Ethical Hacking Essentials Practice Test

Which attack retrieves information from an OT system using timing and power analysis?

1. Social engineering attack

2. Distributed denial-of-service attack

3. Side-channel attack

4. Bait and switch attack

The correct answer is: Side-channel attack

The correct choice involves a side-channel attack, which is a method of extracting information from a system by analyzing the physical effects of the computation processes, rather than exploiting a software vulnerability directly. In the context of operational technology (OT) systems, timing and power analysis are common techniques used in side-channel attacks. Timing analysis involves measuring the time taken for a system to respond to certain inputs. By carefully analyzing response times, an attacker can glean information about the system's internal state or the data being processed. Power analysis, on the other hand, involves monitoring the power consumption of a device during its operation. Variations in power usage can reflect the operations being carried out, allowing attackers to infer sensitive information such as cryptographic keys or system configurations. In contrast, the other types of attacks listed do not focus on retrieving information through such means. Social engineering attacks primarily exploit human psychology to manipulate individuals into compromising security. Distributed denial-of-service attacks aim to overwhelm systems with traffic, disrupting services without data retrieval. Bait and switch attacks involve misleading users into engaging with content that is not as advertised, typically to extract financial gain rather than information through analysis. Therefore, side-channel attacks stand out for their sophisticated use of physical characteristics of OT systems to gather sensitive information efficiently