300-740 Exam Dumps : Designing and Implementing Secure Cloud Access for Users and Endpoints (SCAZT)

Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) use rate-based rules as one of the primary mechanisms to detect and mitigate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. According to the SCAZT Study Guide, Section 3 (Network and Cloud Security, Pages 74–77), rate-based rules dynamically detect unusual spikes in traffic and can throttle or block connections exceeding predefined thresholds. This form of protection is more adaptive and intelligent than standard ACLs or static filtering, enabling protection against zero-day and volumetric attacks that may not follow known patterns.

The SCAZT documentation emphasizes that when Cisco Secure XDR identifies a high-risk threat (e.g., risk score 8 out of 10 for malware distribution, as shown in the exhibit), the first priority is to prevent lateral movement and data exfiltration. The recommended first response action is to isolate the affected endpoint from the network.

Cisco Secure Endpoint and XDR allow you to trigger an "isolate" response directly from the dashboard, cutting off all non-management communication from the compromised device. This preserves the environment and enables forensic analysis before removing malware or taking destructive actions like rebuilding the system.

The Secure Cloud Analytics alert indicates suspicious heartbeat-based connections from an internal server (ip-10-201-0-16) to multiple suspicious IPs over UDP/port 53 (DNS). This behavior suggests command-and-control (C2) activity or botnet communications.

B: Alerting the incident response (IR) team is a critical next step in escalating a verified threat as per SCAZT Section 6 (Threat Response, Pages 114–117).

D: Blocking the identified malicious IPs on perimeter firewalls or network access control devices is an appropriate containment step to disrupt communication.

Reinstallation (A/E) is premature without a full forensic investigation. Validating IDS logs (C) is useful but not immediate response-focused compared to actions B and D.