To detect and alert on cryptominer network activity, the policy type that should be used is an Anomaly policy. Anomaly policies in Prisma Cloud are designed to identify unusual and potentially malicious activities, including the network patterns typical of cryptomining operations. These policies leverage behavioral analytics to spot deviations from normal operations, making Option B the correct answer.

Suspicious network actors—Exposes suspicious connections by inspecting the network traffic to and from your cloud environment and correlating it with AutoFocus, Palo Alto Networks threat intelligence feed. AutoFocus identifies IP addresses involved in suspicious or malicious activity and classifies them into one of eighteen categories. Some examples of the categories are Backdoor, Botnet, Cryptominer, DDoS, Ransomware, Rootkit, and Worm. There are thirty-six policies, two for each of the eighteen categories—internal and external.

To authenticate to Prisma Cloud Enterprise programmatically, the use of an access key is the most suitable method among the given options. Access keys, typically consisting of an Access Key ID and Secret Access Key, are used for programmatic calls to the Prisma Cloud API. This method enables secure, authenticated API requests to Prisma Cloud services without requiring manual user intervention, which is essential for automation and integration with CI/CD pipelines.

Reference to the use of access keys for programmatic access can often be found in the API documentation of cloud security platforms like Prisma Cloud. While specific documentation from Prisma Cloud is not directly quoted here, the general practice across cloud services (AWS, Azure, GCP) supports the use of access keys for API authentication, making it a verified approach for Prisma Cloud as well.