash protection technology. APFS supports encryption, but it doesn't provide native compression capabilities." "What are the core features of a file system?", "Encryption, compression, journaling and maximum file size" "Describe the main file systems including their operating systems, encryption abilities, compression abilities, journaling abilities and maximum file size.", "" "How are executable files stored on Android devices?", "With the dot APK extension" "In Linux, how are executable files identified?", "Executables in Linux don't require any specific extensions for those files to execute. Instead, Linux operating systems allow users to set an attribute on a file that indicates that the file is executable." "What processes are running regularly on one’s computer?", "Every application that's running on a computer system runs as a process, a process is simply an instance of an executable application that's actively in use. Many application use multiple processes at the same time. The processes that run in the “background” manage networking, disk access, memory etc.…" "What are drivers?", "Drivers are software components that tell the operating system how to interact with a particular piece of hardware. Your operating system comes pre-installed with hundreds or thousands of commonly used drivers. These drivers allow you to set up many pieces of hardware with plug and play technology, where the hardware can easily start working without much, if any, configuration on your part." "What are the two basic interfaces for operating systems?", "Graphical User Interfaces or Console/Command Line. With MACs, one can use an application called Terminal to type commands into the console. Windows systems provide two console utilities: command shell and power shell (for more advanced users)." "Describe the basic of a virtualization platform.", "Virtualization platforms involve the use of a host machine that actually has physical hardware. That hardware then hosts several or many virtual guest machines that run operating systems of their own. The host machine runs special software known as a hypervisor to manage those guest virtual machines. The hypervisor basically tricks each guest into thinking that it's running on its own hardware, when in reality, it's running on the shared hardware of the host machine. The operating system on each guest has no idea that it's virtualized. So software on the guest machine can function in the same way as it would on a physical server. This shared hardware platform makes it easy to shift memory storage and processing power to wherever it's needed at the time. Examples of virtualization platforms include VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V." "What are the two types of hypervisors used for virtualization?", "Type 1: Hypervisors run directly on physical hardware; Type 2: Hypervisor run on top of an operating system. Type 1 is typically used by businesses. Type 2 is commonly used on personal computers. Hypervisor is commonly used in this scenario include Virtualbox and Parallels." "What are the three categories of software?", "Productivity- Productivity software is the common software that we all use to get our work done on a daily basis.<br /> Collaboration software- collaboration software is the software that allows us to interact with our teammates, customers and business partners on a regular basis. Business software- The third software category business software is the software that we used to run and manage our businesses." "How do web browsers connect us to the internet?", "Web browsers understand the hypertext transfer protocol HTTP, and they use it to help us view web pages. The browser reaches out to the web servers containing the information that we'd like to view, and then they open an FTP or a secure HTTPS connection to that server and transfer their web content to our computer where the browser displays it to us." "What are some ways that web browsers can be configured to improve their performance?", "Manually clear the cache. Deactive client-side scripting. Disable browser add-ons or extensions. If the user is on a network that requires the use of a proxy server, the proxy server settings will have to be configured. If someone travels to a network where the proxy server is not available, the proxy setting will have to be disabled." "What are the different application delivery methods?", "Locally installed- installed on a local computer, no network access or internet access required.<br /> Hosted on a local network- installed on a local server, network access is required but internet access is not.<br /> Hosted in the cloud- installed on cloud server, network access and internet access are required." "Describe the basic application architecture models.", "Locally installed applications are 1-tiers applications. Client/server applications are 2-tier applications. Databased-driven applications are 3 tier. These models describe how many different servers are involved in presenting an application to end users. • The general term n-tier architecture describes this approach and can be any value that we require because we can have as many layers of servers as we need to get the job done." "What should one always do when installing software on a system?", "Instructions - First, be sure to read the instructions for any software that you're installing carefully.<br /> Advanced options- Second, watch out for advanced options and configuration settings. Take the time to understand how the software will be used and work with the end users to configure these settings to best meet the user's needs.<br /> License agreements- Read the license agreements for any software that you're installing. Make sure that you understand the details of the license and that you're complying with any obligations that your organization may have." "What is proprietary software?", "Software purchased from a vendor. The vendor owns the software and charges for its use." "What are the different possible license agreements?", "A single user license is just that it allows you to install the software on a computer for a single user to work with. A group use or site license covers many people. The license counts the number of people who may have the software installed.<br /> Concurrent licenses also allow multiple people to use the software. However, a concurrent license counts the number of people who may be using the software at the same time.