hardMultiple Choice
SSCP Practice Question: A company uses a SIEM to monitor security events
A company uses a SIEM to monitor security events. Recently, they are experiencing false positives from a new IDS rule. Which approach would best reduce false positives while maintaining detection?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers choose to whitelist false positive sources (Option C) because it seems like a quick fix, but this approach can inadvertently suppress alerts for real attacks from those same sources, whereas threshold tuning preserves detection capability.
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
✓
Adjust the rule threshold.
Adjusting the rule threshold (Option D) is the best approach because it fine-tunes the sensitivity of the IDS rule to reduce false positives without completely disabling detection. By raising the threshold (e.g., increasing the number of matching packets or the time window), the SIEM will only generate an alert when the rule's criteria are met more persistently, filtering out noise while still capturing genuine threats. This maintains the rule's detection capability for actual attacks that exceed the adjusted threshold.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Disable the rule.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling the rule eliminates the false positives but also removes all detection for that attack pattern, directly violating the requirement to maintain detection. Tuning the rule's thresholds or signatures is the intended fix. Disabling suits rules proven wholly redundant or superseded by another control.
- ✗
Increase the log review frequency.
Why it's wrong here
Reviewing logs more often only surfaces the same false positives sooner; it changes no rule logic, so the alerts persist. Frequency addresses detection latency and analyst coverage, not alert accuracy. It would be the right choice when genuine events sit unreviewed for too long.
- ✗
Whitelist false positive sources.
Why it's wrong here
Whitelisting suppresses the rule for those sources entirely, so genuine attacks from them go undetected — detection is not maintained. It is tempting because allow-listing known-good traffic suits stable, trusted hosts where a signature cannot be tuned. Here the rule is new and untuned, so threshold or signature adjustment preserves coverage.
- ✓
Adjust the rule threshold.
Why this is correct
Raising the rule threshold means the signature fires only when activity exceeds a defined count or frequency, filtering benign single events while still alerting on genuine patterns. This preserves detection coverage rather than disabling the rule entirely.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SSCP 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 SSCP exam.