ACFE CFE - Investigation Exam Prep
Certified Fraud Examiner - Investigation (Page 7 )

• Packet capture: Collects and analyzes network traffic; it does not describe the scan type.
• Privilege escalation: Attempts to gain higher permissions after obtaining access.
• System enumeration: Identifies systems, services, or resources, but is not specifically defined by the lack of credentials.
• Passive scan: Observes traffic without actively probing systems. A vulnerability scan is generally an active assessment.

text 
ip route vrf Customer1 172.16.1.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.1.1 global 
ip route vrf Customer2 192.168.1.200 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.1 global 
ip route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 Vlan10 
ip route 172.16.1.0 255.255.255.0 Vlan20

• The route in Customer1 VRF provides a path back to the Customer2 subnet, 172.16.1.0/24.
• The route in Customer2 VRF provides a path to the FTP server, 192.168.1.200.
• The keyword global tells the router to resolve the next hop using the global routing table, enabling controlled route leaking between the VRF and global table.
• The global routes identify the VLAN interfaces used to reach each customer network.

DAX 
Previous Year Sales = 
CALCULATE( 
    [Total Sales], 
    PARALLELPERIOD('DATE'[Month], -1, YEAR) 
)

• CALCULATE evaluates [Total Sales] after modifying the filter context.
• PARALLELPERIOD shifts the current date period. -1 moves it backward, and YEAR specifies a one-year shift.
• 'DATE'[Month] is the date column used for the time calculation. In a proper date table, this should be a real date column or an appropriate calendar column—not merely text such as "January".

1. Search & Intelligence in the Microsoft 365 admin center — No

1. Audit in the Microsoft Defender portal — Yes

1. Audit in the Microsoft Purview portal — Yes

• GPS coordinates
• Date and time the image was taken
• Camera or device model
• Exposure settings

• Log data: Records events or activities, such as system or application activity.
• Encrypted data: Information intentionally encoded to prevent unauthorized access.
• Sensitive data: A broad classification for information requiring protection; geolocation may be sensitive, but the technical type stored in the image is metadata.

• Each Azure VM must have at least one network interface (NIC).
• A single NIC can have:

• Therefore, each of the five VMs needs only one NIC:

• Customers may boycott V’s products.
• Supermarket customers may stop buying from V.
• Investors may view V as having higher legal, ethical and reputational risk.
• V could face fines, lawsuits, contract losses and higher costs.
• Expected future profits may fall.

• NAT traversal: Helps WAN Edge, vSmart, and vManage devices discover how to reach one another through NAT.
• Initial orchestration: Authenticates and introduces devices when they first join the SD-WAN fabric.
• Connection brokering: Provides information that allows devices to form their required control connections, after which the vBond is generally not in the data path.

• WAN Edge: Forwards user traffic and forms secure tunnels.
• vSmart: Controls the overlay control plane and distributes routes and policies.
• vManage: Provides centralized management, configuration, and monitoring.

• Restrict a port to a defined number of MAC addresses
• Use statically assigned or “sticky” MAC addresses
• Shut down or restrict the port when violations occur

• Load balancer: Distributes application traffic; it does not protect switch MAC tables.
• IPS: May detect suspicious network activity, but is not the primary control for limiting switch MAC entries.
• NGFW: Filters traffic at the network boundary; it does not directly prevent MAC table flooding on access switches.

• Repetitive and time-consuming
• Based on measurable conditions, such as last check-in time
• Easy to automate with alerts, dashboards, or scheduled reports
• Important for ensuring scan coverage

• Assigning custom recommendations usually requires analyst judgment and context.
• Analyzing false positives can sometimes be assisted by automation, but validation often requires human review.
• Rendering an additional executive report increases reporting activity rather than reducing a core operational workload.

• C — Custom buttons display at the top and bottom of a page: Correct. In Salesforce Classic, buttons can appear in the page’s button areas, including the top and bottom of record pages.
• D — Custom buttons are available for Person Accounts: Correct. Person Accounts use the Account object, so Account custom buttons can be available on Person Account layouts.
• E — Custom buttons can reference an external app: Correct. A URL custom button can launch or navigate to an external application or website.

• A: JavaScript custom buttons are a Salesforce Classic feature and are not supported in Lightning Experience. They do not enhance Lightning Experience.
• B: The User object does not generally support custom buttons in the same way standard business objects do.

• An Adj-SID does not necessarily need manual configuration.
• It can often be dynamically allocated by the router, although manual configuration may also be possible.
• The adjacency information is advertised through the IGP, such as IS-IS or OSPF.

• It is identified by an Adj-SID.
• It represents a particular adjacency of a node.
• Its meaning is generally local to the advertising node; unlike a Node-SID, it is not a globally reusable instruction across the network.

