According to the CompTIA CySA+ Certification Exam Study guide, the best action for the security analyst to take after analyzing the trends is to investigate why the number of open SSH ports varied during the six months. This could indicate that malicious actors are attempting to gain access to the system, and it would be important to find out the root cause of this activity in order to prevent further intrusions. Additionally, raising a concern to a supervisor regarding possible malicious use of port 8443 would also be a prudent step, as this port is often used by attackers. As stated in the study guide, "Monitoring network ports and traffic can provide insight into suspicious activity and may be necessary to identify malicious activities". Additionally, "Ports can be used to gain unauthorized access to a system, so it is important to monitor the ports and to take steps to ensure that only necessary ports are open".