ECCouncil 212-89 EC Council Certified Incident Handler (ECIH v3) Exam Practice Test

When an attacker installs a fake AP (Access Point) within a company's network, especially behind a firewall, this constitutes the deployment of a Rogue Access Point. Rogue APs are unauthorized wireless access points installed within a network without the network administrator's knowledge or consent. They pose a significant security risk because they can be used to intercept sensitive information, bypass network security configurations, and provide a gateway for attackers to enter the network undetected. This type of attack circumvents the security measures put in place by a company, including firewalls, by creating an illicit entry point into the network that is under the control of the attacker.

Behavioral analysis is a technique used to detect insider threats by analyzing the behavior of employees, both individually and in group settings, to identify any actions that deviate from the norm. This method relies on monitoring and analyzing data related to user activities, access patterns, and other behaviors that could indicate malicious intent or a potential security risk from within the organization. Behavioral analysis can detect unusual access to sensitive data, abnormal data transfer activities, and other indicators of insider threats. This approach is proactive and can help in identifying potential insider threats before they result in significant harm to the organization.

ISO/IEC 27002 is a standard that provides best practice recommendations on information security controls for use by those responsible for initiating, implementing, or maintaining information security management systems (ISMSs). It covers areas such as risk assessment, human resource security, operational security, and communications security, among others, providing a framework for establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining, and improving an ISMS. ISO/IEC 27035 pertains to information security incident management, PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) deals with the security of cardholder data, and RFC 2196 is a guide for computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs), not a standard for implementing ISMSs.

The scenario described fits the characteristics of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) attack. APTs are sophisticated, stealthy, and continuous computer hacking processes often orchestrated by groups targeting a specific entity. These attackers penetrate the network through vulnerabilities, maintain access without detection, and achieve their objectives, such as data exfiltration or financial theft, over an extended period. The fact that attackers exploited a minor vulnerability, maintained access for six months, and performed lateral movements to access critical systems for fraudulent transactions highlights the strategic planning and persistence typical of APT attacks.

Cloud Passage Halo is a security platform designed to provide comprehensive visibility and protection for cloud environments, making it an effective tool for incident responders dealing with potential cloud security incidents. It offers capabilities for detecting, responding to, and containing threats across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. With features like automated security policies, compliance monitoring, and threat detection, Cloud Passage Halo enables incident responders to quickly contain incidents and gather the required forensic evidence to investigate the scope and impact of a breach or security issue. Tools like Alert Logic and Qualys Cloud Platform also provide security and compliance solutions for cloud environments, but Cloud Passage Halo is specifically recognized for its robust incident response and containment capabilities.

Netstat (network statistics) is a command-line tool that displays network connections (both incoming and outgoing), routing tables, and a number of network interface (and network protocol) statistics. It is considered a volatile evidence collecting tool because it gathers information that exists in the system's memory, which is lost upon shutdown or reboot. This makes it invaluable for collecting evidence of active connections and processes that are present at the time of the incident response but does not persistently store data that can be recovered later. This contrasts with tools like FTK Imager or ProDiscover Forensics, which are used for acquiring digital evidence in a non-volatile manner, such as disk imaging, and HashTool, which is used for validating the integrity of collected digital evidence through hashing.

Eradication is the phase in the incident response process where the root cause of an incident is removed or eliminated, and all attack vectors are closed to prevent similar incidents in the future. This step follows the containment phase, where the immediate threat is isolated to prevent further damage, and precedes the recovery phase, where normal operations are restored. Eradication involves thoroughly removing malware, unauthorized access mechanisms, or any other elements used in the attack, and securing any vulnerabilities that were exploited. The goal is to ensure that the threat cannot re-emerge and that the systems are secure before they are returned to operational status.

WMIC (Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line) is a command-line tool that provides a unified interface for Windows management tasks, including the collection of system information. It allows administrators and forensic investigators to query the live system for information about running services, their process IDs, start modes, states, and statuses, among other data. The use of WMIC is particularly valuable in incident response scenarios for gathering volatile information from a system without having to install additional software, which might alter the state of the system being investigated. By executing specific WMIC commands, Clark can extract detailed information about the services running on a system at the time of the investigation, making it an essential tool for collecting volatile data in a forensically sound manner.

