The Microsoft Security Fundamentals (SC-900) exam is an entry-level certification that is designed to validate an individual’s understanding of basic security concepts and principles. It is an excellent starting point for anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in cybersecurity or wants to gain a fundamental understanding of security in the Microsoft Cloud. This certification exam is specifically designed for non-technical professionals who are responsible for implementing security solutions or making decisions related to security in their organizations. It covers topics such as security, compliance, identity and access management, and threat protection.
Many individuals who are planning to take the SC-900 exam wonder how difficult it is and what they can expect. In this blog post, we will explore the exam’s difficulty level and provide you with some tips and resources to help you prepare and pass the exam on your first attempt.
Microsoft Security Fundamentals Glossary
Here are some key terms and concepts related to the Microsoft SC-900 exam glossary:
- Cloud Computing: Refers to the delivery of computing services, including servers, storage, databases, software, analytics, and intelligence, over the internet.
- Security: Refers to the protection of information and systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
- Compliance: Refers to the adherence to legal, regulatory, and industry standards and requirements related to data protection, privacy, and security.
- Identity: Refers to the unique digital representation of a person, device, or service that allows them to be authenticated and authorized to access resources and services.
- Access Management: Refers to the process of granting or denying users access to resources and services based on their identity, permissions, and policies.
- Authentication: Refers to the process of verifying the identity of a user, device, or service attempting to access a resource or service.
- Authorization: Refers to the process of granting or denying access to a resource or service based on the authenticated identity, permissions, and policies.
- Encryption: Refers to the process of encoding information in a way that can only be decoded and read by authorized parties.
- Key Management: Refers to the process of generating, storing, and managing cryptographic keys used for encryption and decryption.
- Azure: Refers to Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, which provides a wide range of cloud services, including computing, storage, networking, and analytics.
Preparation resources for the Microsoft SC-900 exam
Here are some official resources to help candidates prepare for the Microsoft SC-900 exam:
- Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Training Course: This is a free, self-paced online course provided by Microsoft to help candidates prepare for the exam. The course covers the key concepts and topics of the exam and includes hands-on exercises and quizzes. Access the course here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/sc-900
- Microsoft Exam Reference Guide: This guide provides an overview of the exam and its objectives, as well as sample questions and tips for exam preparation. Download the guide here: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4USX9
- Microsoft Certification Exam Policies: This document outlines the policies and procedures for taking Microsoft certification exams, including information on exam retakes, exam security, and exam accommodations. Read the policies here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exam-policies
- Microsoft Certification Community: This is a forum for Microsoft certification candidates to connect with other candidates, share study tips and resources, and get answers to their certification-related questions. Join the community here: https://trainingsupport.microsoft.com/en-us/mcp/forum
- Microsoft Official Practice Tests: These are official practice tests provided by Microsoft to help candidates assess their exam readiness and identify areas for improvement. Access the practice tests here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-sc-900.aspx
Microsoft SC-900 Exam Format:
Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (SC-900) exam is will assess your knowledge and skills in various areas of security, compliance, and identity, capabilities of Microsoft identity and access management solutions, and in Microsoft compliance solutions. For which it will have 40-60 questions in the exam. However, to pass the exam, you must be required to get a score of a minimum of 700.
Further, you can take the exam in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Indonesian (Indonesia), German, Chinese (Traditional), and Italian language. And, the registration fee for the SC-900 exam is $99 USD*.
Now it’s time to get down to business: the exam study guide. However, this section will walk you through the main study sources and resources that will assist you in passing the Microsoft SC-900 test by reducing the difficulties and increasing your confidence.
Preparation Guide for Microsoft SC-900 Exam
It can be tough to determine how challenging an exam is. If you have knowledge and comprehension of principles of security, compliance, and identity (SCI) across cloud-based and associated Microsoft services, you should take the Microsoft SC-900 exam. However, you should be familiar with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, and you should be curious to learn the process of how Microsoft security, compliance, and identity technologies may be used for delivering a comprehensive and end-to-end solution. And, in order to assist you in grasping these abilities, we will cover all of the major and minor resources listed below to help you gain a better understanding of the ideas. Let’s begin with the study guide.
