The answer is availability. Automated backups and a disaster recovery plan directly uphold the availability principle of the CIA triad by ensuring that critical databases can be restored and operations resumed quickly after a system failure, guaranteeing that systems and data remain accessible to authorized users when needed. On the Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals SC-900 exam, this concept tests your ability to distinguish availability from integrity (which protects data accuracy) and confidentiality (which restricts unauthorized access). A common trap is confusing backups with integrity, but remember: backups are about restoring access after a failure, not preventing data tampering. For a quick memory tip, think of the acronym BAD: Backups and Disaster recovery ensure Availability against Downtime.
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 company regularly performs automated backups of its critical databases and has a disaster recovery plan to restore operations quickly after a system failure. Which security principle is primarily being addressed by these measures?
Why wrong: Confidentiality ensures data is accessible only to authorized users; backups and disaster recovery are not primarily about access control.
B
Integrity
Why wrong: Integrity ensures data is not altered by unauthorized parties; while backups can help restore to a known good state, the primary goal here is ensuring continued access to data and services.
C
Availability
Availability ensures systems and data are accessible when needed. Backups and disaster recovery plans directly support availability by enabling recovery from failures.
D
Non-repudiation
Why wrong: Non-repudiation provides proof of actions (e.g., digital signatures) and is not addressed by backups or disaster recovery.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Availability
Automated backups and a disaster recovery plan directly support the Availability principle of the CIA triad by ensuring that critical databases can be restored and operations resumed quickly after a system failure. Availability guarantees that systems and data are accessible to authorized users when needed, and these measures minimize downtime and data loss.
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.
✗
Confidentiality
Why it's wrong here
Confidentiality ensures data is accessible only to authorized users; backups and disaster recovery are not primarily about access control.
✗
Integrity
Why it's wrong here
Integrity ensures data is not altered by unauthorized parties; while backups can help restore to a known good state, the primary goal here is ensuring continued access to data and services.
✓
Availability
Why this is correct
Availability ensures systems and data are accessible when needed. Backups and disaster recovery plans directly support availability by enabling recovery from failures.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Non-repudiation
Why it's wrong here
Non-repudiation provides proof of actions (e.g., digital signatures) and is not addressed by backups or disaster recovery.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse 'backups and disaster recovery' with 'data protection' broadly, incorrectly selecting Confidentiality or Integrity, when the primary goal is to restore access and uptime, which is the essence of Availability.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, automated backups often use snapshot technologies (e.g., Azure SQL Database point-in-time restore) that rely on transaction log backups to recover to any second within the retention period. A disaster recovery plan may involve geo-replication (e.g., Azure SQL Active Geo-Replication) or failover groups to maintain availability across regions, ensuring RPO and RTO targets are met. In real-world scenarios, a misconfigured backup retention policy (e.g., too short a window) can violate availability SLAs even if backups run daily.
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 company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
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: Availability — Automated backups and a disaster recovery plan directly support the Availability principle of the CIA triad by ensuring that critical databases can be restored and operations resumed quickly after a system failure. Availability guarantees that systems and data are accessible to authorized users when needed, and these measures minimize downtime and data loss.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company hosts a mission-critical customer portal on Azure virtual machines. To ensure continuous availability, they deploy the application across two separate Azure regions. If one region experiences a failure, traffic is automatically routed to the other region with minimal disruption. Which security goal is primarily being addressed by this architecture?
easy
A.Confidentiality
B.Integrity
✓ C.Availability
D.Non-repudiation
Why C: Deploying a mission-critical application across two Azure regions with automatic traffic routing directly addresses the security goal of availability. This architecture ensures that if one region fails, the application remains accessible from the other region, minimizing downtime. Azure Traffic Manager or Azure Front Door can be used to route traffic based on priority or latency, providing high availability and disaster recovery.
Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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