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. 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.
A company uses cryptographic hashes to verify that a downloaded software file has not been modified by an attacker during transmission. Which principle of the CIA triad is primarily being addressed?
Why wrong: Confidentiality focuses on ensuring data is accessible only to authorized individuals. Hashing does not prevent unauthorized reading of data; it only detects changes.
B
Integrity
Integrity ensures data has not been altered. Hashing provides a fingerprint of the original data; any modification changes the hash, thus verifying integrity.
C
Availability
Why wrong: Availability ensures systems and data are accessible when needed. Hashing does not affect system uptime or accessibility.
D
Non-repudiation
Why wrong: Non-repudiation prevents a party from denying an action, typically achieved through digital signatures. Hashing alone does not provide proof of origin or action.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Integrity
Cryptographic hashing (e.g., SHA-256) produces a fixed-size digest from the file's contents. By comparing the computed hash with the publisher's published hash, any change to the file—even a single bit—yields a completely different digest, proving the file has not been tampered with. This directly protects the integrity of the data, ensuring it remains unaltered during transit.
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 it's wrong here
Confidentiality focuses on ensuring data is accessible only to authorized individuals. Hashing does not prevent unauthorized reading of data; it only detects changes.
✓
Integrity
Why this is correct
Integrity ensures data has not been altered. Hashing provides a fingerprint of the original data; any modification changes the hash, thus verifying integrity.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Availability
Why it's wrong here
Availability ensures systems and data are accessible when needed. Hashing does not affect system uptime or accessibility.
✗
Non-repudiation
Why it's wrong here
Non-repudiation prevents a party from denying an action, typically achieved through digital signatures. Hashing alone does not provide proof of origin or action.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse 'hashing' with 'encryption' and incorrectly select Confidentiality, or they see 'verification of origin' and jump to Non-repudiation, forgetting that a bare hash only detects modification, not identity.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cryptographic hash functions like SHA-256 are one-way and collision-resistant; even a single-bit change in the input produces a completely different output (avalanche effect). In practice, publishers often sign the hash with a private key (e.g., using GPG or Authenticode) to also provide non-repudiation, but the question specifically isolates the hash's role in verifying integrity. A subtle behavior: if an attacker can replace both the file and the published hash, integrity is broken—this is why secure distribution of the hash (e.g., over HTTPS) is critical.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
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: Integrity — Cryptographic hashing (e.g., SHA-256) produces a fixed-size digest from the file's contents. By comparing the computed hash with the publisher's published hash, any change to the file—even a single bit—yields a completely different digest, proving the file has not been tampered with. This directly protects the integrity of the data, ensuring it remains unaltered during transit.
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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