1. Getting familiar with the topics using Exam Guide
Consider this the blog’s most important section. Because the exam guide, aside from practice examinations, is the major area in which we must spend the most of our study time. This guide contains a course outline as well as a list of all exam topics and sub-topics. As a result, maintaining a high degree of focus is critical in order to completely comprehend exam topics. However, the Microsoft SC-900 exam covers the following topics:
Describe the Concepts of Security, Compliance, and Identity (10—15%)
Describe security and compliance concepts
- describe the shared responsibility model (Microsoft Documentation: shared responsibility model, Shared responsibility in the cloud)
- define defense in depth (Microsoft Documentation: What is defense in depth?)
- describing the Zero-Trust model (Microsoft Documentation: zero-trust methodology)
- Describe encryption and hashing (Microsoft Documentation: Describe security and compliance concepts)
- Describe Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) concepts
Define identity concepts
- define identity as the primary security perimeter (Microsoft Documentation: Identity as the primary security perimeter)
- defining authentication (Microsoft Documentation: Authentication vs. authorization)
- define authorization (Microsoft Documentation: Authentication vs. authorization)
- describing identity providers (Microsoft Documentation: Identity Providers for External Identities)
- Describe the concept of directory services and Active Directory
- describe the concept of Federation (Microsoft Documentation: federation with Azure AD)
Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra (25—30%)
Describe the basic identity services and identity types of Microsoft Entra ID
- describing Microsoft Entra ID
- describe types of identities
- describing hybrid identity (Microsoft Documentation: concept of hybrid identities)
Describe the authentication capabilities of Microsoft Entra ID
- describing the authentication methods (Microsoft Documentation: authentication and verification methods)
- describing Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) (Microsoft Documentation: Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication, Configure Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication settings)
- describe password protection and management capabilities (Microsoft Documentation: password protection and management capabilities of Azure AD, Eliminate bad passwords using Azure Active Directory Password Protection, Enforce on-premises Azure AD Password Protection for Active Directory Domain Services)
Describe access management capabilities of Microsoft Entra ID
- describing conditional access (Microsoft Documentation: Define Conditional Access)
- Describe Microsoft Entra roles and role-based access control (RBAC)
Describe the identity protection and governance capabilities of Microsoft Entra
- describe Microsoft Entra ID Governance
- Describe access reviews (Microsoft Documentation: Azure AD entitlement management, Azure AD access reviews)
- Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM) (Microsoft Documentation: capabilities of Privileged identity Management)
- Describe Entra ID Protection
- Describe Microsoft Entra Permissions Management
Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Security Solutions (35—40%)
Describe core infrastructure security services in Azure
- Describe Azure distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) Protection (Microsoft Documentation: Azure DDoS Protection Standard)
- describing Azure Firewall (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Firewall)
- describing Web Application Firewall (WAF) (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Web Application Firewall)
- Describe Network Segmentation with Azure Virtual Networks
- Describe Network Security groups (NSGs) Network security groups)
- describe Azure Bastion (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Bastion)
- Describe Azure Key Vault
Describe security management capabilities of Azure
- Describe Microsoft Defender for Cloud (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Defender for Cloud)
- Describe Cloud security posture management (CSPM) (Microsoft Documentation: Manage cloud platform security)
- Describe how security policies and initiatives improve the cloud security posture
- Describe the enhanced security features provided by cloud workload protection
Describe security capabilities of Microsoft Sentinel
- Define the concepts of security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automated response (SOAR) (Microsoft Documentation: concepts of SIEM, SOAR)
- Describe threat detection and mitigation capabilities in Microsoft Sentinel
Describe threat protection with Microsoft Defender XDR
- describe Microsoft Defender XDR services
- describe Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (Microsoft Documentation: Office 365 Security, Microsoft Defender for Office 365)
- describing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint)
- Describe Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps overview)
- describing Microsoft Defender for Identity (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Defender for Identity)
