SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity
A healthcare company stores patient records in an Azure SQL database. To protect the data, they enable Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) for the database and require all client connections to use TLS. Which security goal is being primarily addressed by these measures?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse encryption (which protects confidentiality) with integrity or non-repudiation, especially when TLS is involved, but TLS primarily provides confidentiality and only secondary integrity via MACs, not the primary goal in this context.
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
✓
Confidentiality
Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) encrypts data at rest in the Azure SQL database, ensuring that even if the physical storage media is compromised, the data remains unreadable. Requiring TLS for client connections encrypts data in transit, preventing eavesdropping or interception. Both measures directly protect the confidentiality of patient records by preventing unauthorized access to the data.
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 that data remains unaltered and untampered with throughout its lifecycle. While encryption can contribute to integrity by making unauthorized modifications more difficult to conceal, its primary function is to obscure the data's content. Mechanisms like hashing, digital signatures, and robust access controls are the direct and primary methods for detecting and preventing unauthorized data alteration, rather than encryption alone.
- ✓
Confidentiality
Why this is correct
Confidentiality is the principle that sensitive information, such as patient records, is protected from unauthorized disclosure and accessible only to authorized entities. Implementing encryption, both for data at rest (e.g., Transparent Data Encryption for Azure SQL Database) and data in transit (e.g., TLS/SSL), directly ensures that even if data is intercepted or accessed by an unauthorized party, it remains unreadable and unintelligible, thereby upholding its confidentiality.
- ✗
Availability
Why it's wrong here
Availability ensures that authorized users can access systems and data when required, without undue interruption or delay. While crucial for overall system reliability, encryption itself does not directly contribute to the uptime, resilience, or accessibility of a database system. Availability is typically addressed through high-availability configurations, disaster recovery plans, and robust infrastructure, which are separate concerns from data encryption.
- ✗
Non-repudiation
Why it's wrong here
Non-repudiation provides irrefutable proof that a specific action or event occurred, preventing an entity from falsely denying its involvement. This security principle is typically achieved through mechanisms like digital signatures, robust audit logging, and secure timestamps, which establish undeniable evidence of origin or action. Encryption primarily focuses on data secrecy and does not inherently provide the verifiable proof of action required for non-repudiation.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Core Security Concepts
Key term
SQL
SQL is a standard programming language used to manage, query, and manipulate relational databases by issuing commands like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE.
Key term
Transport Layer Security
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol that provides secure, encrypted communication between two devices over a network, such as between a web browser and a server.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every SC-900 question from scratch — 1,250 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.