SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity
This SC-900 practice question tests your understanding of describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
A company issues laptops to all employees with BitLocker full-disk encryption enabled. If a laptop is stolen, the data on the hard drive cannot be read without the recovery key. Which security principle does this measure primarily protect?
Why wrong: Integrity ensures data has not been tampered with, but encryption alone does not verify that data has not been altered—it only prevents unauthorized reading.
B
Availability
Why wrong: Availability ensures systems and data are accessible when needed. Encryption does not guarantee accessibility and can actually hinder it if keys are lost.
C
Confidentiality
Confidentiality ensures that data is not disclosed to unauthorized individuals. BitLocker encryption renders the data unreadable without the proper key, directly protecting confidentiality.
D
Non-repudiation
Why wrong: Non-repudiation provides proof of origin or action (e.g., digital signatures). Encryption does not prevent a user from denying they performed an action.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Confidentiality
BitLocker full-disk encryption ensures that data on a stolen laptop's hard drive is unreadable without the recovery key, directly protecting against unauthorized access. This aligns with the confidentiality principle, which safeguards sensitive information from disclosure to unauthorized parties.
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.
✗
Integrity
Why it's wrong here
Integrity ensures data has not been tampered with, but encryption alone does not verify that data has not been altered—it only prevents unauthorized reading.
✗
Availability
Why it's wrong here
Availability ensures systems and data are accessible when needed. Encryption does not guarantee accessibility and can actually hinder it if keys are lost.
✓
Confidentiality
Why this is correct
Confidentiality ensures that data is not disclosed to unauthorized individuals. BitLocker encryption renders the data unreadable without the proper key, directly protecting confidentiality.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Non-repudiation
Why it's wrong here
Non-repudiation provides proof of origin or action (e.g., digital signatures). Encryption does not prevent a user from denying they performed an action.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is confusing encryption's role in confidentiality with integrity or availability, as candidates may mistakenly think encryption prevents data modification (integrity) or ensures access (availability), but it strictly prevents unauthorized reading.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
BitLocker uses AES encryption (typically 128-bit or 256-bit) with a full-volume encryption key (FVEK) protected by a volume master key (VMK), which is in turn secured by the recovery key stored in Active Directory or printed. In a theft scenario, even if the attacker removes the hard drive and connects it to another system, the encrypted data remains inaccessible without the recovery key, ensuring confidentiality under the CIA triad.
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.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this SC-900 question in full detail.
Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity — This question tests Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Confidentiality — BitLocker full-disk encryption ensures that data on a stolen laptop's hard drive is unreadable without the recovery key, directly protecting against unauthorized access. This aligns with the confidentiality principle, which safeguards sensitive information from disclosure to unauthorized parties.
What should I do if I get this SC-900 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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Question Discussion
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