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200-201 A SOC analyst for a financial services firm Practice Question
You are a SOC analyst for a financial services firm. The firm uses a combination of Cisco Firepower IPS, Windows Event Log collection, and a custom SIEM. At 10:00 AM, the SIEM generates an alert: 'Event ID 4625: Multiple failed logins for user 'jdoe' from IP 10.0.0.100'. The alert fires 10 times within 5 minutes. The source IP is a file server. You check the file server's logs and see that it is running a scheduled script that attempts to map a network drive using jdoe's credentials. The script is legitimate and has been running for months. However, the script's credentials may have expired or changed. The user jdoe is currently on leave. The file server administrator confirms that the script is part of a backup process. What is the best course of action?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the ability to distinguish between a true security incident and a false positive caused by a legitimate process, where the trap is to immediately escalate or take reactive security actions without first verifying the context and root cause of the alert.
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
✓
Update the script with correct credentials and clear the alert
The alert is a false positive triggered by a legitimate scheduled script that has been running for months. The root cause is expired or changed credentials for user 'jdoe'. Updating the script with the correct credentials resolves the issue without disrupting operations. Clearing the alert removes the noise from the SIEM, allowing the SOC to focus on genuine threats.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Escalate the alert to the incident response team for investigation
Why it's wrong here
Escalation is not needed because the activity is expected and non-malicious.
- ✗
Disable user jdoe's account immediately to prevent further attempts
Why it's wrong here
Disabling the account would break the legitimate script and cause operational issues.
- ✗
Block the file server's IP address in the firewall
Why it's wrong here
Blocking the file server would disrupt all its services, not just the script.
- ✓
Update the script with correct credentials and clear the alert
Why this is correct
The root cause is expired credentials; updating the script resolves the issue without unnecessary action.
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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.