<br /> Software may be licensed as a one-time purchase where you pay a single upfront fee for use of the software and on a small periodic maintenance fee to receive support and updates or software. License under a subscription model where instead of paying a large upfront fee, you pay a monthly or annual fee for each user.<br /> Other software is developed by a community of programmers, and it's released as open-source software that's free for use under the conditions of an open-source license agreement." "What is interpreted code?", "When you use interpreted code, the computer reads the actual instructions written by the developer as it executes the code. The computer does this using software called an interpreter that's designed to understand a specific language." "What are the two subcategories of interpreted code?", "The two subcategories of interpreted languages are scripting languages and markup languages. Scripting languages are often used by administrators to automate actions on a computer and for a variety of general programming tasks. Some examples of scripting languages include Perl, R, Python, Ruby, JavaScript and VBScript. Markup languages are languages that provide tags that you can use to markup text documents. The two most common examples of markup languages are the Hypertext Markup Language HTML, which is used to create web pages and the Extensible Markup Language XML, which is used to exchange structured data between systems." "What is compiled code?", "When executing compiled code, the programmer runs a tool called a compiler on their program to produce an executable file. This executable file contains instructions in machine language that carry out the programmer’s instructions. When a user wants to run the program, they launch the executable file rather than the programmers original source code. Examples of compiled languages include C and C++, Java, Go, Julia and Fortran." "What is the main difference between interpreted and compiled languages?", "In an interpreted language, the computer directly executes the source code written by the developer, whereas, in a compiled language, a program called a compiler must first be used to convert the source code into an executable file." "What is an assembly language?", "A language that allows programmers to write code that works directly with the hardware bypassing the use of a compiled or interpreted language." "What is a query language?", "A query language is a language used to ask questions of databases. The most common is the structured query language SQL." "What is a database?", "You can think of a database as a central repository for data that allows you to store your information and organize tables so that many people can access it at the same time." "What are the advantages of a database?", "1) Databases allow multiple concurrent users to store and retrieve data. 2) Very scalable 3) Speed advantage over files for retrieving information (using SQL) 4) They can store a variety of date elements" "What are queries?", "Queries are simply questions that users ask of the database. They're written in a special programming language called the structured query language (SQL)." "What is structured data vs. unstructured data?", "Data stored in well-defined tables so it can be used for analytics. Data that does not fit neatly into tables. While most data used in databases is structured the most data in the world is unstructured. The reality, though, is that data resides on a spectrum where it can range from highly structured, such as a database table to highly unstructured, such as an audio recording. There's also plenty of room in-between for data that has elements of structure but retains some unstructured elements." "In relational databases, how is a column in a table referred to and what kind of information does it contain?", "Each column in a table is called a field, and each field contains information about a single characteristic of the subject." "In relational databases, how is a row in a table referred to and what kind of information does it contain?", "Each row in the table is called a record, and these records contain information about a single instance of the table subject." "What is the role of a key in a relational database?", "A key is our special purpose database field that plays an important role in the relational model. They help to organize the information in tables and to define the relationships between those tables." "What is the role of the primary key in database?", "The purpose of the primary key is to allow the database to uniquely identify the records in the table. When we define a primary key field for a database table, we must choose something that will always be unique. Every row on a table must have a unique value for the primary key. The database enforces a business rule called a constraint that prevents us from inserting two rows into a table that had the same value for the primary key." "What is the role of the foreign key in relational database?", "A foreign key defines the relationships between tables. The primary key in a table when in another table is called a foreign key." "What is DDL?", "The Data Definition Language (DDL) modifies the structure of a database. Used mainly by developers and database administrators because it's used to define the structure of the database itself. It sets the ground rules for the database to function." "What are the three types of commands you should know for DDL?", "CREATE creates a new table. ALTER modifies a table. DROP deletes a table." "What is DML?", "The Data Manipulation Language (DML) modifies the contents of a database. DML commands don't change the database structure, but they add, remove and change the data inside the database." "What are four command that you should know for DML?", "SELECT retrieves data. INSERT adds data. UPDATE changes data. DELETE removes data." "Describe key-value pairs as a semi-structured approach to data storage.", "They provide a very lightweight way to store data that throws away many of the rules of relational databases. Key value pairs don't have to be organized into tables. The only requirement is that we have a key that can be used to index our data and then one or more values that we want to store in the database associated with that key. Each record can have different values and even different