CFA CFA I Exam Prep
CFA Level I Chartered Financial Analyst (Page 10 )

• ARP poisoning: Redirects or intercepts local network traffic; monitoring would typically show suspicious ARP changes or man-in-the-middle behavior.
• Jamming: Interferes with wireless or radio signals. It would affect connectivity, not usually show a server-specific overload.
• Kerberoasting: Attempts to obtain and crack Kerberos service-account hashes; it does not normally cause a system outage.

• B. Data loss prevention (DLP): Helps prevent sensitive data from being copied, emailed, or exfiltrated. It is not the primary control for protecting a stolen laptop’s stored data.
• C. Operating system hardening: Reduces vulnerabilities by disabling unnecessary services and applying secure settings, but it does not necessarily protect the files if the disk is accessed directly.
• D. Boot security: Helps ensure the device starts only through trusted software or approved processes. It supports platform integrity but does not itself encrypt stored files.

python 
def add_integers(a, b): 
    return a + b

• Uses def to define a function.
• Accepts two parameters, a and b.
• Uses return to send their sum back to the caller.
• Uses indentation to define the function body.

python 
result = add_integers(3, 4) 
result is 7

• Compensating control: The server is end-of-life, so it may no longer receive security patches or support. Placing it on a restricted VLAN provides an alternative layer of protection by reducing who can access it and limiting its exposure.
• Technical control: VLAN segmentation and access control lists (ACLs) are technology-based mechanisms that enforce network access restrictions automatically.

• Managerial: Policies, procedures, and governance—not network configuration.
• Physical: Locks, guards, or barriers.
• Corrective: Restores systems after an incident.
• Detective: Identifies suspicious activity rather than restricting access.
• Deterrent: Discourages behavior but does not enforce access rules.

• VM CPU, memory, disk, and network usage
• Storage transactions and latency
• App Service response time
• Database DTU or CPU utilization

• Azure Traffic Analytics analyzes network traffic flows and security patterns; it is not the general infrastructure metrics tool.
• Azure Activity Log records subscription-level control-plane operations, such as resource creation, deletion, or configuration changes.
• Azure Advisor provides recommendations about cost, security, reliability, performance, and operational excellence, but it is not the primary tool for investigating live metrics.

• Identity provider (IdP): Authenticates users and asserts their identity.
• Service provider (SP): The application being accessed—in this case, Salesforce/the employee portal.
• Identity store: A directory that stores user identities, such as Active Directory.
• Authentication store: A system used to validate credentials.

• Actual filename: Document.xml.txt
• Explorer displays: Document.xml
• File type: Text Document (.txt)

text 
Document.txt ? Document.xml

• You normally do not create a new sensitive information type for credit card numbers. Microsoft Purview already provides a built-in Credit Card Number sensitive information type.
• The required sequence should generally be:

• Secure: uses encryption, such as HTTPS or SFTP.
• Cross-platform: supported by many languages and operating systems.
• Internet-friendly: designed to communicate across networks, usually using standard Internet protocols.

• JSON/REST over HTTPS — widely supported, secure, and Internet-friendly.
• SOAP over HTTPS — also secure and highly cross-platform, though more heavyweight.
• XML over SFTP — secure file-based exchange, but it is not an API-style interface.

• The inference container image or built-in algorithm
• The location of model artifacts in Amazon S3
• IAM permissions through the execution role
• Optional environment variables and networking settings

1. Create AWS::SageMaker::Model
2. Create an AWS::SageMaker::EndpointConfig that references the model
3. Create AWS::SageMaker::Endpoint that references the endpoint configuration

• AWS::SageMaker::Endpoint hosts a model but does not define the model itself.
• AWS::SageMaker::NotebookInstance provides a development environment.
• AWS::SageMaker::Pipeline orchestrates ML workflow steps.

• Basic: Self-help only; no technical support or design assessment.
• Standard: Technical support, but not the full proactive architectural guidance required here.
• Professional Direct: Provides proactive guidance and architecture-related assistance.
• Premier: Also supports this, but is a more expensive, enterprise-level option.

• Planning – identifying the need, objectives, scope and resources.
• Analysis – understanding business requirements and current problems.
• Design/development – determining how the system will work.
• Implementation – installing the system and putting it into operation.