The GPG18 and Forensic readiness planning (SPF) principles outline various guidelines to enhance an organization's readiness for forensic investigation and response. Principle 5, which suggests that organizations should adopt a scenario-based Forensic Readiness Planning approach that learns from experience gained within the business, emphasizes the importance of being prepared for a wide range of potential incidents by leveraging lessons learned from past experiences. This approach helps in continuously improving forensic readiness and response capabilities by adapting to the evolving threat landscape and organizational changes.

The vulnerability exploited by Clark through tampering with form and parameter values to gain unauthorized access to information assets is indicative of Broken Access Control. Broken Access Control vulnerabilities occur when a web application does not properly enforce restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do. Attackers can exploit these vulnerabilities to access unauthorized functionality or data, such as accessing other users' accounts, viewing sensitive files, and modifying other users’ data.

In the risk assessment process, calculating the probability that a threat source will exploit an existing system vulnerability is known as likelihood analysis. This step involves evaluating how probable it is that the organization's vulnerabilities can be exploited by potential threats, considering various factors such as the nature of the vulnerability, the presence and capability of threat actors, and the effectiveness of current controls. Elizabeth's task of assessing the probability of exploitation is crucial for understanding the risk level associated with different vulnerabilities and for prioritizing risk mitigation efforts based on the likelihood of occurrence.

A TCP Xmas scan is a type of network scanning technique used by attackers to identify open ports on a target machine. The name "Xmas" comes from the set of flags that are turned on within the packet, making it 'lit up like a Christmas tree'. Specifically, the FIN, PSH, and URG flags are set, which corresponds to the hexadecimal value 0X029 in the TCP header's flags field. Wireshark, a popular network protocol analyzer, allows users to create custom filters to detect specific types of network traffic, including malicious scanning attempts. By using the filtertcp.flags==0X029, Rose can detect packets that have these specific flags set, indicating a potential TCP Xmas scan attempt.

A negligent insider is an individual within an organization who, due to a lack of knowledge on security threats or in an attempt to increase workplace efficiency, inadvertently bypasses security procedures or makes errors that compromise security. This type of insider threat is not malicious in intent; rather, it stems from carelessness, oversight, or a lack of proper security training. Such insiders might click on phishing links, mishandle sensitive information, or use unsecured networks for work-related tasks, thereby exposing the organization to potential security breaches. This contrasts with compromised insiders (who are manipulated by external parties), professional insiders (who misuse their access for personal gain), and malicious insiders (who intentionally aim to harm the organization).

Autopsy is a digital forensics platform and graphical interface to The Sleuth Kit and other digital forensics tools. It is used by law enforcement, military, and corporate examiners to investigate what happened on a computer. Autopsy enables incident handlers to view the file system, retrieve deleted data, perform timeline analysis, and analyze web artifacts, among other functionalities. This tool is particularly useful during the incident response process for conducting in-depth investigations into the nature of a security incident, identifying the methods used by attackers, and recovering lost or compromised data.

If a hacker influences an employee or a disgruntled staff member to gain access to an organization's resources or sensitive information, this is classified as an insider attack. Insider attacks are perpetrated by individuals within the organization, such as employees, contractors, or business associates, who have inside information concerning the organization's security practices, data, and computer systems. The threat from insiders can be intentional, as in the case of a disgruntled employee seeking to harm the organization, or unintentional, where an employee is manipulated or coerced by external parties without realizing the implications of their actions. Phishing attacks, footprinting, and identity theft represent different types of cybersecurity threats where the attacker's method or objective differs from that of insider attacks.

The scenario described is characteristic of a Trojan. A Trojan is a type of malware that disguises itself as legitimate software but performs malicious actions once installed. Unlike viruses, which can replicate themselves, or worms, which can spread across networks on their own, Trojans rely on the guise of legitimacy to trick users into initiating their execution. In this case, the user believed they were downloading and installing genuine software, but the reality was that the application contained a Trojan. The malicious code executed upon installation provided unauthorized remote access to the user's computer, which could be used by an attacker to control the system, steal data, install additional malware, or carry out other malicious activities.

Trojans can come in many forms and can be used to achieve a wide range of malicious objectives, making them a versatile and dangerous type of cyber threat. The deceptive nature of Trojans, exploiting the trust users have in what appears to be legitimate software, is what makes them particularly effective and widespread.

