MS-102 Practice Question: Manage security and threats by using Microsoft Defender XDR
Your organization uses Microsoft 365 Defender. You need to configure automated investigation and response (AIR) to automatically remediate high-confidence phishing emails. What should you configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is that AIR is a cross-workload capability, so candidates must map the specific scenario (phishing emails) to the email workload — picking devices or identities because those are more commonly discussed in Defender contexts.
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
✓
Automated investigation and response for email
Automated investigation and response (AIR) for email in Microsoft 365 Defender automatically investigates and remediates phishing emails, including high-confidence detections. Configuring AIR for email enables the system to take remediation actions like soft-deleting messages, blocking senders, and removing malicious content without manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Automated investigation and response for collaboration content
Why it's wrong here
Automated investigation and response for collaboration content is scoped exclusively to threats within SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Teams, such as malicious files and unauthorized sharing. It does not inspect or act on email messages or mail flow, so it cannot remediate a phishing email that arrives in an inbox. Thus this AIR capability is the wrong choice for an email-based threat.
- ✗
Automated investigation and response for identities
Why it's wrong here
Automated investigation and response for identities is designed around identity-related risks, such as compromised user accounts, impossible travel, and suspicious sign-in behavior. It triggers playbooks that disable accounts or revoke sessions, but it does not parse email content or take remediation actions on messages. Because the threat in this scenario is a phishing email rather than an identity compromise, this capability does not apply.
- ✓
Automated investigation and response for email
Why this is correct
Automated investigation and response for email is the correct capability because it directly addresses threats found in email messages, including phishing, malware, and spam. When a suspicious email is detected, this AIR capability automatically launches an investigation, gathers evidence, and can take built-in remediation actions such as soft-deleting the message from all mailboxes, quarantining it, or blocking the sender. This is the only AIR workflow specifically tuned for email-borne threats in Microsoft 365 Defender.
- ✗
Automated investigation and response for devices
Why it's wrong here
Automated investigation and response for devices focuses on endpoints, investigating suspicious processes, behavior, or malware detected on Windows, macOS, or Linux devices. It runs playbooks that isolate devices, terminate processes, or remove files, but it has no visibility into email content or mail flow. Since the problem involves email rather than endpoint activity, this AIR capability is not the applicable remedy.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Auto-Labeling Policies for Sensitive Content
Key term
Phishing
Phishing is a type of cyber attack where criminals impersonate legitimate organizations or individuals to trick victims into revealing sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, or personal data.
Key term
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based cloud service from Microsoft that combines productivity tools like Office apps with security, device management, and online storage.
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This MS-102 question is part of Courseiva's 712-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Microsoft exam blueprint
This MS-102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Microsoft 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 MS-102 exam.