ISC · domain
Security Operations
Practise (ISC)2 Information Systems Security Management Professional (CISSP-ISSMP, Aug 2025 blueprint) (ISC) Security Operations practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.
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What to know about Security Operations
Security Operations questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.
Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.
How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.
How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.
Watch out for
Common Security Operations exam traps
- ▸Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
- ▸Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
- ▸Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
- ▸Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.
Question index
All Security Operations questions (45)
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Which component in the MITRE ATT&CK framework should be mapped to an SOC alerting rule to ensure the alert covers a specific adversary objective?
Easy2In Splunk Enterprise Security, which dashboard should the SOC manager review to evaluate the effectiveness of the current correlation searches and the volume of notable events?
Easy3During a declared major incident, the incident commander needs to preserve volatile evidence on a compromised Linux server before the platform team rebuilds it. The server hosts a critical billing application and cannot be taken offline for more than 30 minutes. Which action BEST satisfies both the evidentiary requirement and the availability constraint?
Hard4Which THREE pieces of information should be included in an 'Incident Notification' for executive stakeholders?
Medium5Which THREE types of data should be ingested by a SIEM to improve its threat detection capabilities?
Medium6A security manager is leading the response to a confirmed ransomware outbreak on a file server. The malware is still actively encrypting files and spreading laterally via SMB. Executive leadership asks the manager to authorize immediate containment. Which action BEST satisfies the containment objective while preserving forensic evidence?
Medium7A security operations manager is reviewing the SOC's use of threat intelligence and wants to ensure that indicators are automatically ingested and matched against event data with minimal latency. Which capability should be prioritized to meet this objective?
Hard8A healthcare organization is building a Security Operations Center and must define how it will measure and govern detection and response performance. The CISO asks the security manager to select metrics that directly reflect the SOC's ability to detect and respond to threats. Which TWO metrics best meet this requirement? (Choose two.)
Hard9When managing a FortiGate firewall, which feature allows the SOC to dynamically update network objects based on external threat feeds?
Medium10In the context of the Google Cloud Security Command Center (SCC), which feature provides a prioritized list of findings based on the criticality of the impacted asset?
Medium11Which SOC process ensures that all security tools are configured to log at the same time standard to prevent confusion during timeline analysis?
Easy12A security manager is evaluating the effectiveness of the SOC's detection capabilities. The SOC has a high volume of alerts, but many are false positives, and analysts are overwhelmed. Which metric BEST indicates that the SOC needs to tune its detection rules to reduce noise?
Hard13When configuring CrowdStrike Falcon to isolate a host during an active incident, what is the prerequisite requirement for the agent's communication state?
Hard14Which THREE actions should be taken when performing an incident post-mortem according to industry best practices?
Hard15A security operations manager is designing a threat intelligence program to improve detection of advanced persistent threats (APTs). The organization wants to prioritize intelligence that is actionable and relevant. Which TWO characteristics of threat intelligence are MOST important for driving effective detection engineering? (Choose two.)
Hard16Which TWO of the following are primary components of an effective Incident Response (IR) program?
Easy17In Okta, to restrict administrative access to a specific geographic region during an active session, which policy should be modified?
Medium18In Rapid7 InsightVM, what is the best way to categorize assets into groups based on their business function for targeted vulnerability reporting?
Medium19A security manager is reviewing the organization's incident response plan and wants to ensure that evidence collected during an incident is handled in a manner that preserves its integrity for potential legal proceedings. Which TWO practices should be included in the evidence handling procedures? (Choose two.)
Hard20Which THREE technical controls are effective for limiting the impact of lateral movement?
Hard21A security manager is developing a business continuity plan (BCP) for the security operations center (SOC). The plan must ensure that critical monitoring and response capabilities continue during a disaster that disables the primary SOC. Which strategy BEST addresses this requirement?
Medium22Which TWO of the following are considered 'Indicator of Compromise' (IOC) types?
Easy23An organization is investigating a potential lateral movement incident in AWS. Which CloudTrail event field provides the most reliable indicator of the source IP address for an API call performed by an IAM role?
Hard24A security manager is reviewing the organization's incident response plan. The plan requires that after a major incident, lessons learned are captured and used to improve future response. Which activity BEST ensures that lessons learned are effectively integrated into the security operations program?
Medium25Which THREE activities are included in the 'Preparation' phase of the IR life cycle?
Medium26When configuring a Qualys scanner to perform authenticated scans on Windows, what is the 'Windows Authentication Record' primarily used for?
Hard27Which TWO communication channels are typically used for emergency incident coordination within a SOC?
Easy28During an incident, which document is used by the SOC to record evidence, timestamps, and actions taken to ensure admissibility in a legal proceeding?
Easy29A security manager is defining the scope of the organization's incident response program and needs to ensure that the program addresses all phases of the incident handling lifecycle. Which sequence of phases should the manager use as the framework for the program?
Medium30When using Palo Alto Networks Cortex XSOAR, which component is responsible for orchestrating the execution of scripts across multiple third-party integrations?
Medium31A security manager is building the incident response program for a financial services firm and needs to define the criteria that determine when an event must be escalated to a formally declared incident. Which artifact should be created to document these criteria, the required responders, and the approval chain for escalation?
Medium32In an incident response plan, which metric is most useful for measuring the 'dwell time' of a threat actor?
Easy33Which phase of the NIST Incident Response Life Cycle involves activities like system sanitization and validation of system integrity?
Easy34Which THREE factors are required to calculate the 'Risk' of a vulnerability for reporting purposes?
Hard35A security manager is reviewing the organization's log management program. An auditor notes that several critical servers retain logs for only 7 days, while the incident response policy requires the ability to investigate incidents up to 90 days after detection. The servers generate approximately 50 GB of logs per day. Which action BEST addresses the audit finding while controlling storage cost?
Medium36In Tenable.io, when prioritizing vulnerability remediation, which metric provides the best insight into the likelihood of a vulnerability being exploited in the wild?
Medium37Which document describes the specific steps an analyst should take when a 'Phishing' alert is triggered in the SIEM?
Easy38When implementing FIM (File Integrity Monitoring) in Tripwire Enterprise, what is the specific purpose of a 'Promotion' action?
Hard39A security manager is drafting the business continuity plan for a payment processing platform. The CIO asks which element establishes the maximum tolerable time that the payment service can be unavailable before the organization suffers unacceptable financial and regulatory harm. Which concept should the manager document?
Easy40A security manager at a mid-sized financial firm discovers that a privileged database administrator account was used at 02:00 UTC to export 40 GB of customer records to an external IP address. The account was not locked out, no alert fired, and the export completed over 47 minutes. Which action should the manager take FIRST to align with the ISC2 ISSMP incident management lifecycle?
Medium41A security manager is establishing a formal incident response capability and wants to ensure that lessons learned from major incidents are captured and used to improve future response. Which activity should be conducted after a significant incident to meet this goal?
Easy42Which SOC metric is most appropriate to present to executive leadership to demonstrate the business value of security investments?
Easy43Which TWO metrics are essential for evaluating the performance of a SOC team in identifying and containing threats?
Medium44Which document is considered the primary 'source of truth' for defining the SOC's roles, responsibilities, and communication paths during a major security incident?
Easy45A Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) user account is suspected of compromise. What is the most effective way to invalidate all active session tokens immediately?
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the Security Operations domain cover on the ISC exam?
- Security Operations questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
- How many questions are in this domain?
- This page lists all 45 Security Operations questions in the ISC question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
- What is the best way to practise this domain?
- Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
- Can I practise only Security Operations questions?
- Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.