Static analysis involves examining the malware's memory dumps or binary codes without executing the code. This technique is used to find traces of malware by analyzing the code to understand its purpose, functionality, and potential impact. Static analysis allows for the identification of malicious signatures, strings, or other indicators of compromise within the malware's code. This method is contrasted with dynamic analysis, which studies the malware's behavior during execution, live system analysis, which examines running systems, and intrusion analysis, which focuses on detecting and analyzing breaches.

Splunk is a powerful tool for log analysis, capable of collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data from various sources in real time. For an incident handler like Drake, intending to detect traces of malicious activities within the network infrastructure, Splunk can efficiently parse large volumes of log data, enabling the identification of patterns and anomalies that may indicate malware propagation or other security incidents. Its real-time analysis capabilities make it an ideal tool for monitoring network activities and responding to incidents promptly.

In the described attack, where attackers pose as legitimate access points (APs) by beaconing the WLAN's SSID to lure users, the attack is known as an Evil twin AP attack. This type of attack involves setting up a rogue AP with the same SSID as a legitimate wireless access point, making it appear as an authorized network to users. Unsuspecting users may connect to this malicious AP, allowing attackers to intercept sensitive information, conduct man-in-the-middle attacks, or distribute malware. The Evil twin AP attack exploits the trust users have in known SSIDs to compromise their security.

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a framework used to manage digital certificates and public-key encryption. It enables secure electronic transfer of information for a range of network activities such as e-commerce, internet banking, and confidential email. PKI is fundamental to the management of encryption keys and digital certificates, ensuring the secure exchange of data over networks and verification of identity.

Pharming is a cyber attack intended to redirect a website's traffic to another, bogus website. By poisoning a DNS server's cache, attackers can redirect users from the site they intended to visit to one that is malicious, without the user's knowledge or any action on their part, such as clicking a deceptive link. This technique is particularly insidious because it can affect well-intentioned users who type the correct URL into their browsers but are still redirected. War driving involves searching for wireless networks from a moving vehicle, skimming refers to stealing credit card information using a device placed on ATMs or point-of-sale terminals, and pretexting is a form of social engineering where the attacker lies to obtain privileged data.

Logging User IDs (D) can pose privacy concerns and may conflict with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which emphasizes the protection of personal data and privacy. Therefore, while logging details such as Timestamps, Session IDs, and Source IP addresses are essential for security auditing to track when events occur, who is initiating sessions, and from where, care must be taken with User IDs. The handling of personally identifiable information (PII) must comply with privacy laws and organizational policies to safeguard individual privacy rights.

Alert Logic is a cloud-based security tool that provides Security-as-a-Service solutions including threat management, vulnerability assessment, and improved security outcomes. It is designed specifically to secure cloud resources and services, making it an ideal choice for organizations like Sam Morison Inc. that are moving their operations to the cloud and are concerned about the security of their data. Tools like Nmap, Burp Suite, and Wireshark, while valuable in certain contexts, do not offer the same cloud-focused security capabilities as Alert Logic.

In the context of incident handling and response (IH&R), the preparation phase is the initial step where teams and resources are organized to effectively respond to potential security incidents. This phase involves building the IH&R team, developing incident response plans and policies, setting up communication channels, and ensuring that the team has the necessary tools and authority to act. James, being assigned to build an IH&R plan and organize his team, is engaging in the preparation step of the incident response process. This foundational step is crucial for ensuring a coordinated and efficient response to incidents when they occur.

System characterization is the process of defining the boundaries of an IT system, which includes identifying the resources, information, and functionality that constitute the system. This process is crucial for understanding the scope of the system, the data it processes, and the technology it employs. By characterizing a system, incident handlers can better understand the system's normal operations and behaviors, which is essential for identifying anomalies that may indicate a security incident. System characterization involves documenting the hardware, software, network configuration, data flows, and other critical elements of the IT environment. This foundational knowledge supports effective incident handling by providing a baseline against which suspicious activities can be compared.

In the scenario where your company sells Software as a Service (SaaS) and is hosted on the cloud using it as a Platform as a Service (PaaS), your company is responsible for eradicating malware in your customer's database. This is because, as the SaaS provider, your company manages the software and is responsible for its security and maintenance, including the databases that store customer data. While the PaaS provider is responsible for the underlying infrastructure, platform, and possibly some middleware security aspects, the application layer security, including data and application management, falls to the SaaS provider. Building management would not be involved in digital security matters, and while customers are responsible for their data, the actual software maintenance and security in a SaaS model are the provider's responsibility.

