220-1102 Question 439
Single answerDumpster divingA technician discovers that an attacker obtained printed network diagrams and a page containing employee usernames from the company's outside trash bin. Management asks for the most effective control to reduce the risk of this happening again. Which action should the technician recommend?
- A
Require employees to shred sensitive paper documents before disposal
- B
Enable full-disk encryption on all company laptops
- C
Configure the firewall to block inbound ICMP traffic
- D
Implement a screen lock policy after 5 minutes of inactivity
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The scenario describes dumpster diving, a physical security and social engineering threat covered in CompTIA A+ Core 2 objectives. The best mitigation is to prevent sensitive information from being recoverable after disposal, typically by shredding documents and following secure disposal policies. Organizations commonly pair this with clean desk policies, locked shred bins, and user security awareness training. Best practices from security frameworks and organizational policies consistently emphasize proper media and document disposal to protect confidential information. The key exam skill is matching the control to the threat: paper records in trash are best addressed through secure disposal procedures, not network or endpoint controls.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Dumpster diving is a physical social engineering tactic in which attackers search discarded materials for useful information such as network diagrams, usernames, phone lists, and account details. Shredding sensitive paper before disposal is a direct and effective mitigation because it makes recovered documents unreadable and significantly reduces the value of trash as an information source.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Full-disk encryption is an important control for protecting data on lost or stolen devices, but it does not address the specific risk described here: attackers retrieving printed information from trash. Someone might choose this because it is a strong general security measure, but it does not mitigate dumpster diving involving paper records.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Blocking inbound ICMP traffic is a network hardening step related to limiting certain types of scanning or troubleshooting traffic. It has no meaningful impact on an attacker physically searching discarded documents. This distractor is plausible because firewall changes are common security recommendations, but it does not match the threat in the scenario.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Screen lock policies help prevent unauthorized access to unattended systems and reduce shoulder surfing risk, but they do not protect paper documents thrown away in the trash. A candidate might select this because it is a valid security policy control, yet it addresses a different threat vector.