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Which Physical Threat Is It?

Spike, brownout, blackout, unconditioned power or environment? Name the physical threat in each situation.

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

About this interactive

Equipment can be attacked over the network, but it can also simply be damaged where it sits, and that hurts availability as surely as an outage caused by a hacker. The lesson lists electrical threats first. A power spike is a sudden jump in voltage that lasts a fraction of a second, from lightning nearby, a large motor switching, or power coming back after an outage. A brownout is insufficient power: the supply stays on, but at a lower voltage than the equipment needs, for minutes or hours. A blackout is a power outage: no electricity at all. Unconditioned power is power that is on and at roughly the right level but full of noise and static from other equipment, because nothing cleans it before it reaches the servers. Then the environment: heat, humidity, water and fire threaten the equipment through the room around it. To sort a card, ask first whether the power itself is the problem. If it is, ask whether the voltage is too high for a moment, too low for a while, gone, or noisy.

What you'll learn

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+
3.4 Explain the importance of resilience and recovery in security architecture.
2.4 Given a scenario, analyze indicators of malicious activity.

Key terms

Brownout
A reduction in electrical voltage or power supply that can cause equipment to malfunction or shut down.
Blackout
A complete loss of electrical power to a facility or area, causing all connected equipment to lose power.
Availability
The assurance that systems and data are accessible and operational when needed by authorized users.

Topics

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