The statement "Do not download or execute applications from trusted sources" is incorrect and not considered a good practice for maintaining information security and eradicating malware incidents. In contrast, downloading or executing applications from trusted sources is a fundamental security best practice. Trusted sources are vetted and are generally considered safe for downloading software, updates, and applications. This practice helps to minimize the risk of introducing malware into the organizational environment. The other options (A, B, C) represent good practices that help in reducing the likelihood of malware infections by avoiding potentially harmful actions.

An inappropriate usage incident involves misuse of the organization's resources or violations of its acceptable use policies. Sam's actions, where he sends emails to third-party organizations with a spoofed email address of his employer, constitute misuse of the organization's email system and misrepresentation of the organization. This behavior can harm the organization's reputation, violate policy, and potentially lead to legal consequences. Inappropriate usage incidents can range from unauthorized use of systems for personal gain to the dissemination of unapproved content.

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is a primary source for cloud computing standards and guidelines, the five main actors in cloud computing are Consumer, Provider, Carrier, Auditor, and Broker. These roles are defined as follows:

Consumer: The person or organization that uses cloud computing services.

Provider: The entity that provides the cloud services to consumers.

Carrier: The organization that offers connectivity and transport services to cloud providers and consumers.

Auditor: An independent party that assesses and verifies the cloud services, security controls, and operations.

Broker: An entity that manages the use, performance, and delivery of cloud services, and negotiates relationships between cloud providers and consumers.

These actors play critical roles in the ecosystem of cloud computing, ensuring the services are delivered and used securely, efficiently, and effectively.

Risk assessment is the risk management process that involves identifying risks, estimating their impact on the organization, and determining the sources of those risks to recommend appropriate mitigation measures. The goal of a risk assessment is to understand the nature of potential threats, vulnerabilities, and the consequences of those risks materializing, allowing an organization to make informed decisions about how to address them effectively. Risk assumption involves accepting the potential impact of a risk, risk mitigation focuses on reducing the likelihood or impact of risks, and risk avoidance involves taking actions to avoid the risk entirely.

In the incident handling and response (IH&R) process, backing up the data on affected systems is a critical step that usually falls under the Containment phase. The Containment phase is crucial for limiting the scope and severity of an incident, ensuring that it does not spread further or affect additional systems. Backing up affected systems during containment is essential for several reasons: it preserves a snapshot of the system in its current state for forensic analysis, ensures that data is not lost if the system needs to be wiped or altered during the response process, and helps in the recovery process if data is corrupted or lost.

By performing a complete backup of the infected system during the Containment phase, Alice ensures that there is a reliable copy of all data and system states before any major actions, such as eradication or deeper forensic analysis, are taken. This step is also preparatory for the potential use of the backup in analyzing how the incident occurred and in restoring system functionality after the incident is resolved.

The Slowloris attack is a type of application-layer attack that targets the web server by establishing and maintaining many simultaneous HTTP connections to the target server. Unlike traditional network-layer DoS/DDoS attacks such as UDP flood or SYN flood, Slowloris is designed to hold as many connections to the target web server open for as long as possible. It does so by sending partial requests, which are never completed, and periodically sending subsequent HTTP headers to keep the connections open. This consumes the server's resources, leading to denial of service as legitimate users cannot establish connections. The Slowloris attack is effective even against servers with a high bandwidth because it targets the server's connection pool, not its network bandwidth.

In the context of incident handling, the "point of contact" list is essential for ensuring that Sheila, the incident handler working at night, can quickly notify the responsible personnel within the organization about the cyberattack. This list typically includes the contact information of key stakeholders and decision-makers who need to be informed about security incidents, allowing for timely communication, decision-making, and response coordination.

In Wireshark, to identify ICMP ping sweep attempts, the filtericmp.type == 8 or icmp.type ==0is used. This filter captures ICMP echo requests and echo replies, which are indicative of ping commands. Type 8 represents an echo request used when a source sends a ping, and type 0 represents an echo reply, which is the response from the target. By filtering for these ICMP types, Miko can detect a surge in ping requests across the network, which could indicate a ping sweep attempt—an exploratory activity often used by attackers to discover active hosts on a network by sending ping requests to multiple addresses.