• Behavioral and anomaly detection
• Threat intelligence integration
• User and entity behavior analytics
• Automated response actions, often through SOAR integration

• Virus signatures: Associated primarily with antivirus or endpoint protection.
• Security agent deployment: Usually an endpoint-management or EDR function.
• Vulnerability scanning: Typically performed by vulnerability-management tools, though a SIEM may integrate their results.

• Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates
• Or, in newer Azure terminology, Bicep files

• Data only needs to be current at 7 AM each day, so scheduled refresh is sufficient.
• Import mode provides the fastest report interaction because data is stored in Power BI’s in-memory engine.
• It supports row-level security (RLS), including the USERNAME() filter.
• You can limit the imported data to the current year and previous three years to reduce model size.
• DirectQuery would generally provide slower visual response times and is unnecessary here.
• Dual is mainly useful in composite models where some tables use DirectQuery and others use Import. That is not required by this scenario.
• Live connection is not appropriate because you are creating the semantic model.

• Tracking who accessed or changed customer information
• Detecting unauthorized activity
• Supporting accountability and investigations
• Providing evidence for compliance and incident response

• Single sign-on not enabled: SSO improves convenience and centralized authentication, but it is not essential for access control.
• Complex passwords not required: This weakens authentication, but other controls may reduce the risk.
• Security baseline not consistently applied: A concern, but it is less specific and less immediately damaging than having no activity records at all.

• AB’s own PPE: $100m
• CD’s PPE in its individual accounts: $50m
• Fair value uplift at acquisition: $40m
• Remaining useful life: 10 years
• Extra depreciation each year: $40m ÷ 10 = $4m
• Four years’ extra depreciation to 31 December 20X4: 4 × $4m = $16m
• Remaining fair value uplift: $40m - $16m = $24m

• Espionage: Stealing confidential information, often for a competitor or government.
• Data exfiltration: Unauthorized transfer of data outside the organization. This could occur, but the question focuses on using unapproved access methods.
• Nation-state attack: An attack sponsored or conducted by a government.
• Shadow IT: Employees using technology or access methods outside the organization’s approved security controls.

• Deterministic approve/reject results
• Strict adherence to predefined rules
• Consistent, reproducible outcomes
• Auditability and regulatory compliance

• Storage usage of files stored in Microsoft Teams: SharePoint site usage report

• Number of active users per team: Microsoft Teams usage report

1. SharePoint site usage report
2. Microsoft Teams usage report

• Tokens: Individual units of text processed by a model, such as words, subwords, or characters.
• Models: Systems that learn patterns and generate predictions or outputs.
• Binaries: Data represented using the binary number system, not semantic representations.

• Remote and global work: Access is based on the approved device, not a specific office or geographic location.
• Seamless login: Users may not need to repeatedly enter credentials on a recognized device.
• Limited equipment: It uses devices employees already have rather than requiring separate hardware.

• Geotagging: Restricts access based on location and may prevent legitimate remote work.
• Smart cards: Require issuing and managing additional physical equipment.
• Time-based logins: Limit access by time and do not provide a seamless authentication experience.

• C — Before update
• D — Before insert

apex 
trigger AccountTrigger on Account (before insert, before update) { 
    for (Account acct : Trigger.new) { 
        acct.Description = 'Updated automatically'; 
    } 
}

• In after insert and after update, Trigger.new records are read-only.
• Use after triggers when you need the record’s final database Id or want to create/update related records.
• Attempting to change a field directly in an after trigger causes a read-only error.

• A password cracker would normally be identified by behavior such as loading password hashes or attempting dictionary/brute-force attacks.
• The question describes a routine audit, not password recovery.
• Simply encountering a protected file during an audit is characteristic of a misconfigured or insufficiently privileged FIM.

• 25 — Traditional SMTP server-to-server mail delivery; often restricted and not the usual client submission port.
• 110 — POP3, used for retrieving email; normally unencrypted.
• 143 — IMAP, used for retrieving and synchronizing email; normally unencrypted.

• Company documents
• Databases
• Knowledge bases
• Current web or business data

• A: Describes diversity and inclusive design, not grounding.
• B: Describes explainability or model interpretability.
• D: Describes documenting a model’s capabilities and limitations.

• IaaS: You deploy and manage virtual machines, including the operating system and installed software. Azure manages the physical datacenter, hosts, and networking infrastructure.
• PaaS: Azure manages the infrastructure and operating system, while you deploy and manage your application code. Examples include Azure App Service and Azure Functions.

• Reconnaissance: Gathering information about the target.
• Weaponization: Creating or combining a malicious payload with a delivery method.
• Delivery: Sending the payload, such as through phishing.
• Exploitation: Triggering a vulnerability or weakness to gain execution or access.

• Each Case must follow defined support steps.
• Each step must be completed within a specified time limit.

