The security team at a company, which was a recent target of ransomware, compiled a list of hosts that were identified as impacted and in scope for this incident. Based on the following host list:

Which of the following systems was most pivotal to the threat actor in its distribution of the encryption binary via Group Policy?
Correct Answer: D
Based on the list of hosts and their functions, DCEast01, which is a Domain Controller, would be the most pivotal in the distribution of an encryption binary via Group Policy. Domain Controllers are responsible for security and administrative policies within a Windows Domain. Group Policy is a feature of Windows that facilitates a wide range of advanced settings that administrators can use to control the working environment of user accounts and computer accounts. Group Policy can be used to deploy software, which in this case would be the encryption binary of the ransomware. SQL01 is a database server and unlikely to be used for this purpose. WK10-Sales07 and WK7-Plant01 are client machines, and HQAdmin9, although it is a network admin laptop, would not typically be used to distribute policies across a network.