CISSP Security Operations Practice Question
A SOC team is using a SIEM to correlate events from multiple sources. They want to automate responses to common threats. Which technology should they integrate to achieve security orchestration and automation?
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
✓
SOAR
SOAR tools automate and orchestrate security responses, integrating with SIEM.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Vulnerability scanner
Why it's wrong here
A vulnerability scanner systematically identifies security weaknesses, misconfigurations, and known vulnerabilities in systems, applications, and networks. While crucial for proactive security posture management and providing data for risk assessment, its primary function is assessment and reporting. It does not possess the capabilities to automate or orchestrate real-time incident response actions based on correlated events from a SIEM.
- ✓
SOAR
Why this is correct
Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platforms are specifically designed to integrate with SIEM systems to automate and orchestrate incident response workflows. SOAR tools ingest alerts, enrich them with contextual data, and execute predefined playbooks, enabling a SOC team to rapidly respond to threats by automating tasks such as blocking malicious IPs, isolating compromised endpoints, or gathering additional forensic evidence, thereby significantly reducing manual effort and improving response times.
- ✗
Endpoint detection and response (EDR)
Why it's wrong here
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions continuously monitor and collect data from individual endpoints to detect and investigate suspicious activities and threats at that specific device level. While EDR provides critical visibility and localized response capabilities, such as isolating a compromised device or terminating a malicious process, its focus is primarily on the endpoint itself rather than providing the broader orchestration and automation across diverse security tools and systems needed for comprehensive response to correlated SIEM events.
- ✗
Network-based IDS
Why it's wrong here
A Network-based Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) monitors network traffic for signatures of known attacks or anomalous behavior, generating alerts when potential intrusions are detected. While essential for threat detection and feeding valuable event data to a SIEM, an NIDS is fundamentally a passive monitoring and alerting tool. It does not inherently possess the capabilities to automate or orchestrate active response actions across various security controls based on the broader context provided by correlated SIEM events.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Security Governance and Principles
Key term
Security
Security in IT is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, damage, or theft.
Key term
SIEM
SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) is a system that collects and analyzes log data from across an IT environment to detect and respond to security threats in real time.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CISSP 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 CISSP exam.