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220-1201 Practice Question: A technician is configuring an MFP for a…
A technician is configuring an MFP for a healthcare clinic that must comply with HIPAA. The MFP has a built-in hard drive that stores scanned documents. The clinic wants to ensure that once a document is scanned and transmitted, it cannot be recovered from the MFP's drive. What feature should the technician enable?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Secure erase after transmission
Secure erase (or data overwrite) is a feature that overwrites the hard drive with patterns of data to prevent recovery. This is critical for compliance in environments like healthcare where patient data must be protected after use.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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User authentication with PIN
Why it's wrong here
User authentication with a PIN primarily controls access to the MFP's functions, preventing unauthorized individuals from initiating scans or prints. However, it does not address the lifecycle of data once it has been scanned and temporarily stored on the device's internal hard drive. The sensitive data, such as Protected Health Information (PHI), would remain on the drive until explicitly deleted or overwritten, regardless of who authenticated to use the machine.
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Secure print release
Why it's wrong here
Secure print release is a feature designed to hold print jobs in a queue until the user physically authenticates at the printer, ensuring that sensitive documents are not left unattended for unauthorized viewing. This mechanism is solely focused on managing the output of printed materials and has no functional impact on how scanned data is handled, stored, or purged from the MFP's internal storage after a scanning operation is completed.
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Hard drive encryption
Why it's wrong here
Hard drive encryption protects data at rest by scrambling its contents, making it unreadable to unauthorized parties if the drive is physically removed or accessed without the proper decryption key. While crucial for data security, encryption does not remove or overwrite the data itself. The encrypted data still resides on the drive, and if the encryption key were ever compromised or the drive decrypted, the sensitive information would become accessible, failing to meet requirements for permanent data disposal.
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Secure erase after transmission
Why this is correct
Secure erase after transmission involves overwriting the specific sectors on the MFP's hard drive where sensitive scanned data was temporarily stored, typically multiple times with specific patterns (e.g., zeros, ones, or random data). This process ensures that the original data becomes forensically unrecoverable, even with advanced data recovery tools. This method is crucial for compliance with regulations like HIPAA, as it guarantees the permanent removal of Protected Health Information (PHI) from the device's storage after it has been successfully transmitted.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1201 exam.