SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
A company uses Microsoft 365 and needs to comply with a regulatory requirement to retain all customer contracts for 5 years after the contract's end date, after which they must be automatically deleted. Additionally, the legal department needs the ability to preserve all documents related to an ongoing lawsuit, overriding any deletion timelines. Which Microsoft Purview solution should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse eDiscovery holds with retention labels, thinking that retention labels alone can handle legal preservation, but they fail to recognize that eDiscovery holds are required to override deletion timelines for litigation purposes.
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
✓
Data Lifecycle Management with retention labels and eDiscovery holds
Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) with retention labels allows the company to apply a retention label to customer contracts that retains them for 5 years after the contract end date and then automatically deletes them. eDiscovery holds can be placed on all documents related to an ongoing lawsuit, which overrides any deletion timelines, ensuring that content is preserved until the hold is released. This combination directly meets both the regulatory retention and legal preservation requirements.
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 Barriers
Why it's wrong here
Information Barriers in Microsoft 365 prevent unauthorized communication and collaboration between specific user segments, often to comply with regulatory requirements like preventing insider trading or conflicts of interest. This feature focuses on controlling who can communicate with whom within the organization. While crucial for ethical walls, it does not provide capabilities for defining how long content should be retained or for placing legal holds on data.
- ✓
Data Lifecycle Management with retention labels and eDiscovery holds
Why this is correct
Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) in Microsoft 365 utilizes retention labels to define how long content should be retained or deleted across various services, ensuring compliance with organizational policies and regulations. Concurrently, eDiscovery holds (also known as litigation holds) are specifically designed to preserve content indefinitely for legal proceedings, overriding any existing retention or deletion policies applied by retention labels. This combination effectively addresses both routine data retention and specific legal preservation requirements.
- ✗
Communication Compliance
Why it's wrong here
Communication Compliance in Microsoft 365 helps organizations detect and remediate policy violations in communications, such as harassment, threats, or the sharing of sensitive information. It uses machine learning to identify problematic content and allows designated reviewers to investigate and take action. However, its primary function is monitoring and remediation of communication content, not the systematic application of retention periods or the placement of legal holds on data.
- ✗
Audit (Premium)
Why it's wrong here
Audit (Premium) in Microsoft 365 provides enhanced logging capabilities, longer retention of audit logs, and intelligent insights into user and admin activities across services. It is essential for forensic investigations, security monitoring, and demonstrating compliance by showing who did what, when, and where. However, Audit (Premium) is a logging and reporting service; it does not directly manage the retention or deletion of user content itself, nor does it place legal holds on documents or emails.
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Microsoft Entra ID
Key term
Data lifecycle management
Data lifecycle management is the process of managing data from its creation to its deletion, ensuring it is stored, used, and disposed of in a way that meets security, compliance, and business needs.
Key term
Microsoft Purview
Microsoft Purview is a unified data governance and compliance service that helps organizations discover, manage, and protect their data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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