CFA CFA-Level-II Exam Prep
CFA Level II Chartered Financial Analyst (Page 43 )

• CSIRT: A team that responds to and manages security incidents.
• CVSS: A scoring system for rating the severity of vulnerabilities.
• SOAR: A technology platform for automating and coordinating security operations and incident response.

• Issuer: Identifies the party issuing a SAML message, commonly the IdP in the SAML assertion. It is not the Salesforce setting used to distinguish Salesforce from other service providers.
• Identity Provider Login URL: Specifies where Salesforce sends users for authentication; it does not identify Salesforce.
• SAML Identity Location: Specifies where the user identity is found in the SAML assertion, such as the subject or an attribute.

• Portfolio definition cycle — establishes and maintains the portfolio strategy, objectives, and management framework.
• Portfolio delivery cycle — coordinates and monitors the delivery of change initiatives, ensuring the portfolio remains aligned with strategic objectives and delivers value.

• Practice — a structured area of portfolio management activity, such as risk management or resource management.
• Technique — a method used to perform an activity; it is not the term for portfolio delivery itself.
• Principle — a guiding rule for effective portfolio management.

• Compare each server’s drive specifications and performance data.
• Identify the drive that is faulty, slow, or mismatched.
• Replace it with a drive that matches the required interface, capacity, and performance characteristics.
• Avoid selecting a slower drive, because storage performance can bottleneck the entire server.
• In a redundant array, use a compatible replacement so rebuilding does not create unnecessary performance degradation.

1. Create a custom Sensitive Information Type (SIT) in the Microsoft Purview portal.
2. Use a regular expression to match the 32-character alphanumeric account number.
3. Reference that SIT in the DLP policy protecting SharePoint Online.

• Format-based data ? custom SIT with RegEx
• Built-in sensitive data ? Microsoft-provided SIT
• Document classification/protection ? sensitivity labels
• Security investigation queries ? Advanced Hunting, not DLP detection

• Normalize casing in the data source—for example, convert all values to uppercase or lowercase.
• Add an index key to provide a unique, stable identifier for each row or value.

• A — Correct: Flow Builder is declarative and visual, so administrators and other non-developers can participate in designing and improving business processes without writing Apex.
• D — Correct: Flow Builder provides visual debugging tools, allowing an admin to test paths, inspect variable values, and identify where a specific business case fails.
• E — Correct: A flow’s visual structure documents the logic and makes later maintenance easier than reading and updating custom Apex code.

• B — Incorrect: Flow debugging does not attach a debugger to live customer sessions. The admin uses Flow Builder’s debug functionality with test inputs; this is not live-session debugging and should not be used to monitor real customer transactions.

• Replace the keyboard: More expensive and unnecessary before simpler causes are ruled out.
• Replace the key switch: Laptop keyboards generally aren’t designed for individual switch replacement.
• Replace the circuit board: Excessive for a single nonworking key and not a cost-effective first step.

• 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.

• 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

• Monitoring: Detects activity but does not remove the underlying risk.
• Patching: Useful for systems that must remain operational, but these desktops are unused.
• Isolating: Can be a temporary containment measure, but permanently removing unnecessary systems is more appropriate.

• Azure Machine Learning is the overall Azure service.
• Machine Learning designer is the visual, drag-and-drop interface within Azure Machine Learning.
• Microsoft may refer to the broader product as Azure Machine Learning studio, while “Designer” remains the specific visual workflow tool.

• Azure Logic Apps: Workflow and integration automation.
• Azure Batch: Large-scale parallel or batch compute.
• Azure Cosmos DB: Globally distributed NoSQL database.

• 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.

• Open or insecure ports
• Enabled legacy or insecure protocols
• Known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations
• Weak services and outdated software

• curl tests web requests and HTTP-based services.
• Wireshark captures and analyzes network traffic; it does not normally scan servers for weaknesses.
• netcat can test connectivity to individual ports and sometimes grab service banners, but it is not a comprehensive vulnerability scanner.

• Planning and designing products and services
• Developing and delivering them
• Managing risks, suppliers, and resources
• Measuring performance
• Continually improving value delivery

• Value stream steps describe activities used to create and deliver value; they do not themselves provide the broader capabilities.
• Vision and operating model provide direction and structure, but they are not the practical management capabilities that enable the work.
• Value chain is the operating model showing how activities combine to create value; it is enabled by practices and resources.

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

• Layer 4 firewall: Filters based mainly on IP addresses, ports, and connections; it lacks detailed web-request inspection.
• NGFW: Provides broader network security, but a WAF is more specialized for protecting web applications.
• UTM: Combines multiple security functions, but it is not necessarily optimized for web-application protection.

• Personally identifiable information (PII) detection

• Prompt Shields

• Self-harm content filtering addresses self-harm-related content.
• Violence content filtering addresses violent content.
• Neither protects customer PII or detects document-based prompt injection.

