Which of the following is a method of multiplexing data where a communication channel is divided into an arbitrary number of variable bit-rate digital channels or data streams. This method allocates bandwidth dynamically to physical channels having information to transmit?
Correct Answer: C
Statistical multiplexing is a type of communication link sharing, very similar to dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA). In statistical multiplexing, a communication channel is divided into an arbitrary number of variable bit-rate digital channels or data streams. The link sharing is adapted to the instantaneous traffic demands of the data streams that are transferred over each channel. This is an alternative to creating a fixed sharing of a link, such as in general time division multiplexing (TDM) and frequency division multiplexing (FDM). When performed correctly, statistical multiplexing can provide a link utilization improvement, called the statistical multiplexing gain. Generally, the methods for multiplexing data include the following : Time-division multiplexing (TDM): information from each data channel is allocated bandwidth based on pre-assigned time slots, regardless of whether there is data to transmit. Time-division multiplexing is used primarily for digital signals, but may be applied in analog multiplexing in which two or more signals or bit streams are transferred appearing simultaneously as sub-channels in one communication channel, but are physically taking turns on the channel. The time domain is divided into several recurrent time slots of fixed length, one for each sub-channel. A sample byte or data block of sub-channel 1 is transmitted during time slot 1, sub-channel 2 during time slot 2, etc. One TDM frame consists of one time slot per sub-channel plus a synchronization channel and sometimes error correction channel before the synchronization. After the last sub-channel, error correction, and synchronization, the cycle starts all over again with a new frame, starting with the second sample, byte or data block from sub-channel 1, etc. Asynchronous time-division multiplexing (ATDM): information from data channels is allocated bandwidth as needed, via dynamically assigned time slots. ATM provides functionality that is similar to both circuit switching and packet switching networks: ATM uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and encodes data into small, fixed-sized packets (ISO-OSI frames) called cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that use variable sized packets and frames. ATM uses a connection-oriented model in which a virtual circuit must be established between two endpoints before the actual data exchange begins. These virtual circuits may be "permanent", i.e. dedicated connections that are usually preconfigured by the service provider, or "switched", i.e. set up on a per-call basis using signalling and disconnected when the call is terminated. Frequency division multiplexing (FDM): information from each data channel is allocated bandwidth based on the signal frequency of the traffic. In telecommunications, frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) is a technique by which the total bandwidth available in a communication medium is divided into a series of non-overlapping frequency sub-bands, each of which is used to carry a separate signal. This allows a single transmission medium such as the radio spectrum, a cable or optical fiber to be shared by many signals. Reference used for this question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_multiplexing and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_division_multiplexing and Information Systems Audit and Control Association, Certified Information Systems Auditor 2002 review manual, Chapter 3: Technical Infrastructure and Operational Practices (page 114).
Question 307
What is called the standard format that was established to set up and manage Security Associations (SA) on the Internet in IPSec?
Correct Answer: D
Reference: pg 221 Krutz
Question 308
In an online transaction processing system (OLTP), which of the following actions should be taken when erroneous or invalid transactions are detected?
