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Which Physical Vulnerability?

Adversary access, environment, failure, destruction or human error? Sort what happened to the hardware.

⚑ Complete this interactive to capture a CTF flag worth 5 points.

About this interactive

What you are doing: naming the category of physical vulnerability behind each event. Adversary access: someone gets to the equipment on purpose, to unplug it, sabotage it, take the network down, or steal data or the equipment itself. Environment: what the equipment depends on fails: power, cooling, or the internet connection. Failure: the hardware or the software itself stops working. Destruction: fire, earthquake or another natural disaster damages or destroys the site. Human error: someone with every right to be there makes a mistake, such as misconfiguring or unplugging physical equipment. The lesson ties these to the CIA triad. Theft can hit confidentiality, but most of these bring services down, so they are about availability, and that is still security. How to use it: ask what caused the event. A person meaning harm is adversary access; a person by accident is human error; a utility is the environment; the equipment itself is a failure; fire or disaster is destruction.

What you'll learn

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+
1.2 Summarize fundamental security concepts.
2.4 Given a scenario, analyze indicators of malicious activity.

Key terms

Physical Vulnerability
A weakness related to the physical environment or hardware that can expose IT systems to unauthorized access, damage, or disruption.
Availability
The assurance that systems and data are accessible and operational when needed by authorized users.
CIA Triad
The three core principles of information security: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.
Uninterruptible Power Supply
UPS
A battery-backed power device that provides continuous power to connected equipment during utility power outages or voltage fluctuations, allowing safe shutdown or continued operation. UPS units are essential for servers and critical infrastructure to prevent data loss.

Topics

Physical Vulnerability Availability Cia Triad Uninterruptible Power Supply Interactive Categorize

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