Sophos Certified Engineer Practice Exam

What policy should be enabled to mitigate exploits in vulnerable applications?

1. Integrity Monitoring

2. Threat Protection

3. Application Whitelisting

4. Firewall Policy

The correct answer is: Threat Protection

To effectively mitigate exploits in vulnerable applications, enabling Threat Protection is crucial. This policy focuses on detecting and blocking malicious behavior and potential threats before they can exploit vulnerabilities in the software. It encompasses various protective measures, including real-time protection against malware and advanced threats that target applications. While other options like Integrity Monitoring and Application Whitelisting provide significant security benefits, they serve different primary purposes. Integrity Monitoring is mainly aimed at identifying unauthorized changes to files or configurations, while Application Whitelisting prevents unauthorized applications from executing but does not specifically address vulnerabilities in those that are allowed. The Firewall Policy, while essential for controlling network traffic and blocking unwanted connections, may not provide the targeted protection needed for specifically protecting against exploits in individual applications. Therefore, Threat Protection stands out as the most appropriate policy for this scenario because it specifically targets and mitigates risks associated with vulnerabilities, providing a comprehensive defensive layer against potential exploits.