BinText is a lightweight text extraction tool that can be used to perform string search analysis within binary files. This functionality is crucial for incident handlers like Jason, who are tasked with analyzing memory dumps for malicious activity or indicators of compromise. By searching for specific strings or patterns that are known to be associated with malware, BinText helps in identifying potentially harmful actions that a program could perform, thus aiding in the investigation of malware incidents.

One of the key approaches to mitigating insider threats is ensuring that access control policies are strictly implemented and monitored. This includes the guideline that access granted to users should be thoroughly documented and vetted by a supervisor. This control helps ensure that users have only the access necessary to perform their job functions, reducing the risk of inappropriate access or misuse of information. Proper documentation and supervisor approval also ensure accountability and traceability of access decisions, which is crucial for detecting and responding to insider threats. The human resources department plays a vital role in this process, working closely with IT and security teams to enforce access control policies, conduct regular reviews of access rights, and manage the onboarding and offboarding process to ensure that access rights are appropriately updated.

Omnipeek is a network analyzer tool that allows for the capture and analysis of data packets transmitted across a network. It is designed to provide deep insights into network traffic, enabling users to examine various aspects of the data packets, including network protocols, ports, devices, and potential issues in network transmission. This tool would be ideal for Chandler, who is targeting the Technote organization with the intent of intercepting and analyzing network traffic to obtain sensitive organizational information. Omnipeek's capabilities in packet analysis make it suitable for such activities, offering detailed visibility into the network's operation and data flows.

The GPG18 and Forensic readiness planning (SPF) principles outline various guidelines to enhance an organization's readiness for forensic investigation and response. Principle 5, which suggests that organizations should adopt a scenario-based Forensic Readiness Planning approach that learns from experience gained within the business, emphasizes the importance of being prepared for a wide range of potential incidents by leveraging lessons learned from past experiences. This approach helps in continuously improving forensic readiness and response capabilities by adapting to the evolving threat landscape and organizational changes.

Thenetstat -abcommand is useful in Windows operating systems for displaying all connections and listening ports, along with the executable involved in creating each connection or listening port. This can be particularly valuable for an incident responder like James when attempting to determine which processes are running on a system and how they are communicating over the network. This information can help identify malicious processes, unauthorized connections, or other signs of compromise on the system. Whilenetstat -abdoes not exclusively list executable files for running processes, it ties processes to network activity, which is a critical part of collecting volatile information during a cybersecurity incident investigation.

Anti-forensics refers to techniques used to hinder the forensic analysis of a computer system. By hiding files in slack space, changing file headers, embedding suspicious files in executables, and altering metadata, BadGuy Bob is attempting to make it difficult for forensic analysts to find, analyze, and attribute the malicious activities and data on his laptop. These actions are designed to conceal evidence, manipulate digital artifacts, and obstruct investigations, making them clear examples of anti-forensic techniques. While such actions could be part of broader criminal activities, constituting a felony, and could be seen as adversarial mechanics or legal hostility in specific contexts, the most accurate classification of these techniques is anti-forensics.

In the context of information security, the Incident Manager (IM) plays a crucial role in handling incidents from both a management and technical perspective. The Incident Manager is responsible for overseeing the entire incident response process, coordinating with relevant stakeholders, ensuring that incidents are analyzed, contained, and eradicated efficiently, and that recovery processes are initiated promptly. They are pivotal in ensuring communication flows smoothly between technical teams and upper management and that all actions taken are aligned with the organization's broader security policies and objectives. Unlike network administrators, threat researchers, or forensic investigators who may play more specialized roles within the incident response process, the Incident Manager has a broad oversight role that encompasses both technical and managerial aspects to ensure a comprehensive and coordinated response to security incidents.

Auditing the system and network log files is a crucial step in the incident triage phase of the incident response and handling process. During incident triage, incident handlers assess and prioritize incidents based on their severity, impact, and the urgency of the response required. Part of this assessment involves reviewing log files to understand the nature of the incident, its scope, and the systems or networks affected. This information helps in categorizing the incident and deciding on the appropriate response actions. Unlike containment, which aims to limit the damage, incident disclosure, which involves communicating about the incident, or incident eradication, which focuses on removing the threat, incident triage is about evaluating and prioritizing the incident based on detailed log analysis among other factors.