- Describe Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management
- Describe Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence (Defender TI)
- Describe the Microsoft Defender portal (Microsoft Documentation: Visit the Microsoft 365 Defender portal)
Describe the Capabilities of Microsoft Compliance Solutions (20—25%)
Describe Microsoft’s Service Trust Portal and privacy principles
- Describe the Service Trust Portal offerings (Microsoft Documentation: Get started with Microsoft Service Trust Portal)
- Describe the privacy principles of Microsoft (Microsoft Documentation: Privacy overview)
- Describe Microsoft Priva
Describe the compliance management capabilities of Microsoft Purview
- Describe the Microsoft Purview compliance portal (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Purview compliance portal)
- describing compliance manager (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Compliance Manager)
- describe use and benefits of compliance score (Microsoft Documentation: Understanding your compliance score)
Describe information protection, data lifecycle management, and data governance capabilities of Microsoft Purview
- describing data classification capabilities (Microsoft Documentation: Know your data – data classification, data classification capabilities in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center)
- describe the benefits of content explorer and activity explorer (Microsoft Documentation: activity explorer, content explorer)
- describing sensitivity labels and sensitivity label policies (Microsoft Documentation: sensitivity labels)
- describing Data Loss Prevention (DLP) (Microsoft Documentation: Overview of data loss prevention, Data loss prevention)
- describe Records Management (Microsoft Documentation: records management in Microsoft 365)
- Describe retention policies, retention labels, and retention label policies (Microsoft Documentation: retention policies and retention labels)
- Describe unified data governance solutions in Microsoft Purview
Describe insider risk, eDiscovery, and audit capabilities in Microsoft Purview
- describe Insider risk management (Microsoft Documentation: insider risk management in Microsoft 365)
- Describe eDiscovery solutions in Microsoft Purview
- Describe audit solutions in Microsoft Purview
2. Gaining hands-on experience on concepts using Learning Path
For each exam, Microsoft offers a variety of learning paths, all of which cover the exam’s contents in modules. These contain all relevant data as well as helpful reference links. The pathways include:
‣ Concepts of security, compliance, and identity
Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/describe-concepts-of-security-compliance-identity/
Learn about Zero-Trust, shared responsibility, the role of identity providers, and other basic ideas, principles, and approaches that are foundational to security, compliance, and identity solutions.
Prerequisites:
Suggested learning,
- Describe the basic concepts of cybersecurity
Modules in this learning path:
- Describing security and compliance concepts and methodologies
- Learn about typical security risks and how to defend effectively using the defense-in-depth strategy. Morever, become familiar with the security ideas and processes that support Microsoft technologies.
- Describing identity concepts
- Learn about identity as a security perimeter, authentication, authorization, the function of the active directory, and the concept of federated services.
‣ Microsoft Identity and Access Management Solution Capabilities
Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/describe-capabilities-of-microsoft-identity-access/
Learn about Azure Active Directory (AD) services and identity principles, as well as secure authentication, access control, and identity protection and governance.
Prerequisites:
- Basic knowledge of networking and cloud computing concepts.
- Secondly general IT knowledge or any basic experience working in an IT environment.
- Lastly, a basic understanding of Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.
Modules in this learning path:
- Describing the services and identity types of Azure AD
- Learn more about Azure Active Directory, including what it is and what kinds of identities it can manage.
- Describing the authentication capabilities of Azure AD
- Learn about Azure Active Directory’s many authentication methods. Further, it covers topics like multi-factor authentication, password security, and administration.
- Describing the access management capabilities of Azure AD
- Learn about the capabilities of access management, as well as their applications and advantages.
- Explaining the identity protection and governance capabilities of Azure AD
- Identity protection and governance are provided by Azure AD. Learn about these features, as well as their applications and advantages.
‣ Capabilities of Microsoft security solutions
Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/describe-capabilities-of-microsoft-security-solutions/
Learn about Microsoft’s security capabilities. Azure’s network and platform capabilities, Azure security administration, and Sentinel will all be discussed. Moreover, you’ll learn about Microsoft 365 Defender and Microsoft 365 security management for threat protection.
