SC-900 Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity Practice Test 5 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A security administrator is configuring permissions for a new cloud-based expense reporting application. The administrator assigns each employee only the permissions they need to perform their job functions. For example, employees in the Sales department can view expense reports but cannot approve or modify financial data. Which security principle is the administrator implementing?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Least privilege. The administrator is granting each employee only the permissions necessary to perform their job functions, such as Sales being able to view but not approve or modify financial data. This directly implements the principle of least privilege, which restricts access rights to the minimum required for legitimate tasks. In cloud-based applications like expense reporting systems, least privilege reduces the attack surface and limits potential damage from compromised accounts.

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Defense in depth

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Separation of duties

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Zero trust

Question 2

A healthcare organization stores sensitive patient records in a cloud database. The database is encrypted at rest using AES-256. If an attacker gains access to the physical storage media, they cannot read the data. Which security concept does this encryption primarily provide?

Accepted Answer

Confidentiality. Encryption at rest using AES-256 ensures that data stored on physical media is unreadable without the decryption key. If an attacker gains physical access to the storage media, the ciphertext cannot be deciphered, directly protecting the secrecy of the data. This aligns with the security goal of confidentiality, which prevents unauthorized disclosure of information.

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Integrity

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Availability

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Authorization

Question 3

A company hosts a mission-critical customer portal on Azure virtual machines. To ensure continuous availability, they deploy the application across two separate Azure regions. If one region experiences a failure, traffic is automatically routed to the other region with minimal disruption. Which security goal is primarily being addressed by this architecture?

Accepted Answer

Availability. Deploying a mission-critical application across two Azure regions with automatic traffic routing directly addresses the security goal of availability. This architecture ensures that if one region fails, the application remains accessible from the other region, minimizing downtime. Azure Traffic Manager or Azure Front Door can be used to route traffic based on priority or latency, providing high availability and disaster recovery.

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Confidentiality

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Integrity

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Non-repudiation

Question 4

A company issues laptops to all employees with BitLocker full-disk encryption enabled. If a laptop is stolen, the data on the hard drive cannot be read without the recovery key. Which security principle does this measure primarily protect?

Accepted Answer

Confidentiality. BitLocker full-disk encryption ensures that data on a stolen laptop's hard drive is unreadable without the recovery key, directly protecting against unauthorized access. This aligns with the confidentiality principle, which safeguards sensitive information from disclosure to unauthorized parties.

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Integrity

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Availability

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Non-repudiation

Question 5

A company uses digital signatures on all official emails sent to customers. The signature is created using the sender’s private key, allowing recipients to verify that the email truly came from the claimed sender and that it was not altered in transit. Which security goal is primarily achieved by the digital signature?

Accepted Answer

Non-repudiation. Digital signatures use asymmetric cryptography where the sender signs the email with their private key. The recipient can verify the signature using the sender's public key, which proves the identity of the sender and ensures the message has not been tampered with. This directly achieves non-repudiation because the sender cannot deny having sent the email, as only their private key could have created the signature.

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Confidentiality

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Integrity

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Availability

Question 6

A company uses a financial accounting system where the employee who creates a purchase order cannot also approve it. This policy is designed to prevent a single individual from committing fraud by both initiating and approving a transaction. Which security principle does this practice primarily implement?

Accepted Answer

Separation of duties. The practice of requiring different individuals to create and approve purchase orders directly implements the separation of duties principle. This security control ensures that no single person has complete control over a sensitive financial transaction, thereby reducing the risk of fraud or error. In the context of identity and access management, separation of duties enforces that conflicting tasks are assigned to different users to prevent abuse of privileges.

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Least privilege

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Defense in depth

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Zero Trust

Question 7

A hospital encrypts patient data stored in a database using AES-256 encryption. If an attacker manages to copy the database file, they cannot read the protected information. Which security goal is primarily achieved by this encryption measure?

Accepted Answer

Confidentiality. AES-256 encryption ensures that even if an attacker gains unauthorized access to the database file, the data remains unreadable without the decryption key. This directly protects the secrecy of the patient data, which is the definition of confidentiality. In the context of the SC-900, encryption at rest is a primary mechanism for achieving confidentiality of stored data.

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Integrity

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Availability

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Auditability

Question 8

A company is migrating its on-premises applications to Azure. The CIO states that the company is fully responsible for managing the security of its own applications and data, while Microsoft is responsible for the security of the underlying physical infrastructure, such as hardware and data centers. This division of security responsibilities is an example of which concept?

Accepted Answer

Shared responsibility model. The scenario directly describes the shared responsibility model, which delineates security obligations between the cloud provider and the customer. Microsoft secures the physical infrastructure (hardware, data centers, networking), while the customer is responsible for securing their own applications, data, and identity management. This division is a foundational concept in cloud computing, explicitly defined in Microsoft's documentation for Azure.

