This 200-201 practice question tests your understanding of security monitoring. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company uses Cisco Firepower NGFW with intrusion prevention. An analyst notices that many legitimate HTTPS connections are being blocked by an IPS rule. What is the best approach to reduce false positives?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Create a custom rule exception for the specific destination IPs.
Exceptions preserve protection while allowing legitimate traffic.
Increase the severity threshold of the rule.
Why wrong: Severity thresholds do not affect rule action.
Disable the IPS rule entirely.
Why wrong: Disabling removes protection against real threats.
Change the rule action from 'Drop' to 'Alert'.
Why wrong: Alerting only logs, does not prevent false positive blocks.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Create a custom rule exception for the specific destination IPs.
Creating a custom rule exception for the specific destination IPs is the best approach because it allows the IPS to continue blocking malicious traffic while exempting legitimate HTTPS connections that are incorrectly flagged. This maintains security posture by not weakening the rule globally, and it directly addresses the false positive without affecting detection of other threats.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Create a custom rule exception for the specific destination IPs.
Why this is correct
Exceptions preserve protection while allowing legitimate traffic.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Increase the severity threshold of the rule.
Why it's wrong here
Severity thresholds do not affect rule action.
Disable the IPS rule entirely.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling removes protection against real threats.
Change the rule action from 'Drop' to 'Alert'.
Why it's wrong here
Alerting only logs, does not prevent false positive blocks.
Common exam traps
Cisco often tests the misconception that changing the rule action to 'Alert' is a safe compromise, but this actually disables blocking for all traffic matching the rule, not just the false positives.
Detailed technical explanation
Cisco Firepower NGFW uses Snort-based IPS rules that inspect HTTPS traffic after SSL/TLS decryption (if configured) or via encrypted traffic analysis. False positives often arise from rules using overly broad signatures or destination IP ranges; a custom exception can be implemented via an access control policy rule that trusts specific IPs before the IPS rule is evaluated, leveraging the ordered rule processing in Firepower.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A small business has 20 workstations on the 192.168.1.0/24 network and one public IP from its ISP. The router uses PAT (NAT overload) so all 20 devices share one public address using different source ports. NAT questions test whether you understand the four address terms and which direction each translation applies.
What to study next
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FAQ
Security Monitoring — This question tests Security Monitoring — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Create a custom rule exception for the specific destination IPs. — Creating a custom rule exception for the specific destination IPs is the best approach because it allows the IPS to continue blocking malicious traffic while exempting legitimate HTTPS connections that are incorrectly flagged. This maintains security posture by not weakening the rule globally, and it directly addresses the false positive without affecting detection of other threats.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 25, 2026
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