SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
A security team needs to investigate a potential data leak where an employee may have emailed sensitive customer information to a competitor. They want to search the unified audit log for specific email activities, such as 'Send' or 'Forward', and generate a detailed report. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse Data Loss Prevention (DLP) with audit logging, assuming DLP can retrospectively search for past email actions, when in fact DLP only applies proactive policies and alerts, not historical audit log queries.
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
✓
Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard or Premium)
Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard or Premium) is the correct solution because it captures and logs specific email activities such as 'Send' and 'Forward' from Exchange Online. The security team can search the unified audit log for these operations and export a detailed report for investigation. Compliance Manager, DLP, and eDiscovery do not provide this direct audit log search capability for individual email actions.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager is a solution designed to help organizations manage their compliance posture against various regulations and standards. It provides a dashboard to assess compliance, track improvement actions, and generate reports for auditors. However, Compliance Manager does not offer direct access to granular audit logs or search capabilities for specific user activities, making it unsuitable for a forensic investigation into a potential data leak.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a proactive security measure focused on preventing sensitive information from being shared inappropriately or leaving the organization. DLP policies identify, monitor, and protect sensitive data in real-time by blocking actions or alerting users and administrators. While DLP can generate alerts when policies are triggered, it does not provide a comprehensive, searchable audit log of all user activities across the environment for retrospective investigation of past events related to a data leak.
- ✓
Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard or Premium)
Why this is correct
Microsoft Purview Audit (Standard or Premium) is the essential service for investigating user and administrator activities across Microsoft 365 services, including potential data leaks. It provides access to the unified audit log, which records a vast array of events such as file access, sharing, deletions, and email activities. Investigators can use the Audit log search tool to pinpoint specific actions, users, and timeframes related to a suspected leak, with Premium offering extended retention and advanced capabilities for in-depth forensic analysis.
- ✗
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Premium)
Why it's wrong here
eDiscovery is used for legal discovery, preserving and exporting content from mailboxes, SharePoint, etc. While it can search for content, it is not designed for searching the audit log by activity type; Audit is the appropriate tool.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Core Security Concepts
Key term
Security
Security in IT is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, damage, or theft.
Key term
Audit
An audit is a systematic, independent review of IT systems, processes, and controls to verify compliance with policies, standards, and regulations.
About these practice questions
One of 1,250 original SC-900 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. 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.