20 Security Audit Interview Questions and Answers

A security audit is a process by which an organization’s security posture is evaluated. A security audit can be performed by an internal team or by an external consultant. During a security audit interview, you will be asked questions about your experience with security audits and your knowledge of security best practices. Answering these questions confidently can help you impress the hiring manager and earn the position.

Security Audit Interview Questions and Answers

Here are 20 commonly asked Security Audit interview questions and answers to prepare you for your interview:

1. What is a Security Audit?

A security audit is an assessment of an organization’s security posture, typically conducted by an external party. The audit will assess the effectiveness of the security controls in place and make recommendations for improvement.

2. What are some of the common security threats that you’ve encountered in your career?

There are many common security threats that I have encountered in my career, but some of the most common include SQL injection attacks, cross-site scripting attacks, and denial of service attacks.

3. Why do you think it’s important to conduct regular security audits?

Regular security audits are important because they help ensure that your system is secure and that any potential vulnerabilities are identified and addressed in a timely manner. By conducting regular audits, you can help prevent security breaches and protect your data.

4. Can you explain what an audit trail is? How can they be used to maintain data integrity and accountability?

An audit trail is a record of all the steps that were taken in order to complete a task. This can be used to verify that all the steps were completed correctly, and in the correct order. Audit trails can also be used to track who completed what steps, and when they were completed. This is important for maintaining data integrity and accountability.

5. What are some of the most common types of security auditing tools?

Some of the most common types of security auditing tools are penetration testing tools, vulnerability scanners, and security configuration management tools. Penetration testing tools are used to test the security of a system by simulating an attack. Vulnerability scanners are used to identify potential security vulnerabilities in a system. Security configuration management tools are used to manage the security settings of a system and can be used to auditing purposes.

6. What are the common steps involved when conducting a security audit on a new application or system?

There are a few key steps that are typically involved when conducting a security audit. The first step is to identify the security risks that are associated with the application or system. This can be done through a variety of means, such as reviewing the code, interviewing stakeholders, or conducting a penetration test. Once the risks have been identified, the next step is to create a plan for mitigating those risks. This plan will often involve implementing security controls, such as encryption or access control measures. Finally, the security audit team will typically test the application or system to ensure that the controls are effective and that the risks have been properly mitigated.

7. How did you go about prioritizing which issues were critical for resolution?

By understanding the business processes and data flows associated with the application, I was able to prioritize which issues were critical for resolution. I also took into account the sensitivity of the data and the potential impact of a security breach.

8. What types of documents should we review as part of our security audit process?

As part of our security audit process, we should review all documents that contain sensitive information. This includes, but is not limited to, financial documents, customer information, employee records, and company plans. By reviewing these documents, we can ensure that they are properly secured and that only authorized personnel have access to them.

9. Do you know how to use any bug tracking software like Jira, Bugzilla, etc.? If yes, then please give me an example where you used one.

Yes, I have used bug tracking software before. For example, when I was working on a project to create a new website for my company, I used Jira to track all of the bugs that I found so that I could fix them later. This helped me to keep track of all of the different issues that I needed to address and made sure that I didn’t forget about any of them.

10. Which databases support SQL injection attacks?

Any database that supports SQL can be vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. This includes popular databases such as MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and PostgreSQL.

11. What is the best way to prevent privilege escalation attacks?

The best way to prevent privilege escalation attacks is to ensure that all users have the least amount of privileges necessary to perform their tasks. This means that users should only have access to the files and resources that they need to do their jobs, and nothing more. Additionally, it is important to keep all systems and software up to date, as privilege escalation attacks often exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software.

12. What is a Cross-site request forgery attack? How can this kind of attack be prevented?

A cross-site request forgery attack is when a malicious user tricks a victim into submitting a request to a website that they are already authenticated with. This can be done by tricking the user into clicking on a link, or by embedding a request in an image or other element that the user loads. The attacker then has access to the victim’s account on the website.

To prevent this kind of attack, it is important to ensure that all requests made to a website are authenticated. This can be done by using a token-based authentication system, or by only allowing requests to be made from specific trusted IP addresses.

13. What are the different methods of preventing cross-site scripting attacks?

There are a few different methods of preventing cross-site scripting attacks, but the most common are input validation and output encoding. Input validation is the process of ensuring that only valid data is allowed into the system, while output encoding is the process of ensuring that any data that is outputted is properly encoded so that it can’t be executed as code.

14. What do you understand about denial of service attacks? What are the main ways to defend against them?

Denial of service attacks are a type of attack where the attacker attempts to overload a system with requests, so that legitimate users are unable to access the system. There are a few ways to defend against denial of service attacks, including rate limiting, which limits the number of requests that a user can make in a given period of time, and filtering, which blocks requests that appear to be coming from malicious sources.

15. What is social engineering?

Social engineering is a type of security attack that relies on tricking people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that they should not. This can be done in person, over the phone, or online. Common social engineering attacks include phishing emails and fake websites that look like they are from a legitimate company or organization.

16. What is brute force login? How is it performed?

A brute force login attack is a type of attack where a hacker tries to gain access to a system by trying to guess the username and password. This can be done by trying common username and password combinations, or by using a dictionary of words to try and guess the password.

17. What is session hijacking?

Session hijacking is a type of cyber attack where the attacker takes control of a user’s session by stealing their session ID. This can be done in a number of ways, such as through a man-in-the-middle attack or by simply guessing the session ID. Once the attacker has control of the session, they can then do anything that the user can do, including accessing sensitive information or making purchases.

18. What is phishing?

Phishing is a type of online fraud that involves tricking people into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers. The fraudsters typically pose as a trustworthy entity in an email or other online communication, and then try to get the victim to click on a link or attachment that will install malware or take them to a fake website where they are prompted to enter sensitive information.

19. What is cryptography? Is there any difference between encryption and decryption?

Cryptography is the practice of secure communication in the presence of third parties. Encryption is the process of transforming readable data into an unreadable format, while decryption is the reverse process of transforming unreadable data back into a readable format.

20. Name three major cryptographic algorithms.

The three major cryptographic algorithms are RSA, Diffie-Hellman, and ElGamal.