- A
Submit the email to Microsoft for analysis.
Why wrong: Submission is for analysis, not remediation.
- B
Create a mail flow rule to delete similar emails in the future.
Why wrong: This prevents future emails but does not remove existing ones.
- C
Block the sender using the Tenant Allow/Block List.
Why wrong: Blocking sender does not remove already delivered emails.
- D
Use Threat Explorer to find the email and take action to delete it.
Threat Explorer allows bulk removal of emails.
Question 104 of 1,639
Remove Phishing Email Using Threat Explorer — Remediation in Microsoft Defender for Office 365
This SC-200 practice question tests your understanding of respond to security incidents. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
Your organization uses Microsoft Defender for Office 365. You detect a phishing email that was delivered to a user's inbox. You want to remove the email from all recipients. What should you do?
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
✓
Use Threat Explorer to find the email and take action to delete it.
Threat Explorer in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 allows security analysts to search for specific emails based on attributes like sender, subject, or recipient, and then take bulk remediation actions such as soft-delete (move to Deleted Items) or hard-delete (purge from mailbox). This is the correct tool to remove a phishing email that has already been delivered to users' inboxes, as it provides granular search and remediation capabilities for existing messages.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Submit the email to Microsoft for analysis.
Why it's wrong here
Submission is for analysis, not remediation.
- ✗
Create a mail flow rule to delete similar emails in the future.
Why it's wrong here
This prevents future emails but does not remove existing ones.
- ✗
Block the sender using the Tenant Allow/Block List.
Why it's wrong here
Blocking sender does not remove already delivered emails.
- ✓
Use Threat Explorer to find the email and take action to delete it.
Why this is correct
Threat Explorer allows bulk removal of emails.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse proactive blocking (e.g., blocking the sender or creating a rule) with reactive remediation, failing to recognize that Threat Explorer is the only option that can remove already-delivered emails from user mailboxes.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Threat Explorer uses the Exchange Online mailbox search and delete APIs to perform remediation actions at scale, supporting both soft-delete (which moves messages to the Deleted Items folder) and hard-delete (which purges messages from the mailbox, making them unrecoverable by the user). The action is logged in the audit log and can be applied to up to 100,000 mailboxes per remediation operation. In a real-world scenario, after a phishing campaign is confirmed, an analyst would use Threat Explorer to filter by 'Delivery action: Delivered' and 'Phish confidence level: High' to locate all instances, then select 'Take action' > 'Delete' to remove the emails.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SC-200 question test?
Respond to security incidents — This question tests Respond to security incidents — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use Threat Explorer to find the email and take action to delete it. — Threat Explorer in Microsoft Defender for Office 365 allows security analysts to search for specific emails based on attributes like sender, subject, or recipient, and then take bulk remediation actions such as soft-delete (move to Deleted Items) or hard-delete (purge from mailbox). This is the correct tool to remove a phishing email that has already been delivered to users' inboxes, as it provides granular search and remediation capabilities for existing messages.
What should I do if I get this SC-200 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
This SC-200 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 SC-200 exam.
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