An engineer is analyzing a case of an employee receiving a seemingly trustworthy email that included a link to a management feedback request. The employee opened the link and was redirected to a…

Question

Options

• Aintrusion prevention system
• Bnetwork security solution
• Cemail security solution
• Dintrusion detection system

• A
  17% (3)
• B
  6% (1)
• C
  72% (13)
• D
  6% (1)

Explanation

Email security solutions (C) are designed specifically to intercept malicious emails before they reach the user - scanning for phishing links, spoofed senders, and malicious attachments. Since the attack vector was a deceptive email with a harmful link, stopping the email at the gateway would have broken the entire attack chain before any interaction occurred.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (IPS) monitors and blocks malicious network traffic in transit, but it doesn't inspect email content for social engineering - by the time a link is clicked, it may be too late.
• B (Network security solution) is too broad/vague; while some network solutions offer partial protection, they aren't specialized for catching phishing emails at the source.
• D (IDS) only detects and alerts on suspicious activity - it doesn't prevent anything, so even if it flagged the traffic, the ransomware could still execute.

Memory tip: Map the attack vector to the matching security layer. Email attack → email security. The word "prevention" in the stem also rules out IDS (detection only), and the entry point was email, not raw network traffic, which rules out IPS/network solutions.

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