- A
Use a different SIEM vendor
Why wrong: Vendor change doesn't directly address retention policy.
- B
Increase log verbosity
Why wrong: Verbosity affects detail, not retention duration.
- C
Implement real-time alerting
Why wrong: Alerting does not extend retention.
- D
Extend log retention period to at least 1 year
Longer retention ensures logs are available for investigations.
Question 89 of 1,000
SSCP Risk Identification, Monitoring, and Analysis Practice Question
This SSCP practice question tests your understanding of risk identification, monitoring, and analysis. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
After a security incident, the incident response team needs to analyze logs from multiple sources to reconstruct the timeline. The SIEM retains logs for 90 days, but the incident occurred 120 days ago. Which action should the organization have taken to ensure log availability?
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
✓
Extend log retention period to at least 1 year
Option D is correct because the organization's log retention policy was insufficient to cover the incident timeline. The SIEM retained logs for only 90 days, but the incident occurred 120 days ago, meaning the logs were overwritten or purged before the incident was discovered. Extending the retention period to at least one year ensures logs are available for post-incident forensic analysis, aligning with industry best practices (e.g., NIST SP 800-61) and regulatory requirements that often mandate 6–12 months of log retention.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a different SIEM vendor
Why it's wrong here
Vendor change doesn't directly address retention policy.
- ✗
Increase log verbosity
Why it's wrong here
Verbosity affects detail, not retention duration.
- ✗
Implement real-time alerting
Why it's wrong here
Alerting does not extend retention.
- ✓
Extend log retention period to at least 1 year
Why this is correct
Longer retention ensures logs are available for investigations.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse log verbosity (option B) with log retention, thinking that capturing more data inherently preserves it longer, when in fact retention is a separate storage policy parameter.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Log retention is typically governed by a SIEM's storage quota or time-based rotation policy (e.g., using syslog-ng or rsyslog with logrotate). In many environments, logs are stored in a WORM (Write Once, Read Many) archive or forwarded to a separate cold storage tier (e.g., AWS S3 Glacier or Azure Blob Archive) to meet long-term retention requirements. A common real-world scenario is compliance with PCI DSS Requirement 10.7, which mandates retaining audit trail history for at least one year, with three months immediately available for analysis.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A SOC analyst notices unusual lateral movement in the network at 2 AM. The IR playbook dictates: identify and contain (isolate the affected machine), then eradicate (remove the malware), then recover (restore from backup), then document. Skipping containment before eradication risks the attacker regaining access. Questions like this test the sequence and rationale of incident response phases.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SSCP question test?
Risk Identification, Monitoring, and Analysis — This question tests Risk Identification, Monitoring, and Analysis — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Extend log retention period to at least 1 year — Option D is correct because the organization's log retention policy was insufficient to cover the incident timeline. The SIEM retained logs for only 90 days, but the incident occurred 120 days ago, meaning the logs were overwritten or purged before the incident was discovered. Extending the retention period to at least one year ensures logs are available for post-incident forensic analysis, aligning with industry best practices (e.g., NIST SP 800-61) and regulatory requirements that often mandate 6–12 months of log retention.
What should I do if I get this SSCP question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
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