CND Practice Question: Incident Detection Response And Threat Prediction
An organization is setting up a threat hunting program. Which TWO characteristics differentiate proactive threat hunting from traditional reactive Security Operations Center (SOC) monitoring? (Choose TWO)
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
✓
It is hypothesis-driven, focusing on assumptions that adversaries are already inside the network
Threat hunting is a proactive, hypothesis-driven pursuit of adversaries rather than waiting for automated alerts to trigger.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
It is hypothesis-driven, focusing on assumptions that adversaries are already inside the network
Why this is correct
Threat hunting begins with forming hypotheses based on attacker TTPs.
- ✗
It is performed only after a major ransomware encryption event completes
Why it's wrong here
Post-event work is incident response, whereas hunting occurs continuously or periodically.
- ✓
It involves human-led, iterative searches through endpoint and network telemetry
Why this is correct
Threat hunters actively query datasets and investigate anomalies manually or semi-manually.
- ✗
It replaces network firewalls and endpoint protection agents completely
Why it's wrong here
Threat hunting complements, rather than replaces, preventative and detective controls.
- ✗
It relies exclusively on automated SIEM alerts to trigger response actions
Why it's wrong here
Relying purely on alerts is traditional reactive monitoring, not proactive hunting.
About these practice questions
One of 323 original CND practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official EC-Council exam blueprint
This CND practice question is part of Courseiva's free EC-Council 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 CND exam.