SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
An organization needs to prevent users from sharing files containing trade secrets with external parties via email. The solution must allow internal sharing. Which Microsoft Purview capability should be configured?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse Sensitivity Labels with encryption as a data loss prevention mechanism, but encryption alone does not block external email transmission—DLP policies are required to enforce the 'block external sharing' action based on content inspection.
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 Data Loss Prevention policies
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies are designed to detect and block the sharing of sensitive information—such as trade secrets—via email or other channels, while still allowing internal sharing. DLP can inspect email content and attachments for sensitive data types and apply actions like blocking external sends, making it the correct choice for this requirement.
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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Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance is designed to help organizations detect and remediate inappropriate communications, such as harassment, insider trading, or regulatory violations, across various platforms like Microsoft Teams and Exchange. While it can identify sensitive information *within* communications, its primary function is monitoring and auditing communication content, not actively preventing the sharing of files or enforcing sharing restrictions on documents. It focuses on human behavior and policy adherence in messaging.
- ✓
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention policies
Why this is correct
Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies are specifically engineered to identify, monitor, and automatically protect sensitive information across Microsoft 365 services, endpoints, and on-premises repositories. By defining rules based on sensitive information types, labels, or keywords, DLP policies can actively prevent users from sharing files containing sensitive data externally, internally, or to unauthorized applications, thus directly addressing the requirement to block file sharing. These policies enforce controls to stop data exfiltration.
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Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) is primarily concerned with governing the retention and deletion of data throughout its lifecycle, from creation to disposition. Its core capabilities include setting retention policies to meet regulatory requirements, ensuring data is kept for a specific period, or automatically deleted when no longer needed. DLM does not provide mechanisms to prevent users from sharing files; it focuses on data governance related to storage duration and eventual deletion.
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Microsoft Purview Sensitivity Labels with encryption
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Sensitivity Labels, when configured with encryption, protect the content of a file by restricting who can access and use it once it has been shared. While encryption ensures that only authorized individuals can decrypt and view the information, it does not inherently prevent a user from initiating the act of sharing the encrypted file itself. The core function of encryption is to protect data confidentiality at rest and in transit, not to block the sharing action from occurring in the first place.
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Microsoft Entra ID
Key term
Data Loss Prevention
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is a set of tools and processes that help organizations stop sensitive information from being shared, leaked, or stolen, whether accidentally or on purpose.
Key term
DLP
Data Loss Prevention — security technology that detects and prevents unauthorised transmission of sensitive data outside an organisation.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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