numbers of values. Key value stores are databases that are designed specifically to provide efficient storage and very fast retrieval of these key value pairs." "What are the three main concerns of cybersecurity?", "Confidentiality of information, the integrity of information and the availability of information" "In the realm of cybersecurity, what does confidentiality mean?", "Confidentiality ensures that only authorized individuals have access to information and resources" "What are the five main concerns for confidentiality?", "Snooping, dumpster diving, eavesdropping, wiretapping and social engineering." "What is social engineering?", "The attacker uses psychological tricks to persuade an employee to give them sensitive information or access to internal systems." "In the realm of cybersecurity, what does integrity mean?", "Integrity means that we don't allow any unauthorized changes to information" "What are the four different types of integrity attacks?", "Unauthorized modification, impersonation, man-in-the-middle, replay" "Describe an unauthorized modification attack and the best way to address it.", "The unauthorized modification of information occurs when an attacker gains access to a system and makes changes that violate a security policy. Organizations should consider the permissions that each employee needs to perform their jobs and then limit employees to the smallest set of permissions possible (principle of least privilege)" "Describe an impersonation attack and the best way to address it.", "The attacker pretends to be someone other than who they actually are. The best defense against these attacks is strong user education." "Describe a man-in-the-middle attack and the best way to address it.", "A man in the middle or MITM attack, the attacker intercepts network traffic as a user is logging into a system and then pretends to be that user. The attacker might be able to steal user's password and then use it later to log into the system themselves. The best way to address a man-in-the-middle attack is the use of encryption to protect communications." "Describe replay attack and the best way to address it.", "In a replay attack, the attacker doesn't have to get in the middle of the conversation, but only has to find a way to observe a legitimate user logging into a system. They then capture the information that's used to log into the system and later replay it on the network to gain access to themselves. The best defense against both replay and man in the middle attacks is the use of encryption to protect communications." "In the realm of cybersecurity, what are availability controls?", "Availability controls ensure that information and systems remain available to authorized users when they need them. These controls protect against disruptions to normal system operation or data availability." "What are the five types of events that can disrupt availability?", "Five types of events that can disrupt availability: denial of service attacks, power outages, hardware failures, destruction of equipment and service outages." "What is a DoS attack and how can it be protected against?", "Denial of service or DoS Attacks occur when a malicious individual bombards the system with an overwhelming amount of traffic. The idea is to simply send so many requests to a server that the server is unable to answer any requests that come from legitimate users. We can protect our systems against these denial of service attacks by using firewalls that block illegitimate requests and by partnering with our internet service providers to block those attacks before they even reach our networks." "How can one protect against power outages?", "We can protect against power outages by having redundant power sources and backup generators that supply power to our systems when commercial power isn't available." "How can one protect against hardware failures?", "Servers, hard drives, network gear and other equipment all fail occasionally, and those failures can disrupt our access to information, making it an availability problem. We could protect against hardware failures by building systems that have built in redundancy so that if one component fails, another is ready to pick up the slack." "How can one protect against service outages?", "We can protect against service outages by building systems that are resilient in the face of errors and hardware failures." "What does a host firewall do?", "Host firewalls block unwanted inbound connections from elsewhere on the network. The firewalls do this by restricting the systems and ports that may communicate with our devices." "What are the basics of device security?", "1) anti-virus software 2) host firewall 3) passwords 4) security updates 5) systems to enforce safe web-browsing" "What is the first thing one should do when evaluating new software?", "Validate that the software came from a legitimate source." "What does it mean to reduce the attack surface?", "Reducing the amount of software in a system to the smallest possible amount" "Why is it dangerous to obtain and install software from an unknown source?", "If you download software from any source other than the original equipment manufacturer, the OEM, then it's possible that a third party modified that software and created a security vulnerability. The more software packages you have installed on the system, the greater the possibility that the system will have some serious security flaws." "What are PII and PHI?", "Personal Identifiable Information and Protected Health Information" "Does one have a reasonable expectation of privacy when using an employer provided device?", "No, your employer owns that equipment and is normally legally entitled to monitor your use of their systems." "What are the four types of documents in the security policy framework?", "Policies, standards, guidelines and procedures." "What are security policies?", "Security policies are the bedrock documents that provide the foundation for an organization's information security program. Compliance with policies is mandatory, and policies are often approved the very highest levels of the organization" "What are security standards?", "Security standards prescribe the specific details of security controls that the organization must follow. Standards, derive their authority from policy. ? These standards include things like the companies approved encryption