The answer is integrity. This is correct because integrity in the CIA triad focuses on verifying that data has not been altered during transit, storage, or processing, which is exactly what the user confirms by checking that the email content remains unchanged after decryption. In practice, integrity is enforced through cryptographic hashing or digital signatures, ensuring that any tampering would break the hash match or signature validation. On the SC-900 exam, this concept often appears in scenarios involving email security, file verification, or database checksums, where the trap is confusing integrity with confidentiality (encryption) or availability (access). A reliable memory tip is to associate integrity with “intact” — if the data is intact and unaltered, integrity is the principle at work.
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 user receives an encrypted email from their bank. They use their private key to decrypt the message. After reading it, they verify that the message content has not been altered during transit. Which security principle is primarily demonstrated by the verification that the content was not altered?
Why wrong: Confidentiality ensures data is accessible only to authorized users; encryption provides this, but the verification of no alteration is about integrity.
B
Integrity
Integrity ensures data has not been altered. Verifying that the message content remains unchanged directly demonstrates integrity.
C
Availability
Why wrong: Availability ensures data and systems are accessible when needed; the scenario does not relate to availability.
D
Non-repudiation
Why wrong: Non-repudiation prevents denial of actions (e.g., sending a message), but verifying content unchanged is about integrity, not non-repudiation.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Integrity
The verification that the message content has not been altered during transit directly demonstrates the principle of integrity. Integrity ensures that data remains unchanged from its source to its destination, typically enforced through cryptographic hashing or digital signatures. In this scenario, the user's ability to confirm that the email content was not tampered with relies on a hash or signature verification mechanism, which is the core function of integrity protection.
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; encryption provides this, but the verification of no alteration is about integrity.
✓
Integrity
Why this is correct
Integrity ensures data has not been altered. Verifying that the message content remains unchanged directly demonstrates integrity.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Availability
Why it's wrong here
Availability ensures data and systems are accessible when needed; the scenario does not relate to availability.
✗
Non-repudiation
Why it's wrong here
Non-repudiation prevents denial of actions (e.g., sending a message), but verifying content unchanged is about integrity, not non-repudiation.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse integrity with non-repudiation, but non-repudiation proves the origin of the message (who sent it), whereas integrity proves the message was not altered—two distinct security goals.
Trap categories for this question
Scenario analysis trap
Availability ensures data and systems are accessible when needed; the scenario does not relate to availability.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Integrity in email security is often implemented using a digital signature (e.g., S/MIME or PGP) where the sender hashes the message and encrypts that hash with their private key. The recipient decrypts the hash using the sender's public key and recomputes the hash of the received message; if the two hashes match, integrity is confirmed. This process relies on cryptographic hash functions like SHA-256, which are collision-resistant and ensure that even a single bit change in transit would produce a different hash value.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
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 verification that the message content has not been altered during transit directly demonstrates the principle of integrity. Integrity ensures that data remains unchanged from its source to its destination, typically enforced through cryptographic hashing or digital signatures. In this scenario, the user's ability to confirm that the email content was not tampered with relies on a hash or signature verification mechanism, which is the core function of integrity protection.
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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