hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
CISM Practice Question: A security operations center receives an alert…
A security operations center receives an alert from an IDS indicating possible command and control traffic. The analyst is unsure if it's a true positive. Which combination of actions should be taken first?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates may jump to containment (blocking) or investigation (forensics) without first performing validation through log correlation, which is the foundational step in incident management to avoid false positives.
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
✓
Correlate the alert with firewall and proxy logs and review threat intelligence.
The first step in validating a potential command and control (C2) alert is to correlate the IDS event with other network logs (e.g., firewall, proxy) and threat intelligence. This helps confirm whether the traffic matches known C2 patterns (e.g., beaconing intervals, unusual DNS queries) before taking any disruptive action. Premature blocking or forensic analysis without correlation risks false positives or missing context.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Disable the IDS signature to prevent further alerts.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Disabling detection is not appropriate.
- ✗
Immediately block the source IP and escalate to the incident response team.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Premature action if alert is false positive.
- ✗
Conduct a full forensic analysis of the affected host.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Resource-intensive; should be done after validation.
- ✓
Correlate the alert with firewall and proxy logs and review threat intelligence.
Why this is correct
Correct: Validation before action.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISM practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISACA 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 CISM exam.