SC-900 Practice Question: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions
Your company uses Microsoft Purview to protect sensitive data in SharePoint Online. You need to automatically apply a 'Confidential' sensitivity label to documents containing credit card numbers. What should you create?
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
✓
An auto-labeling policy
Auto-labeling policies in Microsoft Purview can automatically apply sensitivity labels based on sensitive info types, such as credit card numbers. Option B (DLP policy) is incorrect because while DLP can detect and protect sensitive data, it does not automatically apply labels; it applies actions like blocking or warning. Option C (retention policy) is incorrect because retention policies manage data retention and deletion, not labeling. Option D (eDiscovery case) is incorrect because eDiscovery cases are used for searching and legal hold purposes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
An auto-labeling policy
Why this is correct
An auto-labeling policy in Microsoft Purview Information Protection is specifically designed to automatically apply sensitivity labels to content that matches predefined conditions. These conditions can include the presence of specific sensitive information types (e.g., credit card numbers, national ID numbers), keywords, or even content identified by trainable classifiers. This proactive approach ensures consistent classification and protection of sensitive data at scale, reducing reliance on manual user labeling.
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A Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy
Why it's wrong here
A Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policy is primarily focused on identifying, monitoring, and protecting sensitive information to prevent its unauthorized sharing or exfiltration. While DLP policies can detect sensitive data based on similar criteria as auto-labeling, their enforcement actions typically involve blocking sharing, notifying administrators, or providing policy tips to users, rather than persistently applying a sensitivity label to the content itself for ongoing protection.
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A retention policy
Why it's wrong here
A retention policy in Microsoft Purview is used to manage the lifecycle of data by defining how long content should be kept or deleted to meet regulatory, legal, or business requirements. Its purpose is to ensure data is retained for compliance or securely disposed of when no longer needed. However, retention policies do not automatically classify content or apply sensitivity labels based on the data's inherent sensitivity; they govern the data's existence over time.
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An eDiscovery case
Why it's wrong here
An eDiscovery case within Microsoft Purview is a specialized process used for legal discovery, allowing organizations to identify, preserve, collect, review, and produce electronically stored information (ESI) in response to legal hold requests or investigations. It is a reactive tool for litigation support and compliance audits, not a proactive mechanism for automatically classifying or applying protection to sensitive data as part of an ongoing information protection strategy.
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Microsoft Entra ID
Key term
Policy
A policy is a set of rules or guidelines that defines how an organization manages, secures, and operates its IT systems and services.
Key term
DLP policy
A DLP policy is a set of rules that an organization uses to prevent sensitive data from being lost, stolen, or accidentally exposed, whether it is in use, in motion, or at rest.
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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.