James's activities, including creating anonymous access to cloud services to carry out attacks such as password and key cracking, hosting malicious data, and conducting DDoS attacks, exemplify the abuse and nefarious use of cloud services. This threat involves exploiting cloud computing resources to conduct malicious activities, which can impact the cloud service provider as well as other users of the cloud services. This abuse ranges from using the cloud platform's resources for computationally intensive tasks like cracking passwords or encryption keys to conducting DDoS attacks that can disrupt services for legitimate users.

MxToolbox is a comprehensive tool designed for analyzing email headers and diagnosing various email delivery issues. When Francis received a spoofed email asking for his bank information, using MxToolbox to analyze the email headers would be appropriate. This tool helps in examining the source of the email, tracking the email's path across the internet from the sender to the receiver, and identifying any signs of email spoofing or malicious activity. It provides detailed information about the email servers encountered along the way and can help in verifying the authenticity of the email sender. Other options like EventLog Analyzer, Email Checker, and PoliteMail are tools used for different purposes such as analyzing system event logs, checking email address validity, and managing email communications, respectively, and do not specifically focus on analyzing email headers to the extent required for investigating a spoofed email incident.

In the practice of digital forensics and incident handling, evidence bags play a crucial role in preserving the integrity and chain of custody of physical and digital evidence. The information typically included in the documentation on evidence bags encompasses the date and time of seizure, which provides a timestamp for when the evidence was collected; the exhibit number, which is a unique identifier assigned to each piece of evidence for tracking and reference purposes; and the name of the incident responder or individual who collected the evidence, ensuring accountability and traceability. This documentation is essential for maintaining the chain of custody, a critical element in legal proceedings, as it helps establish the evidence's authenticity and integrity by detailing its handling from collection to presentation in court. Options A, B, and C describe types of digital evidence but are not directly related to the content typically documented on evidence bags.

The Delmont organization faced an espionage incident, which involves the unauthorized access and theft of proprietary or confidential information for passing it onto competitors or other external entities. Espionage is targeted at obtaining secrets or intellectual property to gain a competitive advantage or for other strategic purposes. Unlike network and resource abuses or email-based abuse, which might not specifically target sensitive information, espionage directly aims at stealing valuable data. Unauthorized access is a method that could be used in an espionage attempt but does not fully capture the motive of passing stolen information to competitors.

Disabling security options such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and CAPTCHA is not a countermeasure to eradicate cloud security incidents. In fact, it is contrary to best security practices. 2FA adds an additional layer of security by requiring two forms of verification before granting access to an account or system. CAPTCHA helps prevent automated attacks by ensuring that the entity accessing the service is human. Both are important security measures that protect against unauthorized access and automated attacks, thereby enhancing cloud security.

The port scanning technique that involves resetting the TCP connection between the client and server abruptly before the completion of the three-way handshake, thereby leaving the connection half-open, is known as a Stealth scan (also referred to as a SYN scan). This technique allows the scanner to inquire about the status of a port without establishing a full TCP connection, making the scan less detectible to intrusion detection systems and less likely to be logged by the target. It's a method used to discreetly discover open ports on a target machine without establishing a full connection that would be visible in logs.

James is working on the post-incident activities stage of the Incident Handling and Response (IH&R) process. After containing the spread of the infection and removing the malware, the focus shifts to assessing the impact of the incident on the organization and preparing a detailed report. This phase involves analyzing the extent of the damage, determining the cost of the attack, evaluating how well the incident was managed, and identifying lessons learned to improve future response efforts. The objective is to restore systems to normal operation, ensure no remnants of the threat remain, and implement measures to prevent recurrence.

Leaving sensitive business details over voicemail or sending them out through email broadcast messages is not a best practice for security. This approach significantly increases the risk of information leakage and unauthorized access to critical business information. Such practices can be exploited by insiders to conduct malicious activities, including data theft, fraud, or sabotage. The best practices for mitigating insider threats involve implementing strict access controls, monitoring and auditing employee actions, securing communications, and ensuring that sensitive information is only shared through secure and authorized channels. Encouraging or allowing the practice of leaving sensitive business details in such insecure manners contradicts the principles of information security and increases the vulnerability to insider attacks.