SSCP Security Operations and Administration Practice Question
A security administrator receives an alert from the SIEM indicating a configuration change on a critical server. The change was not part of any approved change request. What should be the first step?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often jump to immediate containment (revert or disable) without recognizing that the first step in incident response is always to verify and scope the incident before taking action.
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
✓
Investigate the change to determine its source and impact
The first step when an unauthorized configuration change is detected is to investigate the change to determine its source and impact. This aligns with the incident response process, where initial assessment (identification and scoping) precedes containment or remediation. Without investigation, reverting or disabling could destroy forensic evidence or disrupt legitimate services.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Investigate the change to determine its source and impact
Why this is correct
Investigation helps decide the appropriate response.
- ✗
Notify the server owner
Why it's wrong here
Important but investigation should come first.
- ✗
Revert the server to the last known good configuration
Why it's wrong here
Should be done after investigation to ensure no loss of legitimate changes.
- ✗
Disable the server's network access
Why it's wrong here
May be too drastic without understanding the change.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 920 original SSCP practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.