• Case Escalation Rules: Escalate Cases based mainly on age or criteria; they do not model a complete sequence of service steps.
• Process Builder with Scheduled Actions: Can automate time-based actions but is not the standard framework for Case service-level commitments.
• Omni-Channel Routing: Routes work to agents based on capacity and priority; it does not track Case lifecycle deadlines.

• Active-active routers: Provide redundant Internet connections/devices. Both can operate, so traffic can fail over or be load-balanced.
• Active-active firewalls: Avoid a single firewall becoming a failure point while maintaining security inspection.
• Load balancers: Distribute requests across multiple web servers. If one server fails, traffic can go to the other.
• Redundant power supplies: A server with separate power supplies should connect to independent power sources or circuits.
• UPS A and UPS B: Provide backup power and redundancy. Ideally, each power supply is connected to a different UPS.
• SONET ring: A ring topology provides alternate paths if a fiber link or segment fails.

• SQL injection
• Cross-site scripting (XSS)
• Malicious or malformed web requests
• Some application-layer attacks

• Layer 4 firewall: Filters based mainly on IP addresses, ports, and transport protocols; it cannot deeply inspect web application content.
• NGFW: Provides advanced network filtering and may include application awareness, but a WAF is more specifically designed to protect web applications.
• UTM: Combines several security functions in one appliance, but it is not the most targeted solution for a web portal.

• Frequency/likelihood = how often or how likely the risk is to occur.
• Severity/impact = how damaging or costly the consequences would be.

• A minor equipment fault occurring frequently may have high frequency but low severity.
• A major cyberattack occurring rarely may have low frequency but high severity.
• A risk that happens often and causes substantial losses has high frequency and high severity.

• Determining ISP-assigned address space: Usually involves public reconnaissance, such as WHOIS or regional Internet registry information.
• Bypassing DNS sinkholing: Would require evidence that malicious domains are resolving outside the organization’s sinkhole controls.
• Achieving initial access: DNS log entries alone do not demonstrate compromise or entry.
• Exfiltrating data: DNS tunneling generally involves repeated queries containing encoded or unusually long data, not merely internal host discovery.

• The S3 bucket as an origin for static content
• The Application Load Balancer (ALB) as an origin for dynamic content
• An Amazon Route 53 alias record pointing the application domain to CloudFront

Why this works

• Static data: CloudFront caches objects from S3 at edge locations, reducing latency for users worldwide.
• Dynamic data: CloudFront forwards requests that require application processing to the ALB. It can also maintain persistent connections and use the AWS global edge network to improve delivery performance.
• One domain: CloudFront behaviors can route different path patterns to different origins—for example, /static/* to S3 and other paths to the ALB.

Why the other options are incorrect

• Global Accelerator is designed primarily for accelerating traffic to applications with endpoints such as ALBs, not for caching S3 content.
• Using separate domains or splitting static and dynamic traffic adds unnecessary complexity.
• CloudFront already provides the required global edge distribution and caching, so combining it with Global Accelerator is unnecessary here.

• Three DHCP scopes: Each VLAN has its own IPv4 subnet. DHCP scopes are subnet-specific, so create one scope for:

• Two DHCP relays: DHCP client discovery begins as a broadcast, and broadcasts do not cross routers or VLAN boundaries. Therefore, configure a DHCP relay on the router or Layer 3 switch interface for each client VLAN.

• An active relationship is used automatically when filters are evaluated. An inactive relationship does not propagate filters unless explicitly activated in DAX, so it would not reliably enforce the required security behavior.
• Apply security filter in both directions allows RLS filters to propagate across the relationship in both directions. This ensures that bidirectional filtering respects the RLS rules applied to both tables.
• Assume referential integrity is unrelated to RLS. It is mainly a DirectQuery optimization that allows Power BI to use an inner join when matching keys are guaranteed to exist.
• The relationship must therefore be active, with security filtering enabled in both directions.

CIMA P3 topics

• IT governance and systems strategy
• Systems development and implementation
• Change and project governance
• Strategic and business risk

• A — Plan for new systems: The committee should help identify and prioritise systems requirements and ensure planned systems support organisational needs.
• D — Consider competitive issues: New information systems may affect Y’s competitive position, service quality and efficiency. These strategic implications should be considered.
• E — Ensure the system meets company goals: This is a key governance responsibility. The committee should ensure the project remains aligned with Y’s objectives and delivers business value.

• B — Develop new systems: Detailed system development should be performed by IT specialists and project teams, not the steering committee.
• C — Manage the project: The project manager should handle day-to-day project management. The steering committee should provide oversight, challenge and key decisions, rather than manage daily activities.

• Suporta domínios personalizados.
• Oferece 50 GB de armazenamento — suficiente para os 10 GB de cada aplicação.
• Usa instâncias de computação dedicadas.
• Inclui balanceamento de carga entre instâncias.
• É o plano mais econômico entre as opções que atendem a todos esses requisitos.

