SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
A company stores financial reports in SharePoint Online that contain credit card numbers. The compliance team needs to automatically apply a sensitivity label that encrypts the documents when they detect credit card data. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the detection and blocking capabilities of Data Loss Prevention (DLP) with the automatic classification and encryption features of Information Protection, assuming DLP can also apply labels, when in fact DLP only monitors and controls data in motion or at rest without modifying the document's protection settings.
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
✓
Information Protection
Microsoft Purview Information Protection (A) is the correct solution because it enables the creation of auto-labeling policies that can automatically apply a sensitivity label with encryption when credit card numbers are detected in SharePoint Online documents. This directly addresses the requirement to classify and protect sensitive data at rest based on content inspection.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Information Protection
Why this is correct
Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP) provides sensitivity labels that can be configured to automatically detect sensitive information, such as financial data patterns, within documents stored in SharePoint Online. These labels then apply specific protection actions, including visual markings, encryption, and access restrictions, ensuring that financial reports are classified and secured based on their content without manual intervention. This directly addresses the need to protect financial reports.
- ✗
Data Loss Prevention
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies are designed to identify, monitor, and protect sensitive information across various locations by preventing its unauthorized sharing or transfer outside the organization. While DLP can detect financial data, its primary function is to enforce rules against data exfiltration, not to automatically apply sensitivity labels for content-based classification, encryption, or persistent protection within SharePoint itself.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to prevent users from sharing credit card numbers via email or SharePoint by blocking the transmission or warning the user. In that scenario, Data Loss Prevention would be the correct solution.
- ✗
Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management primarily focuses on governing the retention and deletion of data across its lifecycle, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements for how long data is kept or when it's disposed of. While crucial for compliance, it does not offer capabilities for automatic content-based classification, encryption, or access control of documents, which are necessary for protecting financial reports from unauthorized access.
- ✗
Records Management
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Records Management is designed for managing high-value, business-critical records, ensuring their immutable retention and defensible disposition according to legal and regulatory obligations. It allows for declaring content as a record and applying specific retention schedules, but it does not provide the functionality to automatically classify or encrypt documents based on their sensitive content, which is the core requirement for protecting financial reports.
When this WOULD be correct
An organization needs to retain financial documents for a regulatory period of 7 years and then automatically delete them. Records Management would be the correct solution to define retention labels and disposition rules.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The SC-900 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓Information ProtectionCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Microsoft Purview Information Protection (MPIP) provides sensitivity labels that can be configured to automatically detect sensitive information, such as financial data patterns, within documents stored in SharePoint Online. These labels then apply specific protection actions, including visual markings, encryption, and access restrictions, ensuring that financial reports are classified and secured based on their content without manual intervention. This directly addresses the need to protect financial reports.
✗Data Loss PreventionWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies can detect credit card numbers and block or warn users, but they do not automatically apply sensitivity labels or encrypt documents. The requirement is to label and encrypt, which is a function of Information Protection.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to prevent users from sharing credit card numbers via email or SharePoint by blocking the transmission or warning the user. In that scenario, Data Loss Prevention would be the correct solution.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates often confuse DLP with sensitivity labels because both involve detecting sensitive data like credit card numbers, but DLP focuses on preventing data loss through actions like blocking sharing, not on labeling or encryption.
✗Records ManagementWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Records Management is used for managing retention and disposition of records, not for automatically applying sensitivity labels based on content detection like credit card numbers.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
An organization needs to retain financial documents for a regulatory period of 7 years and then automatically delete them. Records Management would be the correct solution to define retention labels and disposition rules.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Records Management with Information Protection because both involve labeling, but Records Management focuses on retention and deletion, not on encryption or content-based classification.
Analysis generated from the official SC-900blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Compliance Concepts
Key term
Information protection
Information protection refers to the policies, procedures, and technologies used to safeguard data from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction.
Key term
SharePoint Online
SharePoint Online is a cloud-based collaboration platform from Microsoft that lets teams create, store, organize, and share content securely from anywhere.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SC-900 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-900 exam.