• 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.

• A: Person Accounts cannot be merged directly with standard Contact records.
• C: There is no Account Setup option that automatically merges Person Account duplicates.
• D: Matching rules and duplicate rules can help identify or prevent duplicates, but they do not automatically merge Person Accounts. Also, relationship considerations do not change the basic merge capability.

• SharePoint search: Finds documents based on search terms, but it does not reliably identify every 32-character account number for DLP enforcement.
• A hunting query in Microsoft 365 Defender: Used for security investigations, not for defining sensitive content in a DLP policy.
• Azure Information Protection: Uses classification and labeling; it does not automatically identify this specific account-number pattern unless configured with a matching sensitive information type.
• RegEx pattern matching: Best suited for structured identifiers with a known format, such as account numbers, employee IDs, or policy numbers.

• How quickly the vendor must respond to an incident or request
• Target resolution times
• Availability or uptime requirements
• Performance metrics and penalties for not meeting them

• SOW (Statement of Work): Describes the project’s scope, tasks, deliverables, and timeline.
• MOA (Memorandum of Agreement): Documents a formal agreement to cooperate or perform specific activities.
• MOU (Memorandum of Understanding): Records a mutual understanding or intent, often less binding than a contract.

bash 
docker run -it microsoft/azure-cli:0.10.17

• docker run starts an Azure CLI container; it does not automatically connect to the AKS cluster.
• The command does not run kubectl apply.
• The container would need the appropriate Kubernetes tools and AKS credentials.
• The device or container must obtain cluster credentials, typically using an AKS credential command, before running Kubernetes commands.

bash 
az aks get-credentials --resource-group <resource-group> --name <aks-cluster> 
kubectl apply -f myapp.yaml

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.

• Microsoft Teams: Connects to Teams-related data, but it isn’t the primary connector for the Power Apps data tables.
• Personal Analytics: Provides personal productivity insights, not application data.
• SQL Server database: Only applies if the app explicitly uses SQL Server as its data source.
• Dataflows: Used for preparing and centralizing data, not as the normal direct connection to a Power Apps app.

• Server provisioning
• Operating systems and runtime infrastructure
• Scaling
• Much of the maintenance and patching

• Thin clients reduce endpoint hardware requirements but do not specifically streamline code deployment.
• Private cloud provides dedicated cloud infrastructure but usually requires more management and expense.
• Virtual machines improve resource utilization, but administrators still manage the VMs, operating systems, and deployments.

• Microsoft 365 groups can contain users, but generally can’t contain other groups as members.
• Security groups can contain users and, where supported, other security groups.
• Distribution groups have different nesting restrictions and aren’t equivalent to security groups.
• Dynamic groups can’t be manually populated with members; their membership is calculated from rules.
• A group’s membership type (Assigned or Dynamic) and group type determine whether it can be added to another group.

• A: Reduce management overhead — This is generally an advantage of public cloud, not hybrid cloud. Hybrid environments can increase management complexity.
• B: Cross-platform virtualization — Not the defining advantage of hybrid cloud.
• D: Leverage IaaS and PaaS — Public clouds commonly provide both IaaS and PaaS, so this is not unique to hybrid cloud.

• AWS Budgets lets you create a cost or usage budget and configure alerts when actual or forecasted spending reaches a threshold. Notifications can be sent through email or Amazon SNS.
• Amazon CloudWatch can monitor AWS billing metrics and trigger an alarm when estimated charges exceed a specified amount.

• Amazon SQS is a message queue, not a cost-monitoring service.
• Cost Explorer analyzes spending but does not directly provide threshold notifications.
• AWS Cost and Usage Report delivers detailed billing data for analysis; it does not itself send threshold alerts.

• Leaf switches provide access ports for servers, endpoints, and other devices.
• Spine switches form the fabric’s backbone.
• Every leaf connects to every spine, creating a predictable, high-bandwidth, low-latency path.

• A: Adding both a spine and leaf is unnecessary for simply adding access ports.
• B: Adding a spine does not directly provide endpoint access ports.
• D: A single connection to one spine creates a bottleneck and a single point of failure.

• B: Moving the task may affect the critical path and should not be done before evaluating the planned response and impacts.
• C: Excluding a required task is not appropriate without formal analysis and stakeholder approval.
• D: Lessons learned and the risk log should be updated, but only after or alongside managing the immediate issue; updating them is not the first action.

• B — Reviewing the strategy: Usually performed by a security steering committee or other governance body.
• C — Communicating the strategy: The security manager may help communicate it, but communication is not the primary governance responsibility tested here.
• D — Approving the strategy: Approval belongs to executive management or the appropriate governing authority, not the person who develops it.

