SSCP Risk Identification, Monitoring, and Analysis Practice Question
After implementing a new IDS, the security team receives numerous alerts about legitimate traffic being flagged as malicious. This phenomenon is known as:
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse 'false positives' with 'noise' (Option B), but noise is a broader category that includes false positives as well as other irrelevant alerts, while the question specifically describes legitimate traffic being flagged as malicious, which is the precise definition of a false positive.
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
✓
False positives
A false positive occurs when the IDS incorrectly classifies legitimate traffic as malicious, generating an alert for benign activity. This is a common issue after deploying a new IDS with default or overly sensitive signature sets, leading to alert fatigue. The core reasoning is that the IDS's detection logic (e.g., pattern matching or anomaly thresholds) misidentifies normal behavior as an attack.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
False positives
Why this is correct
Correct: Legitimate traffic flagged as malicious are false positives.
- ✗
Noise
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Noise generally refers to irrelevant data, but false positives are a specific type.
- ✗
False negatives
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: False negatives are when malicious activity is not detected.
- ✗
True positives
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: True positives are correctly identified malicious activity.
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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.