Free Splunk SPLK-5002 Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 2

How to Reduce False Positives in Correlation Searches?

High false positives can overwhelm SOC teams, causing alert fatigue and missed real threats. The best solution is to fine-tune suppression rules and refine thresholds.

????How Suppression Rules & Threshold Tuning Help:✅Suppression Rules: Prevent repeated false positives from low-risk recurring events (e.g., normal system scans).✅Threshold Refinement: Adjust sensitivity to focus on true threats (e.g., changing a login failure alert from 3 to 10 failed attempts).

????Example in Splunk ES:????Scenario: A correlation search generates too many alerts for failed logins.✅Fix: SOC analysts refine detection thresholds:

Suppress alerts if failed logins occur within a short timeframe but are followed by a successful login.

Only trigger an alert if failed logins exceed 10 attempts within 5 minutes.

Why Not the Other Options?

❌A. Increase the frequency of the correlation search – Increases search load without reducing false positives.❌C. Disable the correlation search temporarily – Leads to blind spots in detection.❌D. Limit the search to a single index – May exclude critical security logs from detection.

References & Learning Resources

????Splunk ES Correlation Search Optimization Guide: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/ES ????Reducing False Positives in SOC Workflows: https://splunkbase.splunk.com ????Fine-Tuning Security Alerts in Splunk: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/security

Updating the SOP for Handling Phishing Incidents

AStandard Operating Procedure (SOP)should focus onprevention, detection, and response.

✅1. Documenting Steps for User Awareness Training (C)

Training employeeshelps prevent phishing incidents.

Example:

Teach users toidentify phishing emails and report them via a Splunk SOAR playbook.

❌Incorrect Answers:

A. Ensuring all reports are manually verified by analysts→Automation(via SOAR) should be used forinitial triage.

B. Automating the isolation of suspected phishing emails→ Automation is useful, butuser education prevents incidents.

D. Reporting incidents to the executive board immediately→Only major security breachesshould beescalated to executives.

????Additional Resources:

NIST Incident Response Guide

Splunk Phishing Detection Playbooks

Why is Asset and Identity Information Important in Correlation Searches?

Correlation searches in Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) analyze security events to detect anomalies, threats, and suspicious behaviors. Adding asset and identity information significantly improves security detection and response by:

1️⃣Enhancing the Context of Detections – (Answer A)

Helps analysts understand the impact of an event by associating security alerts with specific assets and users.

Example: If a failed login attempt happens on a critical server, it’s more serious than one on a guest user account.

2️⃣Prioritizing Incidents Based on Asset Value – (Answer C)

High-value assets (CEO’s laptop, production databases) need higher priority investigations.

Example: If malware is detected on a critical finance server, the SOC team prioritizes it over a low-impact system.

Why Not the Other Options?

❌B. Reducing the volume of raw data indexed – Asset and identity enrichment adds more metadata;it doesn’t reduce indexed data.❌D. Accelerating data ingestion rates – Adding asset identity doesn’t speed up ingestion; it actually introduces more processing.

References & Learning Resources

????Splunk ES Asset & Identity Framework: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/ES/latest/Admin/Assetsandidentitymanagement ????Correlation Searches in Splunk ES: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/ES/latest/Admin/Correlationsearches

Effective documentation ensures that security teams canstandardize response procedures, reduce incident response time, and improve compliance.

✅1. Visual Workflow Diagrams (B)

Helpsmap out security processesin an easy-to-understand format.

Useful for SOC analysts, engineers, and auditors to understandincident escalation procedures.

Example:

Incident flow diagramsshowing escalation fromTier 1 SOC analysts → Threat hunters → Incident response teams.

✅2. Incident Response Playbooks (C)

Definesstep-by-step response actionsfor security incidents.

Standardizes how teams shoulddetect, analyze, contain, and remediate threats.

Example:

ASOAR playbookfor handlingphishing emails(e.g., extract indicators, check sandbox results, quarantine email).

❌Incorrect Answers:

A. Detailed event logs→ Logs areessential for investigationsbut do not constituteprocess documentation.

D. Customer satisfaction surveys→ Not relevant tosecurity process documentation.

????Additional Resources:

NIST Cybersecurity Framework - Incident Response

Splunk SOAR Playbook Documentation

Notable events in Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) are triggered by correlation searches, which generate alerts when suspicious activity is detected. However, if too many false positives occur, analysts waste time investigating non-issues, reducing SOC efficiency.

How to Improve Notable Events Effectiveness:

Apply suppression rules to filter out known false positives and reduce alert fatigue.

Refine correlation searches by adjusting thresholds and tuning event detection logic.

Leverage risk-based alerting (RBA) to prioritize high-risk events.

Use adaptive response actions to enrich events dynamically.

