Which THREE types of traffic are typically inspected by an IPS policy?
IPS policies inspect HTTP and HTTPS traffic, matching signatures against web requests and responses to block exploits, malicious payloads and known attack patterns. This satisfies the requirement because web protocols carry the majority of client-facing attack traffic that signature-based inspection targets.
Why this answer
An IPS policy typically inspects application-layer protocols that carry user data and are common attack vectors, so HTTP/HTTPS traffic (A) is correct because the IPS performs deep packet inspection on web requests/responses to block exploits like SQL injection and cross-site scripting. SMTP traffic (B) is correct because mail transfer sessions are inspected for malicious attachments, spam relays, and SMTP command exploits. FTP traffic (D) is correct because FTP control and data channels are inspected for credential theft, directory traversal, and unauthorized file transfers.
SNMP monitoring traffic (C) is not typically inspected by an IPS policy since it is management-plane traffic usually handled by monitoring systems rather than deep content inspection. ICMP echo requests (E) are network-layer diagnostic traffic, not application-layer content that an IPS policy inspects for threats.