350-701 SBRS (SenderBase Reputation Score) Practice Question
A security administrator notices that a significant volume of spam is bypassing the Cisco ESA's anti-spam filters. Upon investigation, they find that the messages have a mid-range SBRS score of 5.0. Which action should the administrator take to improve spam detection?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Increase the SBRS threshold to 7.0
The SenderBase Reputation Score (SBRS) ranges from -10 to +10, with lower scores indicating a higher likelihood of spam and higher scores indicating more legitimate senders. The SBRS threshold is the score below which messages are classified as spam. By default, the threshold may be set low (e.g., 3.0), allowing messages with a mid-range score of 5.0 (which is relatively legitimate) to bypass filters. To catch these messages, the administrator should raise the threshold (e.g., to 7.0), so that messages with scores below 7.0 are considered spam, thus including the 5.0 messages. Option A would reverse score interpretation, causing confusion; Option B would lower the threshold, reducing spam detection because fewer messages would be below the threshold; Option D disables the feature entirely.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Change the SBRS score interpretation to positive
Why it's wrong here
Changing the SBRS interpretation to positive would not adjust the threshold and could cause confusion or misclassification.
- ✗
Lower the SBRS threshold to 3.0
Why it's wrong here
Lowering the threshold to 3.0 would actually reduce spam detection because the threshold is the score below which messages are considered spam. A lower threshold means fewer messages qualify as spam, so the 5.0 messages would still be considered legitimate.
- ✓
Increase the SBRS threshold to 7.0
Why this is correct
Raising the threshold to 7.0 means any message with an SBRS below 7.0 is classified as spam. Since the problematic messages have a score of 5.0, they would now be caught, improving spam detection.
- ✗
Disable SenderBase reputation checks
Why it's wrong here
Disabling SenderBase reputation checks removes reputation-based filtering, which would likely increase the amount of spam reaching users.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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