By suppressing false positives, SOC analysts focus on real threats, making notable events more actionable. Thus, the correct answer is A. Applying suppression rules for false positives.

References:

Managing Notable Events in Splunk ES

Best Practices for Tuning Correlation Searches

Using Suppression in Splunk ES

Why Configure Asset & Identity Information for Privileged Accounts First?

Risk-based detection focuses on identifying and prioritizing threats based on the severity of their impact. For privileged accounts (admins, domain controllers, finance users), understanding who they are, what they access, and how they behave is critical.

????Key Steps for Risk-Based Detection in Splunk ES:1️⃣Define Privileged Accounts & Groups – Identify high-risk users (Admin, HR, Finance, CISO).2️⃣Assign Risk Scores – Apply higher scores to actions involving privileged users.3️⃣Enable Identity & Asset Correlation – Link users to assets for better detection.4️⃣Monitor for Anomalies – Detect abnormal login patterns, excessive file access, or unusual privilege escalation.

????Example in Splunk ES:

A domain admin logs in from an unusual location → Trigger high-risk alert

A finance director downloads sensitive payroll data at midnight → Escalate for investigation

Why Not the Other Options?

❌B. Correlation searches with low thresholds – May generate excessive false positives, overwhelming the SOC.❌C. Event sampling for raw data – Doesn’t provide context for risk-based detection.❌D. Automated dashboards for all accounts – Useful for visibility, but not the first step for risk-based security.

References & Learning Resources

????Splunk ES Risk-Based Alerting (RBA): https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/security/risk-based-alerting.html ????Privileged Account Monitoring in Splunk: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/ES/latest/User/RiskBasedAlerting ????Implementing Privileged Access Security (PAM) with Splunk: https://splunkbase.splunk.com

Threat intelligence in Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) enhances SOC capabilities by identifying known attack patterns, suspicious activity, and malicious indicators.

Essential Steps in Developing Threat Intelligence:

Collecting Data from Trusted Sources (A)

Gather data from threat intelligence feeds (e.g., STIX, TAXII, OpenCTI, VirusTotal, AbuseIPDB).

Include internal logs, honeypots, and third-party security vendors.

Analyzing and Correlating Threat Data (C)

Use correlation searches to match known threat indicators against live data.

Identify patterns in network traffic, logs, and endpoint activity.

Operationalizing Intelligence Through Workflows (E)

Automate responses using Splunk SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response).

Enhance alert prioritization by integrating intelligence into risk-based alerting (RBA).

Security metrics help organizations assess their security posture and make data-driven decisions.

Primary Purpose of Security Metrics in Splunk:

Measure Security Effectiveness (B)

Tracks incident response times, threat detection rates, and alert accuracy.

Helps SOC teams and leadership evaluate security program performance.

Improve Threat Detection & Incident Response

Identifies gaps in detection logic and false positives.

Helps fine-tune correlation searches and notable events.

Effective case management in Splunk Enterprise Security (ES) helps streamline incident tracking, investigation, and resolution.

How to Optimize Case Management:

Standardizing ticket creation workflows (A)

Ensures consistency in how incidents are reported and tracked.

Reduces manual errors and improves collaboration between SOC teams.

Integrating Splunk with ITSM tools (C)

Automates the process of creating and updating tickets in ServiceNow, Jira, or Remedy.

Enables better tracking of incidents and response actions.

Why is Event Timestamping Important in Splunk?

Event timestamps helpmaintain the correct sequence of logs, ensuring that data isaccurately analyzed and correlated over time.

????Why "Ensuring Events Are Organized Chronologically" is the Best Answer?(AnswerD)✅Prevents event misalignment– Ensures logs appear in the correct order.✅Enables accurate correlation searches– Helps SOC analyststrace attack timelines.✅Improves incident investigation accuracy– Ensures that event sequences are correctly reconstructed.

????Example in Splunk:????Scenario:A security analyst investigates abrute-force attackacross multiple logs.✅Without correct timestamps, login failures might appearout of order, making analysis difficult.✅With proper event timestamping, logsline up correctly, allowing SOC analysts to detect theexact attack timeline.

Why Not the Other Options?

❌A. Assigning data to a specific sourcetype– Sourcetypes classify logs butdon’t affect timestamps.❌B. Tagging events for correlation searches– Correlation uses timestamps buttimestamping itself isn’t about tagging.❌C. Synchronizing event data with system time– System time matters, butevent timestamping is about chronological ordering.

References & Learning Resources

????Splunk Event Timestamping Guide: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Data/HowSplunkextractstimestamps ????Best Practices for Log Time Management in Splunk: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/tips-and-tricks ????SOC Investigations & Log Timestamping: https://splunkbase.splunk.com