topic Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data? in CC Study Group

What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

CyberGuardian99 — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 18:04:58 GMT

- Phishing attacks

- Ransomware attacks

- Man-in-the-middle attacks

- DDoS attacks?

I thought the answer to this would be Ransomware attacks and DDoS attacks but this was wrong.

What would be correct answer and why would Ransomware not be considered a right answer?

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

dcontesti — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 22:14:59 GMT

What is the source of the question? Is this from ISC2 or somewhere else.

I believe the author is splitting hairs (old saying) here.

Both Ransomware and DDoS affect the availability. One by encrypting it and the other by crippling the server. With Ransomware the data is available just not usable. DDoS cripples the server and you cannot access the data. Both effectively make the data unavailable to the user.

If a question from ISC2 then I suggest you send an errata to them.

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

Skylark1507 — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 04:28:05 GMT

The correct answer is DDoS attack. Ransomware compromises the integrity of the Data.

Cheers!

Skylark

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

CyberGuardian99 — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 11:39:52 GMT

Thank you for your explanation!

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

nkeaton — Sun, 12 Jan 2025 12:30:30 GMT

Agree but ransomware could effect availability but might not as well. DDoS is definitely the best answer. Very true on integrity of the data but doesn’t get mentioned enough.

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

sezydenoma — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 13:35:52 GMT

DDoS attack is the correct answer.

You only need to pick 1 response.

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

denbesten — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 19:39:07 GMT

@sezydenoma wrote:
DDoS attack is the correct answer.
You only need to pick 1 response.

There may be many "correct" answers, but there is only one "best" answer. You need to pick the one that is best. Or in some cases, one needs to pick the one that is "least wrong".

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

Ceres — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 05:47:03 GMT

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

dcontesti — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 16:18:42 GMT

We still do not know where the question came from, With two potentially correct answers, it is a trick question.

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

school4real — Sun, 28 Sep 2025 15:11:58 GMT

DDoS attack hinders the availability of data

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

CyberGuardian99 — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 07:35:54 GMT

This is from Chat GPT. Its initial response was DDOS is the correct answer. I mentioned that the correct answer (as per above from @Ceres ) is actually Ransomware attacks. It then advised the correct answer is Ransomware attacks and gives below reasoning.

I guess as ChatGPT advises, the reason that the correct answer is Ransomware attacks is because this targets the availability of data by encrypting files and making them inaccessible until a ransom is paid. While DDoS attacks target the availability of systems or services (making a website/server unavailable), but not the data itself.

So it depends on wording:

Availability of data → Ransomware
Availability of systems/services → DDoS

Since the question specifically says availability of data, the correct answer is Ransomware attacks as per my understanding. Interested to see anyone else's thoughts on this?

Edit: came back to add to this after a while as I saw an email from someone responding in this thread 😊

Re: What type of cyber attack often targets the availability of data?

miqayelyan_1981 — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 07:01:26 GMT

phishing