The answer is confidentiality. This security goal ensures that data is not disclosed to unauthorized entities, and encryption protocols like TLS directly achieve this by rendering transmitted data unreadable to any party that intercepts the traffic, thereby protecting against unauthorized access during transmission. On the SC-900 exam, this distinction between confidentiality, integrity, and availability is a core concept, often tested with scenarios involving encryption (confidentiality), hashing or checksums (integrity), and uptime or redundancy (availability). A common trap is confusing encryption with integrity, but remember that encryption protects secrecy, not accuracy. A useful memory tip is the CIA triad: think of a sealed, tamper-proof safe—confidentiality is the lock keeping contents secret, integrity is the seal proving nothing was altered, and availability is having the key when you need it.
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. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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's security policy requires that all data transferred between the corporate data center and the cloud must be protected from unauthorized access during transmission. They use encryption protocols such as TLS to achieve this. Which security goal is primarily being addressed?
Encrypting data during transmission ensures that only authorized parties can read the data, thereby maintaining confidentiality.
B
Integrity
Why wrong: Integrity ensures that data is not tampered with. While encryption can help detect tampering, the primary goal described is preventing unauthorized access, which is confidentiality.
C
Availability
Why wrong: Availability ensures that systems and data are accessible when needed. Encryption does not directly address availability.
D
Non-repudiation
Why wrong: Non-repudiation provides proof of origin and integrity of data, often through digital signatures. It is not the primary goal of encryption during transmission.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is the security goal that ensures data is not disclosed to unauthorized entities. By using encryption protocols such as TLS, the data in transit is rendered unreadable to any party that intercepts the traffic, directly protecting against unauthorized access during transmission.
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.
✓
Confidentiality
Why this is correct
Encrypting data during transmission ensures that only authorized parties can read the data, thereby maintaining confidentiality.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Integrity
Why it's wrong here
Integrity ensures that data is not tampered with. While encryption can help detect tampering, the primary goal described is preventing unauthorized access, which is confidentiality.
✗
Availability
Why it's wrong here
Availability ensures that systems and data are accessible when needed. Encryption does not directly address availability.
✗
Non-repudiation
Why it's wrong here
Non-repudiation provides proof of origin and integrity of data, often through digital signatures. It is not the primary goal of encryption during transmission.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may confuse encryption with integrity, thinking that encryption alone prevents tampering, but encryption only provides confidentiality; integrity requires separate mechanisms like MACs or digital signatures, which TLS also includes but are not the primary goal stated in the question.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
TLS uses a combination of symmetric encryption (e.g., AES) for bulk data and asymmetric encryption (e.g., RSA or ECDHE) for key exchange to establish a secure channel. The encryption ensures confidentiality, while TLS also provides integrity through a Message Authentication Code (MAC) appended to each record, but the question specifically asks for the primary goal of protecting data from unauthorized access, which is confidentiality. In a real-world scenario, an attacker capturing TLS-encrypted traffic (e.g., via a man-in-the-middle attack without the keys) would see only ciphertext, thus confidentiality is preserved.
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 — Confidentiality is the security goal that ensures data is not disclosed to unauthorized entities. By using encryption protocols such as TLS, the data in transit is rendered unreadable to any party that intercepts the traffic, directly protecting against unauthorized access during transmission.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. 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?
easy
A.Integrity
B.Availability
✓ C.Confidentiality
D.Non-repudiation
Why C: 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.
Variation 2. A company uses digital signatures to ensure that a sender cannot later deny having sent a message. Which security principle does this primarily address?
medium
A.Confidentiality
B.Integrity
C.Availability
✓ D.Non-repudiation
Why D: Digital signatures use asymmetric cryptography (e.g., RSA or ECDSA) to bind a signer's identity to a message. The signature is created with the sender's private key and verified with their public key, providing cryptographic proof of origin. This directly enforces non-repudiation because the sender cannot plausibly deny having signed the message, as only they possess the private key.
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Question Discussion
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