ISC2 CC Business Continuity, DR & Incident Response Practice Question
Exhibit
2023-10-15 14:32:01 DENY TCP 10.0.1.10 192.168.1.1 80 8080 2023-10-15 14:32:02 DENY TCP 10.0.1.11 192.168.1.1 80 8080 2023-10-15 14:32:03 DENY TCP 10.0.1.12 192.168.1.1 80 8080
Refer to the exhibit. An SOC analyst pulled this log snippet. Which type of attack is most likely in progress?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the distinction between DDoS and DoS by including logs with multiple source IPs, where candidates might mistakenly focus on the high traffic volume alone and overlook the distributed nature, leading them to choose a generic 'DoS' or another attack type.
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
✓
DDoS attack
The log snippet shows a massive volume of incoming traffic from multiple source IPs targeting a single destination, which is characteristic of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. The high packet rate and diverse source addresses indicate an attempt to overwhelm the target's resources, such as bandwidth or server capacity, making services unavailable to legitimate users.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Phishing
Why it's wrong here
Phishing is a social engineering attack, not represented in firewall logs.
- ✓
DDoS attack
Why this is correct
Coordinated traffic from many sources to a single target is characteristic of DDoS.
- ✗
Man-in-the-middle
Why it's wrong here
MITM intercepts communications; this log shows denied connections, not interception.
- ✗
Insider threat
Why it's wrong here
Insider threat typically involves authorized users misusing access, not multiple external IPs.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Security Operations Basics
Key term
SOC
A Security Operations Center (SOC) is a centralized team that monitors, detects, analyzes, and responds to cybersecurity incidents to protect an organization's information systems.
Key term
DDoS
A DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt normal traffic of a targeted server, service, or network by overwhelming it with a flood of internet traffic from multiple compromised systems.
About these practice questions
This CC question is part of Courseiva's 976-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CC practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CC exam.