hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
ISC2 CC Practice Question: The lead SOC analyst for a medium-sized financial…
You are the lead SOC analyst for a medium-sized financial services company. The company uses a hybrid infrastructure with on-premises servers and cloud services (AWS). The SIEM is Splunk Enterprise, collecting logs from firewalls, IDS/IPS, endpoints (Windows and Linux), and AWS CloudTrail. Recently, the company experienced a ransomware attack that encrypted critical file servers. The initial infection vector was a phishing email that led to the download of a malicious macro-enabled document. The document was executed on a Windows workstation, which then established a C2 connection to an external IP. The C2 traffic was over HTTPS, and the workstation was part of the domain. After the attack, the forensic team found that the workstation had Windows Event Logs cleared, and the local admin account had been used to disable the antivirus. The C2 IP was later blocked, but the ransomware had already spread to file servers via SMB. As part of the lessons learned, you need to recommend improvements to prevent and detect such attacks in the future. Which of the following is the BEST course of action to address the specific weaknesses exploited in this incident?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the concept that prevention (whitelisting, macro control, segmentation) is more effective than detection (IDS/IPS tuning) or reactive measures (patching, MFA) when the attack chain exploits user behavior and local credentials, not external vulnerabilities.
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
✓
Implement application whitelisting, disable macros by default, enforce strong local administrator passwords, and segment the network to restrict SMB traffic between workstations and servers.
Directly addresses the attack chain: disabling macros by default prevents the initial infection vector, application whitelisting blocks unauthorized executables (including the ransomware), strong local admin passwords hinder credential abuse, and network segmentation restricts SMB lateral movement. This combination targets the specific weaknesses exploited (macro execution, antivirus disablement via local admin, and SMB propagation) rather than just detecting or patching after the fact.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the frequency of vulnerability scans and patch all systems within 24 hours of patch release.
Why it's wrong here
Patching is good practice but the attack did not exploit unpatched vulnerabilities; it used social engineering and weak configurations.
- ✓
Implement application whitelisting, disable macros by default, enforce strong local administrator passwords, and segment the network to restrict SMB traffic between workstations and servers.
Why this is correct
These controls directly address the attack vectors: macro execution, local admin abuse, and lateral movement via SMB.
- ✗
Deploy additional IDS/IPS sensors and tune the SIEM to detect C2 traffic patterns.
Why it's wrong here
Detection is important but does not prevent the initial compromise; the C2 was over HTTPS, making detection difficult.
- ✗
Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all remote access and privileged account use.
Why it's wrong here
MFA would help if the attack involved credential theft, but here the local admin account was used directly on the workstation.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Network Security Foundations
Key term
Phishing
Phishing is a type of cyber attack where criminals impersonate legitimate organizations or individuals to trick victims into revealing sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, or personal data.
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.
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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.