Prerequisites:
- Basic knowledge of networking and cloud computing concepts.
- Secondly, basic IT knowledge or any experience working in an IT environment.
- Lastly, a basic understanding of Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.
Modules in this learning path:
- Explaining basic security capabilities in Azure
- Learn about Azure’s features for securing your network, virtual machines, and data.
- Describing security management capabilities of Azure
- Learn about Azure’s security management features and advantages, such as Azure Security Center, Azure Defender, security baselines, and more.
- Explaining security capabilities of Microsoft Sentinel
- Learn about Microsoft Azure Sentinel, a scalable security information event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automated response (SOAR) solution that is cloud-native.
- Describing threat protection with Microsoft 365 Defender
- Learn about Microsoft 365 Defender, a comprehensive pre-and post-breach business defense solution that provides integrated protection against sophisticated threats by seamlessly coordinating detection, prevention, investigation, and response across endpoints, identities, email, and apps.
- Describing endpoint security with Microsoft Intune
- Learn how Microsoft Intune protects your endpoints. Security baselines, compliance standards, and integration with Microsoft 365 Defender for Endpoint are among the topics covered. Further, examine the Microsoft Endpoint Manager administration portal as well.
‣ Capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions
Learn about Microsoft’s compliance solutions. Compliance center, information security, and governance in Microsoft 365, Insider Risk, audit, and eDiscovery solutions will all be discussed. Further, Azure’s resource governance features are also addressed.
Prerequisites:
- Firstly, basic understanding of networking and cloud computing concepts.
- Secondly general IT knowledge or any basic experience working in an IT environment.
- Lastly, a basic understanding of Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.
Modules in this learning path:
- Explaining the compliance management capabilities in Microsoft
- Learn where to search for compliance documents and how Microsoft Compliance Center and Compliance Manager can help firms achieve their compliance requirements.
- Explaining information protection and governance capabilities of Microsoft 365
- Learn about the information security and governance capabilities of Microsoft 365. Further, data classification, sensitivity labeling, records administration, and other topics are covered.
- Describing insider risk capabilities in Microsoft 365
- Learn how Microsoft 365 enables organizations to identify and respond to major insider threats.
- Explaining the eDiscovery and audit capabilities of Microsoft 365
- Learn how Microsoft 365’s eDiscovery and audit features assist enterprises in swiftly locating relevant data.
3. Using the Microsoft Instructor-led courses for gaining the skills
Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals
This course covers the fundamentals of security, compliance, and identification, as well as associated Microsoft cloud-based technologies.
Audience Profile:
- This course is intended for all those who want to learn the principles of security, compliance, and identity (SCI) for cloud-based and associated Microsoft services. This course’s content corresponds to the SC-900 exam’s objective domain. Further, you must be knowledgeable with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, as well as how Microsoft security, compliance, and identity solutions may be used to deliver a holistic and end-to-end solution across various solution areas.
4. Get a strong revision using Practice Exam Tests
Start by assessing yourself utilizing practice exams as an easy approach to improve your preparation. After finishing a topic, you can start assessing yourself with the practice tests. Further, this will not only help you improve your answering abilities, but will also provide you with a quick assessment of your strengths and weaknesses.
5. Understand the exam retake policy
According to this policy, if you fail the test for the first time, you must wait 24 hours before retaking it. During this time, you can reschedule the exam on the certification dashboard. If you fail the test a second time, then you must wait at least 14 days before attempting it again.
A 14-day waiting time is required between the third and fourth tries, as well as the fourth and fifth attempts. On the other hand, you get only five opportunities to take the test each year. Furthermore, the 12-month period begins on the date of the first attempt.
Final Words
The Microsoft SC-900 exam objectives, as well as the necessary study materials, have been discussed in full above to assist you in getting started. This test will put your knowledge, expertise, and ability to collaborate to the test. As a result, you must concentrate on all of the critical areas in order to improve your preparation. To pass the examinations, give it your best and work your hardest. Using the information provided above in the exam study guide, create a study plan, understand test patterns, and pass the exam.
