hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
200-201 A SOC analyst at a mid-sized company Practice Question
You are a SOC analyst at a mid-sized company. The company uses a SIEM that ingests logs from firewalls, IDS, and endpoints. Over the past week, you've noticed a gradual increase in outbound traffic from several internal hosts to IP addresses in a foreign country during non-business hours. The traffic is primarily on port 443. The IDS has not generated any alerts. The firewall logs show the connections are established. You check the endpoints and find no unusual processes running. However, the outbound connections persist. What is the most likely explanation and the best next step?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the misconception that a lack of IDS alerts and endpoint anomalies means the network is clean, but the trap here is that encrypted traffic (port 443) can hide malicious activity from signature-based detection, requiring proactive decryption to uncover the threat.
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
✓
Enable SSL decryption on the firewall to inspect the traffic content.
The gradual increase in outbound traffic on port 443 (HTTPS) to foreign IPs during non-business hours, without IDS alerts or suspicious processes, strongly suggests data exfiltration over encrypted channels. Since the traffic is encrypted, the IDS cannot inspect the payload, and endpoint checks may miss stealthy malware that uses legitimate processes (e.g., svchost.exe) for beaconing. Enabling SSL decryption on the firewall allows the SOC to decrypt and inspect the HTTPS traffic, revealing the actual content and confirming or ruling out exfiltration.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable SSL decryption on the firewall to inspect the traffic content.
Why this is correct
Provides visibility into encrypted traffic to confirm data exfiltration.
- ✗
Assume the hosts are compromised and reimage them.
Why it's wrong here
No evidence of compromise on endpoints; reimaging is drastic.
- ✗
Ignore the traffic since the IDS and endpoints show no signs of compromise.
Why it's wrong here
Complacent; unusual outbound traffic should be investigated.
- ✗
Immediately isolate all affected hosts from the network.
Why it's wrong here
Premature; may disrupt business without confirming malicious activity.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 200-201 exam.