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.
During an incident response, the SOC needs to determine the scope of a compromise by identifying all hosts that communicated with a known malicious IP in the last 30 days. Which data source would best support this analysis?
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.
SNMP traps from routers
Why wrong: SNMP traps are for device alerts, not traffic records.
Syslog from the DHCP server
Why wrong: DHCP logs show IP leases, not communications.
Firewall deny logs
Why wrong: Deny logs only show blocked traffic, not all communications.
NetFlow records from the router
NetFlow captures all traffic flows, allowing historical analysis.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
NetFlow records from the router
NetFlow records capture metadata about all IP traffic flows traversing a router, including source and destination IP addresses, ports, and timestamps. This allows the SOC to query for any host that communicated with the known malicious IP over the past 30 days, providing a complete picture of the compromise's scope. Unlike logs that only record denied traffic or administrative events, NetFlow records all successful communications, making it the ideal data source for this analysis.
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.
SNMP traps from routers
Why it's wrong here
SNMP traps are for device alerts, not traffic records.
Syslog from the DHCP server
Why it's wrong here
DHCP logs show IP leases, not communications.
Firewall deny logs
Why it's wrong here
Deny logs only show blocked traffic, not all communications.
NetFlow records from the router
Why this is correct
NetFlow captures all traffic flows, allowing historical analysis.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Cisco often tests the distinction between logs that record only denied traffic (firewall deny logs) versus logs that record all traffic (NetFlow), leading candidates to mistakenly choose firewall deny logs because they associate firewalls with security monitoring.
Trap categories for this question
Command / output trap
DHCP logs show IP leases, not communications.
Detailed technical explanation
NetFlow (version 5 or 9) exports flow records containing the 5-tuple (source IP, destination IP, source port, destination port, protocol), plus timestamps and byte/packet counts. A flow is defined as a unidirectional sequence of packets sharing these fields, and routers sample or cache flows before exporting them to a collector. In a real-world incident, the SOC might use a tool like SiLK or nfdump to filter NetFlow data for flows where the destination IP equals the malicious address, revealing every internal host that initiated a connection to it.
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: NetFlow records from the router — NetFlow records capture metadata about all IP traffic flows traversing a router, including source and destination IP addresses, ports, and timestamps. This allows the SOC to query for any host that communicated with the known malicious IP over the past 30 days, providing a complete picture of the compromise's scope. Unlike logs that only record denied traffic or administrative events, NetFlow records all successful communications, making it the ideal data source for this analysis.
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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