algorithms, record storage locations, configuration parameters and other technical and operational details that might change over time." "What are security guidelines?", "Guidelines are where security professionals provide advice to the rest of the organization, including best practices for information security." "What are security procedures?", "Procedures are step by step instructions that employees may follow when they're performing a specific task." "What are the three steps of the access control process?", "1) Identification 2) Authentication 3) Authorization" "What does AAA mean?", "In access control systems, the activities of authentication, authorization and accounting are commonly described as AAA." "Aside from password complexity requirements, what password requirements can provide additional security?", "Password expiration and password history to avoid reusing the same password" "Should organizations allow users to change their passwords quickly and easily?", "Yes, every organization should allow users to change their passwords quickly and easily. You want users to be able to privately select their own passwords and do so whenever they are concerned that those passwords might be compromised." "What are three authentication factors?", "1) something you know 2) something you are and 3) something you have" "Given that every authentication factor has known drawbacks, what solution would provide the most security?", "The solution to this problem is to combine authentication techniques from multiple factors, such as combining something you know with something that you have. This approach is known as multifactor authentication." "Why is an approach that combines a password with a security question not an example of multifactor authentication?", "In multifactor authentication, the techniques must be different factors (something you know, something you are, and something you have)" "What is the least privilege principle?", "The least privilege principle says that an individual should only have the minimum set of permissions necessary to accomplish their job duties." "Why is the least privilege principle important?", "First, least privilege minimizes the potential damage from an insider attack. Second least privilege limits the ability of an external attacker to quickly gain privileged access when compromising an employee's account unless they happen to compromise a system administrators account." "What are the different approaches when designing access control systems?", "1) Mandatory access control 2) Discretionary access control 3) Role-based access control" "Describe mandatory access control systems.", "The operating system itself restricts the permissions that may be granted to users and processors on system resources. Users themselves can't modify any permissions. Mac is normally implemented as a rule based access control system, where users and resources have labels and the operating system makes access control decisions by comparing those labels." "Describe discretionary access control systems.", "Discretionary access control systems offer a flexible approach to authorization, allowing users to assign access permissions to other users. The owners of files, computers and other resources have the discretion to configure permissions as they see fit. Discretionary access control systems are the most common form of access control because they provide organizations and employees with the flexibility that they need to get their work done." "Describe role-based access control (RBAC) systems.", "Role based access control (RBAC) system simplifies some of the work of managing authorizations. Instead of trying to manage all of the permissions for every individual user, administrators create job-based roles and then assign permissions to those roles. Then they can assign users to the roles based on their jobs. Similarly, when a group of users needs a new permission, the administrator doesn't need to apply that permission to each individual user. Instead, they can apply the permission to the role, and all the users with that role will then receive the permission automatically." "What are the different types of account in an access control system?", "Standard user accounts, system administrator accounts, guest accounts, shared or generic accounts, service accounts" "What is the process used to guard system administrators accounts?", "Privileged account management" "Why are shared or generic accounts typically a bad idea?", "They make it difficult to trace who performed an action with a shared account, and every user has plausible deniability when several people have access to the same account." "What are service accounts used for?", "Service accounts are a special type of account used internally by a system to run a process or perform other actions." "What is encryption?", "Encryption uses math to transform information into a format where it’s unreadable by anyone other than authorized users." "What two types of data are encrypted?", "Data at rest and date in transit" "What is non-repudiation?", "Non-repudiation is a security goal that prevents someone from falsely denying that something is true." "What are the most common ways of achieving non-repudiation electronically?", "Digital signatures use encryption technology to provide non-repudiation for electronic documents. You might use biometric security controls, such as a fingerprint or facial recognition to prove that someone was in a facility or performed an action. You might also use video surveillance for that same purpose." "What are business continuity efforts?", "Business continuity efforts are a collection of activities that are designed to keep a business running in the face of adversity." "What are the main ways to protect the availability of systems?", "Redundancy and replication" "What is a fault tolerant system?", "A system protected against small failures" "What is RAID?", "Redundant arrays of inexpensive disks (RAID), technology places multiple hard drives in a single server and then stores copies of data in multiple locations on those drives. This protects the system so that no data is lost, even if one of the hard drives fails." "What is disaster recovery?", "Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity activities that are designed to restore a business to normal operations as quickly as possible following a disruption."
Download CSV
