SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
A company wants to proactively detect and investigate potential insider security risks, such as a departing employee copying large amounts of data to a personal USB drive or sharing confidential files with unauthorized individuals. Which Microsoft Purview solution should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Communication Compliance (which monitors communications) with Insider Risk Management (which monitors risky user behavior and data actions), leading them to select Communication Compliance when the scenario explicitly describes data exfiltration actions rather than communication violations.
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
✓
Insider Risk Management
Insider Risk Management in Microsoft Purview is specifically designed to detect, investigate, and act on risky user activities that may lead to data security incidents, such as unauthorized data exfiltration by departing employees. It uses predefined and customizable policies to correlate signals from Microsoft 365 logs (e.g., copying files to USB, sharing with external users) and applies risk-scoring to prioritize alerts. This makes it the correct solution for proactively identifying potential insider threats like bulk data copying or unauthorized file sharing.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Data Lifecycle Management
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management (DLM) focuses on automating the retention and deletion of data across an organization's data estate to meet compliance and regulatory requirements. Its primary function is to manage the lifecycle of information, ensuring data is kept for the necessary period and then disposed of properly. DLM does not provide capabilities for real-time monitoring or proactive detection of suspicious user behaviors indicative of insider security threats.
- ✓
Insider Risk Management
Why this is correct
Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management is specifically designed to identify, analyze, and act on potentially risky activities by users within the organization, whether malicious or inadvertent. It leverages machine learning and adaptive policies to correlate various signals, such as unusual file access, email forwarding, or USB device usage, to proactively detect and investigate potential insider security threats. This solution provides comprehensive tools for risk scoring, alert management, and forensic investigation of user behaviors to prevent data exfiltration or misuse.
- ✗
Communication Compliance
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance helps organizations detect and remediate policy violations within communication channels like Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, and Yammer. It analyzes messages for content such as harassment, discriminatory language, or the sharing of sensitive information against predefined policies. While it can identify sensitive data shared within messages, it does not monitor file system activities, USB device usage, or other non-communication-based data exfiltration vectors for proactive threat detection.
- ✗
eDiscovery (Standard)
Why it's wrong here
Microsoft Purview eDiscovery (Standard) is a legal discovery tool primarily used to search for, preserve, collect, and export electronic content for legal cases or internal investigations. Its purpose is reactive, focusing on gathering evidence after an event has occurred or a legal hold has been placed, rather than proactively monitoring user behavior for potential threats. It lacks the real-time monitoring, behavioral analytics, and alert generation capabilities necessary for detecting and investigating ongoing insider risks.
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
Microsoft Purview
Microsoft Purview is a unified data governance and compliance service that helps organizations discover, manage, and protect their data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments.
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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.