IntermediateTECHNICAL
Walk me through how you would analyze and respond to a suspected phishing email that a user has reported, from initial triage in the email gateway/SIEM through to containment and user education. What specific tools and artifacts would you examine at each step?
Cybersecurity Analyst
General

Sample Answer

If a user reports a suspected phish, I start by preserving evidence and checking the email in our gateway and SIEM. In the gateway (like Proofpoint or O365 Defender), I pull the full message: headers, body, attachments, and URLs. I look at sender reputation, SPF/DKIM/DMARC results, return-path, and any anomalies in the “Received” chain. In the SIEM, I pivot on sender, subject, and URL to see who else received or interacted with it, and whether there are related alerts from endpoints or proxies. If it’s malicious, I use a sandbox (Cuckoo, hybrid analysis, or the built-in detonation) to analyze attachments and URL behavior, then push an IOC set (domains, hashes, IPs) into our EDR and email filters. We do a retro hunt across mailboxes and endpoints, remove messages in bulk, and isolate any impacted hosts. I close by doing a quick 10–15 minute feedback session or a short write-up to the reporting user and their team, turning it into a teachable moment and reinforcing what “good reporting” looks like.

Keywords

Use email gateway and SIEM first for full message and blast radius analysisExamine headers, SPF/DKIM/DMARC, URLs, attachments, and sandbox resultsPush IOCs to EDR, proxy, and email filters; perform retro hunts and host isolationEnd with targeted user education and positive reinforcement to encourage reporting
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