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.
Which TWO are best practices for managing SIEM alerts to reduce false positives? (Choose two.)
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.
Disable all alerts that generate more than 100 events per day.
Why wrong: May miss true positives.
Use a separate SIEM for each department.
Why wrong: Splits visibility, not reduce false positives.
Regularly tune correlation rules based on feedback.
Adapts to environment.
Increase the number of log sources.
Why wrong: May increase noise.
Maintain a whitelist of known benign activity.
Filters out known good.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Regularly tune correlation rules based on feedback.
Option C is correct because SIEM correlation rules must be regularly tuned based on feedback from incident investigations and alert reviews. This iterative process adjusts thresholds, filters, and logic to match the actual threat landscape, reducing noise from benign events that match rule patterns but are not malicious.
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.
Disable all alerts that generate more than 100 events per day.
Why it's wrong here
May miss true positives.
Use a separate SIEM for each department.
Why it's wrong here
Splits visibility, not reduce false positives.
Regularly tune correlation rules based on feedback.
Why this is correct
Adapts to environment.
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 number of log sources.
Why it's wrong here
May increase noise.
Maintain a whitelist of known benign activity.
Why this is correct
Filters out known good.
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 misconception that more data (Option D) or volume-based suppression (Option A) is a valid way to reduce false positives, when in fact proper tuning and whitelisting are the correct approaches.
Detailed technical explanation
SIEM correlation rules use pattern matching and statistical thresholds (e.g., event count over a time window) to detect anomalies. Tuning involves adjusting these thresholds, adding exclusion filters, or creating custom rules based on the MITRE ATT&CK framework. In a real-world scenario, a rule that triggers on 10 failed logins in 5 minutes might generate false positives for a user with a misconfigured password manager; tuning can whitelist that user or extend the window.
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: Regularly tune correlation rules based on feedback. — Option C is correct because SIEM correlation rules must be regularly tuned based on feedback from incident investigations and alert reviews. This iterative process adjusts thresholds, filters, and logic to match the actual threat landscape, reducing noise from benign events that match rule patterns but are not malicious.
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 11, 2026
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