SSCP Risk Identification, Monitoring, and Analysis Practice Question
A security analyst is configuring a SIEM to detect potential insider threats. Which TWO of the following data sources would be most relevant for detecting an employee exfiltrating sensitive data via email?
⚠ Common exam trap
The exam often tests the distinction between logs that show network-level activity (firewall, DNS) versus logs that inspect content or policy violations (email gateway, DLP), leading candidates to mistakenly choose firewall logs because they see 'outbound traffic' without considering content inspection.
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
✓
Email gateway logs
Email gateway logs (B) are directly relevant because they record SMTP metadata such as sender, recipient, subject, attachment names, and message size, allowing the SIEM to spot an employee sending sensitive files to external or personal addresses. DLP logs (D) are equally relevant because DLP engines inspect email content and attachments against policies and generate alerts when classified data (e.g., PII, credit card numbers, source code) is transmitted outside the organization. Together these two sources give both the transport-level view and the content-level detection needed for insider exfiltration via email. Physical access logs (A) only show building entry/exit events and cannot reveal email data movement, while firewall logs (C) capture IP/port connections but not email content or recipients, and DNS logs (E) only show domain name resolutions, none of which directly evidence data exfiltration through email.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Physical access logs
Why it's wrong here
Physical access logs record door and badge entry events, revealing nothing about email contents or recipients. They are tempting because insider investigations often correlate badge data with system activity, but detecting exfiltration via email requires mail gateway and DLP logs instead.
- ✓
Email gateway logs
Why this is correct
Email gateway logs record sender, recipient, attachment, and message metadata, revealing anomalous outbound mail volumes or destinations. This makes them directly relevant to detecting an employee exfiltrating sensitive data through email, satisfying the insider-threat detection scenario.
- ✗
Firewall logs
Why it's wrong here
Firewall logs capture connection metadata such as source, destination and port, but not email payloads or attachments. They are tempting because they can reveal transfers to external hosts, yet SMTP traffic is usually permitted, so mail gateway and DLP logs are needed to detect the exfiltration.
- ✓
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) logs
Why this is correct
DLP logs capture policy violations and inspections of outbound content, showing when sensitive data is detected leaving via email. This directly evidences exfiltration attempts by an employee, satisfying the stem's requirement for a relevant SIEM data source.
- ✗
DNS logs
Why it's wrong here
DNS logs show domain lookups, not email bodies, attachments or recipients, so exfiltration content is invisible. They are tempting because DNS tunnelling can exfiltrate data, but that is a different technique; email exfiltration is detected through mail server and DLP logs.
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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.