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CISM Uses a SIEM to correlate security events Practice Question
An organization uses a SIEM to correlate security events. The SIEM generates an alert for a possible brute-force attack against an admin account. The incident response team reviews the alert and finds that the account is a service account with a known password. What should the team do NEXT?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse a service account with a user account and choose to investigate the source IP addresses first, forgetting that containment (password change) must precede investigation when a known credential is involved.
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
✓
Change the password for the service account
The correct next step is to change the password for the service account because the alert indicates a possible brute-force attack, and a known password represents a compromised credential. Even if the account is a service account, the password must be rotated to prevent unauthorized access. This aligns with the incident response principle of containing the threat by invalidating the compromised authentication factor.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Notify the service owner
Why it's wrong here
Notifying the service owner is premature because the alert indicates a brute-force attack against a known service-account password, not an unknown credential. The team must first verify whether the attack succeeded or if the account was compromised, which requires checking authentication logs for successful logins. This option is tempting because service-owner notification is a standard step after confirming a breach, but here the immediate priority is containment and forensic validation, not notification.
- ✗
Disable the service account
Why it's wrong here
Disabling may disrupt services; changing password is less disruptive.
- ✗
Investigate the source IP addresses
Why it's wrong here
Investigation can follow, but immediate action is to secure the account.
- ✓
Change the password for the service account
Why this is correct
Changing the password invalidates the attacker's attempts.
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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.