- A
Investigate the alert by reviewing related entities and logs.
Investigation determines if the alert is a true positive before taking action.
- B
Close the incident as a false positive.
Why wrong: Closing without investigation may miss a real threat.
- C
Escalate to senior management.
Why wrong: Escalation is not necessary for a low-confidence alert without investigation.
- D
Isolate the affected account immediately.
Why wrong: Isolation without investigation could disrupt legitimate user activity.
Question 567 of 1,639
SC-200 Respond to security incidents Practice Question
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.
You receive an incident in Microsoft Sentinel that is a low-confidence alert from Microsoft Defender for Identity. What should be your first step?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"first"Why it matters: Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
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
✓
Investigate the alert by reviewing related entities and logs.
A low-confidence alert from Microsoft Defender for Identity indicates a potential but uncertain threat. The first step should always be to investigate the alert by reviewing related entities and logs to gather context and determine if the alert is a true positive or false positive. Prematurely closing, escalating, or isolating without investigation risks missing a real threat or causing unnecessary disruption.
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.
- ✓
Investigate the alert by reviewing related entities and logs.
Why this is correct
Investigation determines if the alert is a true positive before taking action.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Close the incident as a false positive.
Why it's wrong here
Closing without investigation may miss a real threat.
- ✗
Escalate to senior management.
Why it's wrong here
Escalation is not necessary for a low-confidence alert without investigation.
- ✗
Isolate the affected account immediately.
Why it's wrong here
Isolation without investigation could disrupt legitimate user activity.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may assume low-confidence alerts are always false positives and close them immediately, but the correct triage process requires investigation first to avoid missing subtle attacks that manifest as low-confidence alerts.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Microsoft Defender for Identity uses behavioral analytics and machine learning to generate alerts with confidence levels (low, medium, high). A low-confidence alert often indicates anomalous behavior that does not match known attack patterns strongly enough to be high confidence. Investigating related entities such as user accounts, devices, and network logs (e.g., Kerberos authentication events, LDAP queries) helps correlate the alert with other signals in Microsoft Sentinel to confirm or dismiss the threat.
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 company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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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: Investigate the alert by reviewing related entities and logs. — A low-confidence alert from Microsoft Defender for Identity indicates a potential but uncertain threat. The first step should always be to investigate the alert by reviewing related entities and logs to gather context and determine if the alert is a true positive or false positive. Prematurely closing, escalating, or isolating without investigation risks missing a real threat or causing unnecessary disruption.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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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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