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 security analyst is explaining the core principles of information security to a new team member. Which principle ensures that data is not modified by unauthorized parties?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Integrity
The principle of integrity ensures that data remains accurate and unaltered during storage, processing, or transmission, except by authorized entities. In the context of information security, integrity is specifically concerned with preventing unauthorized modification, deletion, or creation of data. This is often enforced through mechanisms such as hashing (e.g., SHA-256), digital signatures, and checksums (e.g., CRC32) that detect any tampering.
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.
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Confidentiality
Why it's wrong here
Confidentiality focuses on preventing unauthorized access or disclosure, not modification.
✓
Integrity
Why this is correct
Integrity ensures that data remains accurate and unaltered by unauthorized parties, preventing tampering.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Availability
Why it's wrong here
Availability ensures that systems and data are accessible when needed, but does not address modification.
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Non-repudiation
Why it's wrong here
Non-repudiation provides proof of origin or delivery of data, not protection against modification.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse integrity with confidentiality, mistakenly thinking that encryption (which protects confidentiality) also prevents modification, but encryption alone does not guarantee data has not been altered—integrity requires separate controls like hashing or digital signatures.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, integrity is often verified using cryptographic hash functions like SHA-256, where any change to the data produces a completely different hash value, allowing detection of tampering. In real-world scenarios, integrity is critical in financial transactions (e.g., ensuring a bank transfer amount is not altered in transit) and in firmware updates (e.g., validating a signed hash before installation). A subtle behavior is that integrity does not prevent authorized users from making changes—it only ensures that unauthorized modifications are detectable.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
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 — The principle of integrity ensures that data remains accurate and unaltered during storage, processing, or transmission, except by authorized entities. In the context of information security, integrity is specifically concerned with preventing unauthorized modification, deletion, or creation of data. This is often enforced through mechanisms such as hashing (e.g., SHA-256), digital signatures, and checksums (e.g., CRC32) that detect any tampering.
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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