Information Technology Specialist (ITS) Cybersecurity Practice Exam

An attacker targets all hosts on a network segment by sending traffic to a specific port. Which scanning technique is being utilized?

1. Vertical scan

2. Sweep scan

3. Horizontal scan

4. Selective scan

The correct answer is: Sweep scan

The situation described involves an attacker sending traffic to all hosts on a network segment while targeting a specific port. This scanning technique is known as a sweep scan, where the primary focus is to scan a range of IP addresses (all hosts) to determine if the specified port is open, closed, or filtered. A sweep scan allows attackers to efficiently identify which machines are active and responsive on the network, as well as the status of their ports, without needing to scan each machine individually for multiple ports. This can provide a broad stroke assessment of the entire segment, revealing potential vulnerabilities or exploitable services on each host. The importance of this technique in cybersecurity is significant, as it helps in understanding the landscape of a network, especially during vulnerability assessments or penetration tests. Through the information gathered in a sweep scan, further targeted attacks may be planned based on the services running on the detected hosts.