• C — “when the query finishes”

• D — “when the query began”

• Remote and global access: Employees can authenticate from anywhere, not just a specific location.
• Seamless login: The device can authenticate in the background, reducing repeated password or MFA prompts.
• Minimal equipment: It uses devices employees already have, rather than requiring separate hardware.

• Geotagging: Identifies location but is not a complete authentication method and can be spoofed.
• Smart cards: Can provide strong authentication, but require cards and often readers, adding equipment and user steps.
• Time-based logins: Restrict access by time but do not verify the user or device adequately.

• Whether a user has a console password
• Password age and last password change
• Whether MFA is enabled
• Access key status
• Access key creation date and last-use information
• Access key age, which helps audit rotation

• IAM Access Analyzer identifies unintended access to resources; it does not report credential age or rotation.
• AWS Artifact provides AWS compliance documents and agreements, not details about your IAM users.
• AWS Audit Manager helps collect evidence for audits, but it is not the direct tool for viewing IAM credential rotation details.

• A private IP address on the virtual network
• An associated public IP address

• Basic: No technical or architectural guidance.
• Standard: Technical support, but not the required design-assessment service.
• Professional Direct: Provides advisory and architecture guidance.
• Premier: Provides it too, but is unnecessarily expensive for this requirement.

• ARP poisoning: Redirects or intercepts local network traffic; it would more likely affect communication paths or cause man-in-the-middle behavior.
• Jamming: Interferes with wireless signals. The scenario does not indicate a wireless outage.
• Kerberoasting: Attempts to obtain service-account password hashes from Kerberos; it is a credential attack, not typically a direct service outage.

• 25 — Traditional SMTP server-to-server mail transfer; not normally used for secure client submission.
• 110 — POP3, used to retrieve email and typically unencrypted.
• 143 — IMAP, used to access email and typically unencrypted.

• A — Increasing the minimum password length to 14 characters: Longer passwords have more possible combinations, making them harder to guess or crack through brute force.
• F — Requiring at least one special character: This increases password complexity and expands the possible character combinations.

• MD5 to SHA-512: Improves password-hash resistance, but does not stop users from choosing easy-to-guess passwords. Also, modern systems should use a password-specific hashing algorithm such as bcrypt, scrypt, or Argon2.
• Increasing maximum age to 120 days: Leaves weak passwords in use longer.
• Reducing minimum length to 10: Makes guessing easier.
• Reducing minimum age to zero: Allows immediate password changes but does not make the password itself harder to guess.

• Prevent connections to malware command-and-control servers
• Identify infected systems making those DNS requests
• Collect information for incident response

• A: Attackers do not normally use sinkholes to map a company’s domain structure.
• B: Redirecting employees from legitimate sites to attacker-owned sites describes malicious DNS manipulation, not a defensive sinkhole.
• D: Attracting attackers away from real resources is more closely associated with a honeypot or deception system.

Flat organisation

• Few levels of management
• A wide span of control—managers supervise many employees
• Shorter communication channels
• More employee autonomy and quicker decisions
• Fewer formal promotion levels

Tall organisation

• Many levels of management
• A narrow span of control—managers supervise relatively few employees
• A clear hierarchy and reporting structure
• More formal supervision and communication channels
• More obvious promotion and career stages

cmd 
powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File C:\Scripts\Configure-VM.ps1

• GPO logon script: Runs only when a user logs on, so configuration may be delayed and is user-dependent.
• GPO startup script: Can work, but requires the VMs to be domain-joined and introduces GPO dependency. It is not specifically tied to Windows deployment.
• Place scripts in a VHD: Merely makes the files available; it does not execute them.

• A. IDS attack signatures: An IDS primarily detects suspicious network activity and usually alerts rather than directly scanning and blocking uploaded files.
• C. Load balancer: Distributes traffic among servers but does not inspect files for malware.
• D. WAF: Protects web applications from attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and some malicious requests. It is not primarily a PDF-malware scanning solution.

json 
{ 
  "Effect": "Deny", 
  "NotAction": [ 
    "iam:*", 
    "route53:*", 
    "cloudfront:*", 
    "support:*" 
  ], 
  "Resource": "*", 
  "Condition": { 
    "StringNotEquals": { 
      "aws:RequestedRegion": "eu-west-1" 
    } 
  } 
}

• SCPs set maximum permissions; they do not grant permissions. The default SCP allows actions, so the restriction must be an explicit Deny.
• aws:RequestedRegion checks the Region targeted by an API request.
• StringNotEquals: eu-west-1 denies requests directed to every other Region.
• NotAction allows designated global services to remain usable because they do not operate in a single AWS Region.
• Attaching the SCP to the OU makes it apply to existing accounts and accounts later added to that OU.

• Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates define Azure resources in a declarative JSON file.
• You can deploy the same template repeatedly for each business unit, ensuring that identical resources are created consistently.
• Templates reduce manual administrative effort and support repeatable, automated deployments.
• Parameters can customize values such as names, regions, and sizes while keeping the overall resource configuration the same.

• SageMaker endpoint: Not required because the model is being used through Amazon Bedrock.
• SageMaker Model Registry: Used for managing SageMaker models, not for making a Bedrock custom model available.
• Grant access in Amazon Bedrock: IAM permissions may still be needed, but granting access alone does not provide the required inference capacity.

• The listener has a virtual IP address on the load balancer.
• The active SQL Server replica must respond using the listener’s IP address, not its own VM IP.
• Floating IP allows the listener IP to be preserved and returned by the active replica.
• This is required for the SQL Always On listener configuration.

• A health probe for the SQL listener/cluster role
• The SQL Server listener port, commonly 1433
• Appropriate backend pool membership

• Red team: Simulates attackers; exploits weaknesses to test security.
• Blue team: Defends systems; monitors, detects, and responds to attacks.
• Purple team: Combines red- and blue-team efforts to improve detection and defense.
• White team: Oversees or manages the test, defining rules, scope, and authorization.

• Create and manage approved IT services as products
• Control which users can deploy those products
• Apply governance, permissions, and constraints
• Use and manage infrastructure-as-code templates, such as AWS CloudFormation templates

• AWS Resource Explorer: Helps find and browse AWS resources; it does not govern IaC deployments.
• AWS Organizations: Manages accounts, consolidated billing, and organization-wide policies.
• AWS Systems Manager: Provides operational management, such as patching, automation, and parameter storage, but it is not primarily used to catalog and govern IaC-based service deployments.

• A. Extranet
• B. VLAN
• C. Intranet
• D. VPN

• A: Using an external OAuth 2.0 identity provider could provide unified identity, but it does not specifically address Salesforce capacity or high-volume login limits.
• B: Making the Experience Cloud community a SAML identity provider and using JIT provisioning is a possible federation pattern, but it may not be appropriate for this scale without Salesforce validation.
• C: A default account is unrelated to solving identity unification and high login throughput. Person Accounts can be supported in appropriate B2C Commerce integrations.

• Secret scope: A named container that groups related secrets and defines access permissions. Example: finance-prod.
• Secret key: The name of an individual secret stored inside that scope. Example: db-password.

text 
Scope: finance-prod 
  Key: db-username 
  Key: db-password

python 
dbutils.secrets.get( 
    scope="finance-prod", 
    key="db-password" 
)

• Batch processing, such as scheduled data transformations
• Streaming processing, such as continuously ingesting events

• Manipulating data with multiple languages: Mainly a benefit of Databricks and Spark.
• Real-time notebook collaboration: A workspace/notebook feature.
• Alerts for query failures: A Databricks SQL or job-monitoring feature.
• Distributing complex operations: Primarily a Spark compute capability.

• An Anypoint VPC provides private network connectivity for CloudHub applications.
• An IPsec VPN tunnel or AWS Direct Connect connects that VPC to the customer’s on-premises network without exposing the database to the public internet.
• The VPC and on-premises firewalls must allow the required traffic, routes, and ports.

• Static IP addresses only identify the application’s outbound traffic; they do not create a private network path to the database.
• A Dedicated Load Balancer does not replace the required network connection to the on-premises environment. It is also unnecessary merely to reach individual databases.
• Moving sensitive databases to a DMZ is not the intended architecture and could reduce their protection.

• Filtering or reshaping columns
• Joining with an analysis-specific dataset
• Creating calculated fields
• Applying business logic for a particular project

• Data blending: Combining different data sources, not specifically the final processing step.
• Data enhancement: A broad term for enriching data.
• Data testing: Checking data quality or pipeline correctness.
• Last-mile ETL: The precise term for additional transformations performed after the main pipeline, often directly before analytics or reporting.

