SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
A company wants to automatically detect emails in Exchange Online that contain credit card numbers and apply encryption to those emails before they are sent. Which Microsoft Purview solution should the administrator configure?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse sensitivity labels (which can also apply encryption) with DLP, but sensitivity labels require manual or automatic classification based on label policies, not real-time content scanning of specific sensitive data patterns like credit card numbers in transit.
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 Loss Prevention (DLP)
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in Microsoft Purview is specifically designed to detect sensitive information such as credit card numbers in emails and automatically apply protective actions like encryption. DLP policies can scan Exchange Online messages in transit and enforce rules to encrypt the email before it is sent, which directly meets the 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.
- ✗
Information Protection (sensitivity labels)
Why it's wrong here
Sensitivity labels are designed to classify data based on its sensitivity and apply protective actions like encryption or watermarking directly to the content itself. While labels can be applied automatically based on content, this typically occurs at rest or during creation/editing, not as a primary mechanism for automatically detecting and encrypting unlabeled sensitive content in transit within email flows. Their role is to ensure classified data remains protected, not to intercept and protect unclassified sensitive data leaving the organization.
- ✓
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
Why this is correct
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies are specifically engineered to inspect content in real-time for sensitive information types (SITs), such as credit card numbers or national ID numbers, across various locations including Exchange Online. When a policy match is detected in an outgoing email, DLP can automatically enforce protective actions like blocking the email, notifying administrators, or applying encryption to prevent unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data in transit. This makes DLP the direct solution for automatically detecting and encrypting emails containing sensitive information.
- ✗
Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) focuses on governing the entire lifecycle of an organization's data, from its creation to its eventual disposition. This primarily involves applying retention labels and policies to ensure data is kept for compliance or business needs and then deleted appropriately. DLM is not designed for real-time content inspection of emails in transit to detect sensitive information and apply immediate protective actions like encryption; its scope is data retention and deletion, not preventing data leakage.
- ✗
eDiscovery
Why it's wrong here
eDiscovery is a process used to identify, preserve, collect, review, and analyze electronically stored information (ESI) for legal or investigative purposes. It operates on data that already exists within the organization's systems, such as mailboxes or SharePoint sites, to fulfill legal holds or respond to litigation. eDiscovery tools are not designed to actively monitor outgoing email traffic, detect sensitive content in real-time, and automatically apply encryption to prevent data loss; their function is reactive investigation, not proactive prevention.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Microsoft Entra ID
Key term
Encryption
Encryption is the process of converting readable data into a secret code to prevent unauthorized access.
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.
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.