Correct Answer: C
In an online transaction processing system (OLTP) all transactions are recorded as they occur. When erroneous or invalid transactions are detected the transaction can be recovered by reviewing the logs. As explained in the ISC2 OIG: OLTP is designed to record all of the business transactions of an organization as they occur. It is a data processing system facilitating and managing transaction-oriented applications. These are characterized as a system used by many concurrent users who are actively adding and modifying data to effectively change real-time data. OLTP environments are frequently found in the finance, telecommunications, insurance, retail, transportation, and travel industries. For example, airline ticket agents enter data in the database in real-time by creating and modifying travel reservations, and these are increasingly joined by users directly making their own reservations and purchasing tickets through airline company Web sites as well as discount travel Web site portals. Therefore, millions of people may be accessing the same flight database every day, and dozens of people may be looking at a specific flight at the same time. The security concerns for OLTP systems are concurrency and atomicity. Concurrency controls ensure that two users cannot simultaneously change the same data, or that one user cannot make changes before another user is finished with it. In an airline ticket system, it is critical for an agent processing a reservation to complete the transaction, especially if it is the last seat available on the plane. Atomicity ensures that all of the steps involved in the transaction complete successfully. If one step should fail, then the other steps should not be able to complete. Again, in an airline ticketing system, if the agent does not enter a name into the name data field correctly, the transaction should not be able to complete. OLTP systems should act as a monitoring system and detect when individual processes abort, automatically restart an aborted process, back out of a transaction if necessary, allow distribution of multiple copies of application servers across machines, and perform dynamic load balancing. A security feature uses transaction logs to record information on a transaction before it is processed, and then mark it as processed after it is done. If the system fails during the transaction, the transaction can be recovered by reviewing the transaction logs. Checkpoint restart is the process of using the transaction logs to restart the machine by running through the log to the last checkpoint or good transaction. All transactions following the last checkpoint are applied before allowing users to access the data again. Wikipedia has nice coverage on what is OLTP: Online transaction processing, or OLTP, refers to a class of systems that facilitate and manage transaction-oriented applications, typically for data entry and retrieval transaction processing. The term is somewhat ambiguous; some understand a "transaction" in the context of computer or database transactions, while others (such as the Transaction Processing Performance Council) define it in terms of business or commercial transactions. OLTP has also been used to refer to processing in which the system responds immediately to user requests. An automatic teller machine (ATM) for a bank is an example of a commercial transaction processing application. The technology is used in a number of industries, including banking, airlines, mailorder, supermarkets, and manufacturing. Applications include electronic banking, order processing, employee time clock systems, e-commerce, and eTrading. There are two security concerns for OLTP system: Concurrency and Atomicity ATOMICITY In database systems, atomicity (or atomicness) is one of the ACID transaction properties. In an atomic transaction, a series of database operations either all occur, or nothing occurs. A guarantee of atomicity prevents updates to the database occurring only partially, which can cause greater problems than rejecting the whole series outright. The etymology of the phrase originates in the Classical Greek concept of a fundamental and indivisible component; see atom. An example of atomicity is ordering an airline ticket where two actions are required: payment, and a seat reservation. The potential passenger must either: both pay for and reserve a seat; OR neither pay for nor reserve a seat. The booking system does not consider it acceptable for a customer to pay for a ticket without securing the seat, nor to reserve the seat without payment succeeding. CONCURRENCY Database concurrency controls ensure that transactions occur in an ordered fashion. The main job of these controls is to protect transactions issued by different users/applications from the effects of each other. They must preserve the four characteristics of database transactions ACID test: Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability. Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACID for more details on the ACID test. Thus concurrency control is an essential element for correctness in any system where two database transactions or more, executed with time overlap, can access the same data, e.g., virtually in any general-purpose database system. A well established concurrency control theory exists for database systems: serializability theory, which allows to effectively design and analyze concurrency control methods and mechanisms. Concurrency is not an issue in itself, it is the lack of proper concurrency controls that makes it a serious issue. The following answers are incorrect: The transactions should be dropped from processing. Is incorrect because the transactions are processed and when erroneous or invalid transactions are detected the transaction can be recovered by reviewing the logs. The transactions should be processed after the program makes adjustments. Is incorrect because the transactions are processed and when erroneous or invalid transactions are detected the transaction can be recovered by reviewing the logs. The transactions should be corrected and reprocessed. Is incorrect because the transactions are processed and when erroneous or invalid transactions are detected the transaction can be recovered by reviewing the logs. References: Hernandez CISSP, Steven (2012-12-21). Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK, Third Edition ((ISC)2 Press) (Kindle Locations 12749-12768). Auerbach Publications. Kindle Edition. and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_transaction_processing and http://databases.about.com/od/administration/g/concurrency.htm
Question 309
What are database views used for?
Correct Answer: C
Through the use of a view we can provide security for the organization restricting users access to certain data or to the real tables containing the information in our database. For example, we can create a view that brings data from 3 tables, only showing 2 of the 4 columns in each. Instead of giving access to the tables that contain the information, we give access to the view, so the user can access this fixed information but does not have privileges over the tables containing it. This provides security.
Question 310
What does the Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD) determine?