• Virtual machine disks
• Databases
• Storage accounts
• File systems

• Site-to-site VPN: protects data moving between networks
• HTTPS: protects data moving between a client and website
• Encrypted email: generally protects the message while being transmitted

• At rest = stored data
• In transit = moving data
• In use = data currently being processed by a system

1. Determine which host was infected first—the originating host.
2. Decide whether each other host is clean or infected based on communication and event logs.

• Compare timestamps and find the earliest suspicious event.
• Look for the host that initiated the malicious connection, file transfer, exploit, or command—not merely a host that later received traffic.
• Follow the timeline through the firewall:

• A host is likely infected if it both receives suspicious activity and then initiates related malicious traffic.
• A host may be clean if the firewall blocked the connection and there is no evidence of execution or follow-on communication.

• staff use the new system;
• transactions and reports are checked;
• problems are corrected;
• feedback is collected.

• Phased changeover: different parts or functions are introduced in stages, often according to a planned sequence.
• Pilot changeover: one representative department, branch or group acts as a test site before wider implementation.
• Parallel changeover: old and new systems operate at the same time.
• Direct changeover: the old system is stopped and the new one starts immediately.

• Which Security policy matches
• Which NAT rule/translation is selected
• Which PBF rule applies
• Which route is used

text 
test security-policy-match ... 
test nat-policy-match ... 
test pbf-policy-match ... 
test routing fib-lookup ...

• Amazon S3 — Object storage, not a database.
• Amazon DynamoDB — Fully managed NoSQL key-value and document database.
• Amazon Redshift — Managed data warehouse designed for analytics, not primarily transactional MySQL workloads.

• Drops packets when traffic exceeds a certain bitrate: This describes traffic policing, not shaping.
• Fragments large packets and queues them: Shaping does not fragment packets as its primary congestion-control action.
• Drops packets randomly from lower-priority queues: Packet dropping may occur if a shaping queue becomes full, but it is not the defining behavior.

• Shaping: buffers and delays excess traffic.
• Policing: drops or marks traffic that exceeds the configured rate.

• Honeypots: Decoy systems or services designed to attract attackers. Legitimate users should not access them, so activity on a honeypot is a strong indicator of unauthorized activity. Security teams can also observe attacker behavior.

• DNS sinkhole: Redirects requests for known malicious domains to a controlled internal server or blocks them. If an infected workstation attempts to contact command-and-control infrastructure, the sinkhole records the request and helps identify the compromised device.

• Tokenization: Protects sensitive data by replacing it with tokens.
• CI/CD: Automates software development and deployment.
• Threat modeling: Identifies potential risks before or during system design.
• Data obfuscation: Makes data harder to understand, but does not detect intruders.

• Business
• People
• Governance
• Platform
• Security
• Operations

• Program and project management
• Risk management
• Cloud financial management
• Data governance
• Portfolio management

• Sustainability
• Performance efficiency
• Reliability

• Application management: Controls which apps can be installed or used; it does not remove existing data after theft.
• Full-disk encryption: Protects data when the device is powered off or locked, but it may not help if the attacker has already unlocked the device.
• Containerization: Separates corporate data from personal data, but the attacker may still access the corporate container using the stolen credentials.

• The VPN gateway is in VirtualNetworkA.
• Gateway transit is configured on the peering associated with the VNet that contains the gateway—here, VirtualNetworkA.
• A peered VNet may use the remote gateway through the appropriate peering option, but this does not automatically update an existing P2S client’s routes.
• The Windows 10 workstation’s P2S VPN client package was created before VirtualNetworkB was peered, so it may not have a route for VirtualNetworkB.

• Accept: Acknowledge the risk and choose not to take additional action.
• Transfer: Shift the risk or its financial impact to another party, such as through insurance or outsourcing.
• Mitigate: Reduce the likelihood or impact of the risk, such as by implementing security controls.
• Avoid: Eliminate the activity or condition that creates the risk.

• Two VMs
• Distributed across two separate availability zones

Correct choices

• DB1: Azure Data Box Heavy
• Virtual machines: Azure Migrate

Why

• Replication with minimal downtime
• A test migration
• Final cutover after validation

• Due Date
• Order Date
• Delivery Date

DAX 
Order Date = 'Due Date' 
Delivery Date = 'Due Date'

• Due Date[Date] ? Sales[Due Date]
• Order Date[Date] ? Sales[Order Date]
• Delivery Date[Date] ? Sales[Delivery Date]