Your organization uses Microsoft Sentinel with a Log Analytics workspace in the East US region. You have deployed the Microsoft Defender for Cloud connector. You notice that security alerts from Defender for Cloud are not appearing as incidents in Sentinel. You have confirmed that the connector is enabled and data is flowing. What is the most likely cause?
Microsoft Sentinel does not automatically create incidents from ingested security alerts; it requires an analytics rule to generate them. The Microsoft Defender for Cloud connector only ingests alerts into the SecurityAlert table in the Log Analytics workspace. To create incidents, you must create or enable an analytics rule that queries the SecurityAlert table and defines the incident properties. Without such a rule, alerts remain as raw log data and never appear in the Incidents queue.
Why this answer
The Microsoft Defender for Cloud connector ingests security alerts into the Log Analytics workspace's SecurityAlert table, but incidents in Microsoft Sentinel are generated only by analytics rules. Without a configured analytics rule that queries the SecurityAlert table (such as the built-in 'Create incidents based on Microsoft Defender for Cloud alerts' template), no incidents will be created even if data is flowing. Option C correctly identifies this missing step.
Exam trap
The trap here is that candidates assume enabling the connector automatically creates incidents, but Microsoft Sentinel requires an explicit analytics rule to generate incidents from any data source, including Defender for Cloud alerts.
How to eliminate wrong answers
Option A is wrong because the Sentinel workspace uses a system-assigned managed identity with built-in permissions (e.g., 'Microsoft Sentinel Contributor') to create incidents; if data is flowing, permissions are sufficient. Option B is wrong because incident creation is not subject to a 24-hour delay; it occurs within minutes of an alert being ingested if an analytics rule is active. Option D is wrong because the connector is confirmed enabled and data is flowing, so the connector itself is properly configured; the issue lies in the absence of an analytics rule.