• Install unauthorized or unapproved applications
• Access system areas normally restricted
• Add features unavailable in the default software
• Modify the device’s operating system

• SQL injection (SQLi): Attacks databases by inserting malicious SQL commands.
• Cross-site scripting (XSS): Injects malicious scripts into web pages viewed by users.
• Sideloading: Installs an application from outside the official app store, but it does not necessarily remove the phone’s operating-system restrictions.

• C. Case after-insert trigger that publishes a Platform Event

• D. Custom Apex controller that publishes a Platform Event

• A. Trigger with a callout: Salesforce triggers should not make direct synchronous callouts, and this tightly couples transaction processing to the external system.
• B. Workflow Rule with Outbound Message: This can react to record changes, but it cannot reliably capture a user clicking a menu item. It also does not provide the same flexible event-driven model as Platform Events.

• The type of change: standard, normal, or emergency
• The risk, impact, and complexity
• The change model being used

• A standard change may be pre-authorized through its change model.
• A normal change may require assessment and approval by an appropriate change authority.
• An emergency change may be authorized by an emergency change authority, often using an expedited process.

• Change authorities are not only needed for emergency changes.
• They are not assigned only when a change is deployed.
• They are not only required for normal changes.

• Initial Intrusion: The compromised VPN account and stolen phishing credentials describe how the attacker first gained access, but that happened months earlier.
• Persistence: The scheduled tasks and recurring C2 connections show how the attacker maintained and automated continued access.
• Search and Exfiltration: This would involve locating and transferring data. The scenario does not primarily describe data discovery or theft.
• Cleanup: Cleanup involves removing evidence or covering tracks. Obfuscated scripts may make detection harder, but the main behavior here is maintaining access.

• Link-local — FE80::/10; valid only on the local link/subnet and not routed by routers.
• Multicast — FF00::/8; identifies a group of interfaces rather than a private address range.
• Global unicast — 2000::/3; publicly routable IPv6 addressing.

• Azure DevOps Analytics views are accessed through the Power BI Azure DevOps (Boards only) connector.
• This connector authenticates directly to Azure DevOps Services and lets you select an Analytics view.
• Analytics views allow filtering and shaping data in the cloud before Power BI loads it.
• Azure DevOps Server (Boards only) is for an on-premises Azure DevOps Server instance, not Azure DevOps cloud.
• A generic OData Feed connection can access OData endpoints, but it is not the purpose-built connector for Azure DevOps Analytics views.
• “OData queries” describes the underlying technology or query approach, not the most appropriate Azure DevOps connector choice here.

• A. PsFile — Correct: Displays files opened remotely on a system. This reveals shared resources and user activity.
• B. UserInfo — Correct: Gathers information about user accounts, supporting account and privilege enumeration.
• C. PsPasswd — Answer key lists it: This is questionable. PsPasswd is primarily used to change passwords remotely, not enumerate information. The key may classify it broadly as a Windows account-management tool, but it is not a strong enumeration example.
• D. WinSSLMiM — Incorrect: Used for SSL man-in-the-middle activity, not enumeration.

• Install unauthorized or unsupported software
• Access features blocked by the manufacturer or operating system
• Customize system behavior beyond normal settings

• A is correct: It establishes the revised dates and identifies the effect on the critical path.
• B is premature: Stakeholders should be informed after the impact has been assessed and the updated schedule is understood.
• C is not automatically appropriate: Fast-tracking may introduce additional risk and should be considered only after analyzing schedule options.
• D is premature: Adding resources may not resolve a dependency and could increase costs without addressing the actual constraint.

• Controlar o fluxo de dados entre S3 e SageMaker;
• Aplicar regras de segurança por meio da VPC;
• Reduzir a exposição dos dados;
• Permitir acesso privado ao bucket do S3.

• Amazon Inspector: avalia vulnerabilidades, mas não gerencia o fluxo de dados.
• Amazon Macie: ajuda a descobrir e proteger dados sensíveis no S3, mas não cria a conexão com o SageMaker.
• S3 Glacier Deep Archive: é uma classe de armazenamento para arquivamento, não uma solução de conectividade.

• Due diligence: Researching and evaluating a third party before entering or continuing a business relationship.
• Internal audit: Evaluates controls within the organization itself.
• Penetration testing: Actively tests systems for exploitable vulnerabilities.
• Attestation: A formal statement or report—such as a SOC 2 report—provided by an independent party about an organization’s controls.

• Espionage: Stealing information for intelligence or competitive purposes.
• Data exfiltration: Unauthorized removal or transfer of data.
• Nation-state attack: An attack sponsored or conducted by a government.
• Shadow IT: Unapproved technology or methods used to access organizational resources.