MS-102 Practice Question: Manage security and threats by using Microsoft Defender XDR
Your organization uses Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft 365 E5 licenses. You are a security administrator. The security team wants to receive email notifications for high-severity incidents only. You need to configure the notification settings. What should you do?
⚠ Common exam trap
MS-102 often tests the confusion between incident response rules (which automate actions) and email notification settings (which send emails), leading candidates to choose the wrong feature.
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
✓
In the Microsoft Defender XDR portal, go to Settings > Microsoft 365 Defender > Email notifications, and create a notification for high-severity incidents.
In Microsoft Defender XDR, email notifications for incidents are configured under Settings > Microsoft 365 Defender > Email notifications. You can create a notification rule that specifies the severity level (e.g., high) and recipients. This directly fulfills the requirement to receive email notifications for high-severity incidents only.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
In the Microsoft Defender XDR portal, go to Settings > Microsoft 365 Defender > Email notifications, and create a notification for high-severity incidents.
Why this is correct
Microsoft Defender XDR email notifications are configured under Settings > Microsoft 365 Defender > Email notifications, where you define the incident severity threshold. Creating a notification scoped to high severity delivers exactly the requested alerts, filtering out medium and low incidents.
- ✗
Create an incident response rule that sends an email when a high-severity incident is created.
Why it's wrong here
Incident response rules in Microsoft Defender XDR trigger automated actions such as tagging or running playbooks; email notification of high-severity incidents is governed by the incident email notification settings instead. It is tempting because rules respond to incidents, and would be correct for automating containment actions, not delivering severity-filtered emails.
- ✗
Use the Microsoft Purview compliance portal to create an alert policy.
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview alert policies cover compliance and data-governance signals such as DLP and eDiscovery, not Defender XDR incident severity. It is tempting because Purview also sends email alerts, and would be correct for notifying on compliance-policy matches rather than high-severity security incidents.
- ✗
Configure a service health notification in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Why it's wrong here
Service health notifications report Microsoft 365 service outages and advisories, not security incident severity. It is tempting because it is an email notification configured in the admin centre, and would be correct for alerting administrators to service degradation or advisory events affecting tenant availability.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Microsoft 365 Security Posture Improvement
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.
Key term
XDR
XDR, or Extended Detection and Response, is a unified security platform that collects and correlates data across multiple security layers—endpoints, networks, servers, cloud workloads, and email—to improve threat detection and enable faster response.
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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.