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Defense in depth

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Zero Trust

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Least privilege

Question 9

A company implements multiple layers of security controls including a firewall, an intrusion detection system (IDS), antivirus software on endpoints, and regular security awareness training for employees. This approach is an example of which security concept?

Accepted Answer

Defense in depth. Defense in depth is the correct answer because the company is implementing multiple layers of security controls (firewall, IDS, antivirus, and security awareness training) to protect assets. This layered approach ensures that if one control fails, another control is in place to mitigate the threat, which is the core principle of defense in depth.

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Zero Trust

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Least privilege

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Shared responsibility

Question 10

A security analyst downloads a software installer from a vendor's website. To ensure the file has not been tampered with during transmission, the analyst compares the SHA-256 hash of the downloaded file against the hash published on the vendor's official site. This practice primarily validates which security goal?

Accepted Answer

Integrity. Comparing the SHA-256 hash of the downloaded installer against the vendor's published hash verifies that the file has not been altered during transmission. This directly validates integrity, which ensures data remains unchanged from its original source. Hashing is a one-way cryptographic function; any change in the file, even a single bit, produces a completely different hash value, making tampering detectable.

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Confidentiality

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Availability

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Authentication

Question 11

A company is moving its on-premises infrastructure to Azure. The CISO wants to understand the division of security responsibilities between the cloud provider and the customer. Which of the following models defines this division?

Accepted Answer

Shared Responsibility Model. The Shared Responsibility Model defines the division of security responsibilities between the cloud provider (Microsoft) and the customer. Microsoft is responsible for the security of the cloud (physical hosts, network, datacenters), while the customer is responsible for security in the cloud (data, identities, access management, and configurations). This model is foundational for understanding compliance and security ownership in Azure.

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CIA triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability)

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Zero Trust Model

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Defense-in-Depth

Question 12

An organization is redesigning its security architecture based on the Zero Trust model. Which principle requires that every access request must be fully authenticated, authorized, and encrypted before granting access, regardless of the network location?

Accepted Answer

Verify explicitly. The Zero Trust model is built on three core principles: verify explicitly, least privilege, and assume breach. The principle that mandates every access request—regardless of whether it originates from inside or outside the corporate network—must be fully authenticated, authorized, and encrypted before granting access is 'verify explicitly'. This means using strong authentication methods (e.g., multifactor authentication), continuous validation of authorization (e.g., Conditional Access policies), and enforcing encryption (e.g., TLS 1.3) for every request, not just those from untrusted locations.

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Assume breach

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Least privilege

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Trust but verify

Question 13

A security architect is explaining identity management concepts to the IT team. Which statement correctly describes the difference between authentication and authorization?

Accepted Answer

Authentication verifies the identity of a user, while authorization determines the resources they can access.. Authentication is the process of verifying a user's identity (e.g., via password, biometric, or certificate), while authorization determines what resources or actions that authenticated identity is permitted to access. In Microsoft Entra ID, authentication occurs first via protocols like OAuth 2.0 or OpenID Connect, and authorization is then enforced through role-based access control (RBAC) or conditional access policies.

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Authentication verifies what a user can do, while authorization verifies who the user is.

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Authorization must always occur before authentication.

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Authentication and authorization are synonymous terms in identity management.

Question 14

A security analyst is explaining the concept of 'defense in depth' to a new team member. Which of the following best describes the defense in depth strategy?

Accepted Answer

Implementing multiple layers of security controls to protect assets. Defense in depth is a cybersecurity strategy that employs multiple layers of security controls across different parts of an IT environment (network, endpoint, application, data) to ensure that if one layer fails, another layer is already in place to mitigate the threat. This approach is fundamental to Microsoft's security architecture, as seen in products like Microsoft Defender for Cloud, which integrates protections across workloads, and Azure Active Directory (now Microsoft Entra ID), which layers conditional access policies on top of identity verification. Option B correctly captures this layered, redundant approach rather than relying on a single point of defense.

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Using a single strong firewall to protect all network traffic

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Relying on user training as the primary security measure

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Applying encryption only to data at rest

Question 15

An organization adopts a Zero Trust security model. Which principle requires that every access request must be explicitly verified and granted least privilege regardless of the user's location or device?

Accepted Answer

Verify explicitly. The Zero Trust principle 'Verify explicitly' mandates that every access request—regardless of the user's location, device, or network—must be authenticated and authorized based on all available data points (e.g., user identity, device health, location, and real-time risk signals). This ensures that no implicit trust is granted, and least privilege is applied as a separate but complementary principle. In Microsoft's Zero Trust model, this is enforced through conditional access policies and continuous evaluation of session risk.

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Use least privilege access

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Assume breach

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Never trust, always verify