To determine the highest priority for remediation, we must compare the configuration of each VM against the three mandatory security requirements:
* No public IPs
* All data secured at rest (Encryption = Yes)
* No insecure ports/protocols (No unencrypted protocols like HTTP/Telnet)
1. Analyze the Compliance of VM_PRD_DB (Option A):
* Asset Type: Production Database (High Value Target).
* IP Config: public - > FAIL. (A production database should never be directly exposed to the internet; it should reside in a private subnet).
* Encryption: no - > FAIL. (Violates the " data secured at rest " policy).
* Ingress Port: 80 (HTTP) - > FAIL. (Port 80 is cleartext/unencrypted. Using an insecure protocol on a public interface puts data confidentiality at immediate risk).
* Conclusion: This asset violates all three security policies and exposes the organization ' s most critical data (Production DB) to the public internet via an insecure channel.
2. Why the other options are lower priority:
* B. VM_DEV_DB:
* It uses a private IP (Pass) and Port 443 (Secure). It only fails the " Encryption " check. Since it is a Development box and not publicly exposed, the risk is significantly lower.
* C. VM_DEV_Web02:
* It exposes Port 22 (SSH). While exposing SSH to the internet is poor practice, SSH is a secure protocol (encrypted), unlike Port 80. It also has encryption at rest enabled.
* D. VM_PRD_Web01:
* It exposes Port 3389 (RDP). While RDP is a common attack vector (ransomware entry point), the server has " Encryption at rest " enabled (Pass).
* Comparison: While VM_PRD_Web01 is risky due to RDP, VM_PRD_DB is riskier because it involves a Database (higher impact than a web server) communicating over Port 80 (cleartext) with No Encryption at rest.