CRISC Question 274

Community Discussion

Written by other learners. Comments can disagree with the marked answer — check the official documentation when in doubt.

• Chose D1

  Encrypting passwords ensures that even if someone gains access to the password database, they cannot easily use or reverse-engineer the passwords.

• Chose D1

  Among the options provided, the control that would best decrease exposure in the event of a password being compromised is: D. Passwords are encrypted. Encryption of passwords is a fundamental security control that ensures even if the password data is accessed by unauthorized individuals, they cannot easily use or interpret it. Encrypted passwords are transformed into a format that is unreadable and unusable without the proper decryption key. This significantly reduces the risk and impact of a password being compromised, as the encrypted password cannot be easily exploited by an attacker. The other options, while important for overall password security, do not directly mitigate the exposure if a password is already compromised.

• Chose C2

  C. Password changes are mandated. Of the options provided, mandating password changes is the control that would best decrease exposure if a password is compromised. Regularly changing passwords reduces the window of opportunity for malicious actors to use compromised passwords to gain unauthorized access. This control is aimed at minimizing the impact of a compromised password by limiting the duration of its usability. While the other options (passwords having format restrictions, passwords being masked, and passwords being encrypted) also contribute to password security, they may not directly address the situation where a password has already been compromised. Format restrictions and masking enhance the security of the password entry process, and encryption protects the stored password data, but they don't directly mitigate the consequences of a compromised password in the same way that mandatory password changes do.