The best answer is C. Execute the file in a sandbox.
A sandbox is an isolated environment used to safely run suspicious files and observe their behavior without risking production systems. In this case, the analyst only used antivirus scanning, which may miss new, obfuscated, or previously unknown ransomware. By executing the file in a sandbox, the analyst could have observed malicious behaviors such as:
file encryption attempts
process spawning
registry changes
network beaconing
suspicious system modifications
This makes sandboxing a much better method for analyzing potentially malicious files than relying only on signature-based antivirus.
Why the other options are incorrect:
A. Review the file in a code editor.This might help in limited cases, but many malicious files are compiled, packed, or obfuscated. It is not a reliable primary analysis method.
B. Monitor the file connections with netstat.Netstat only shows network connections and would not fully reveal ransomware behavior, especially if the malware acts locally before making network connections.
D. Retrieve the file hash and check with OSINT.Hash reputation checks can help identify known malware, but they do not detect new or modified ransomware samples that do not yet appear in threat intelligence sources.
From the SY0-701 perspective, suspicious files should be analyzed using dynamic analysis in a sandbox to identify behavior that static tools may miss. That is why C is the best answer.