Question 3: AWS Storage Gateway File Gateway

• A: S3 bucket per user — S3 is object storage, not a traditional shared file system; mounting it requires extra tools and is less efficient.
• B: File Gateway — Provides a local file share using standard file protocols while storing files in Amazon S3. This preserves convenient local access and extends storage capacity.
• C: WorkSpaces and WorkDocs — Designed for virtual desktops and document collaboration, not large shared file storage.
• D: EC2 with EBS — EBS is attached to one EC2 instance and is not designed for direct multi-user file sharing.

• 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.

• SAML: Enables federated authentication and single sign-on between the IdP and SaaS providers.
• OAuth tokens: Allow delegated application access; OAuth is not primarily the first step for employee SSO.
• Password vaulting: Stores or autofills multiple passwords but does not eliminate the separate credentials or provide true federation.

• CSIRT: A Computer Security Incident Response Team that handles and coordinates incident response.
• CVSS: A scoring system used to rate the severity of vulnerabilities.
• SOAR: Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response technology used to automate security workflows.

• Accept: Acknowledging the risk without taking additional action.
• Transfer: Shifting the risk’s impact to a third party, such as through insurance or outsourcing.
• Mitigate: Reducing the likelihood or impact of the risk through security controls.
• Avoid: Eliminating the activity or process that creates the risk.

• B — AWS DataSync: Transfers data between storage systems, such as S3, file systems, and on-premises storage. It is not a marketplace or catalog for third-party datasets.
• C — Kinesis Data Streams and CodeCommit: CodeCommit is a source-code repository, not a third-party data provider. Kinesis is for streaming data ingestion.
• D — Kinesis Data Streams and ECR: ECR stores container images, not datasets. Kinesis does not provide access to ECR data as an external dataset source.

• Replaces the verbal message — this describes non-verbal communication being used instead of words.
• Substitutes for verbal communication — similar; it means communicating without speech.
• Confuses the verbal message — this occurs when non-verbal signals contradict or obscure the spoken message.

• 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.

• Confirm the required columns and data types
• Identify the target/label column
• Handle missing or duplicate records if present
• Transform data into a suitable format
• Split it into training and validation/test datasets

1. Prepare the training data
2. Select an algorithm or configure AutoML
3. Train the model
4. Evaluate its performance
5. Tune hyperparameters if needed
6. Deploy the model

• Inherent risk: Risk that exists before controls are implemented.
• Avoided risk: Risk eliminated by choosing not to perform the risky activity.
• Operational risk: Risk arising from failures in processes, people, systems, or daily operations.

• 25 — Traditional SMTP server-to-server delivery; often restricted for client submission and not inherently encrypted.
• 110 — POP3 for retrieving email; unencrypted by default.
• 143 — IMAP for retrieving and synchronizing email; unencrypted by default.
• 587 — Authenticated SMTP submission, commonly secured with STARTTLS.

• 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.

• Updating the CRL: Revokes compromised certificates, but does not fix the CA flaw that allowed them to be created.
• Changing passwords: May be necessary if accounts were compromised, but it does not address the certificate-generation vulnerability.
• Implementing SOAR: Improves security automation and response; it does not remediate the underlying PKI weakness.

• Have a definite, clear objective (C): Know exactly what you want to communicate. A clear purpose reduces ambiguity and irrelevant information.
• Plan the communication (E): Decide what to say, who needs the information, the appropriate channel and the best timing.
• Seek feedback (F): Check that the receiver understood the message. This could involve asking for confirmation or inviting questions.

• Ask questions (A): Usually associated with the receiver checking or clarifying information, although a sender may use questions in practice.
• Give feedback (B): Feedback is generally the receiver’s response to the sender’s message. The sender’s responsibility here is to seek feedback.
• Consider their contribution (D): This is not a standard sender-focused step in the communication process. The sender should consider the receiver’s needs and perspective, but the wording is less precise than the three recognised actions above.

1. Define Power Platform DLP policies

1. Add custom prompt modifications

1. Conduct adversarial testing

• The Subscribe to Reports user permission.
• At least Viewer access to the report’s folder.
• Access to the report itself.

• Subscribe to Reports: Run Reports is not the relevant Salesforce permission.
• Chatter Subscribe to Reports is not a Salesforce permission.
• Set Running User relates to configuring the user whose permissions determine report results—not subscribing to a report.

• Uses on-premises data or resources
• Runs components in the cloud
• Can scale across multiple cloud environments when demand increases

• Public cloud: Resources are hosted entirely by a cloud provider.
• Private cloud: Resources are dedicated to one organization, usually in its own environment.
• Hybrid: Combines on-premises and cloud resources.

• Data lakes: scalable, low-cost storage for structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.
• Data warehouses: reliable SQL analytics, governance, and performance features.

• Data lake: Primarily provides flexible, scalable storage but may lack warehouse-style reliability and governance.
• Data warehouse: Strong for structured analytics but less flexible for raw and unstructured data.
• All of these: The individual lake and warehouse do not, by themselves, unify the siloed architecture.