The SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Exam is an entry-level certification exam that tests foundational knowledge of security, compliance, and identity concepts. The exam is designed for individuals who are new to the IT industry or who have a non-technical background but need to understand the fundamentals of cybersecurity and related topics.
Achieving the SC-900 certification demonstrates that you have a basic understanding of security, compliance, and identity concepts, which can be useful for a variety of IT and non-IT roles, such as sales, marketing, or compliance. The certification can also serve as a stepping stone for more advanced certifications in the Microsoft certification program.
SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Exam Glossary
Here is a glossary of some key terms that you may encounter on the SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Exam:
- Access control: A security technique that regulates who or what can access a specific resource in a computing environment.
- Azure AD: Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) is a cloud-based identity and access management solution provided by Microsoft that enables employees to sign in and access resources in a variety of locations.
- Compliance: The state of conforming to rules, standards, policies, or regulations in order to ensure the security and privacy of data and resources.
- Cybersecurity: The practice of protecting networks, systems, devices, and data from unauthorized access, attacks, and other security threats.
- Encryption: The process of encoding information so that only authorized parties can read it.
- Identity: The unique characteristics that define an individual or entity, such as a username or email address.
- Malware: Malicious software designed to harm, disrupt, or damage computer systems, networks, or devices.
- Network security: The protection of a network and its assets from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.
- Phishing: A type of cyber attack in which an attacker attempts to trick the recipient into divulging sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, or financial information.
- Threat: A potential event, person, or action that could cause harm to a system, organization, or individual.
SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Exam Guide
Here are some official resources to help you prepare for the SC-900 exam:
- Exam objectives: The exam objectives provide a detailed breakdown of the topics and subtopics that will be covered on the exam. You can find the official exam objectives on the Microsoft website: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/sc-900
- Microsoft Learn: Microsoft Learn is a free online training platform that offers a variety of courses and modules to help you prepare for the exam. You can find the SC-900 learning path on the Microsoft Learn website: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/certifications/exams/sc-900
- Practice exams: Microsoft offers official practice exams to help you prepare for the exam. You can purchase practice exams on the Microsoft website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-sc-900.aspx
- Community: The Microsoft community is a great resource for connecting with other professionals and sharing knowledge and experience. You can join the community on the Microsoft website: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/community/
SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Exam Tips and Tricks
Here are some tips and tricks for preparing for and taking the SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Exam:
- Understand the exam objectives: The first step in preparing for the exam is to familiarize yourself with the exam objectives. The official exam objectives outline the topics and skills that will be covered on the exam. Make sure you have a solid understanding of each of the objectives before taking the exam.
- Review Microsoft documentation: Microsoft provides a wealth of documentation on security, compliance, and identity topics. Reviewing this documentation can help you gain a deeper understanding of the topics covered on the exam. Microsoft’s online learning platform, Microsoft Learn, is also a great resource for studying for the exam.
- Take practice exams: Practice exams can help you identify areas where you need to focus your studying. Microsoft provides official practice exams for the SC-900 exam, as well as a range of other study resources on their website.
- Use flashcards: Flashcards can be a useful study tool for memorizing key terms and concepts. Create your own flashcards or use pre-made flashcards from study resources such as Quizlet.
- Get hands-on experience: Hands-on experience is one of the best ways to reinforce your knowledge and understanding of security, compliance, and identity concepts. If you have access to an Azure subscription, try setting up and configuring security and compliance features in a test environment.
- Pace yourself during the exam: The SC-900 exam consists of 40-60 multiple-choice questions, and you will have 60 minutes to complete the exam. Make sure to pace yourself during the exam and budget your time accordingly.
- Eliminate wrong answers: If you are unsure of the correct answer to a question, try to eliminate any obviously wrong answers. This can increase your chances of guessing the correct answer.
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
Now that we covered the course outline for the exam SC-900, let us move to the point!
How can I prepare for SC-900 Exam?
To pass the Exam SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals, the aspirant has to prepare themselves by learning and gaining a sufficient amount of knowledge. Also, the candidate should read the related books, clear their doubts, and practice as much as possible! To make it a little easier for you, we have gathered some learning resources which the candidate can refer to!
- Microsoft Learning Platform– Microsoft offers various learning paths, the candidate should visit the official website of Microsoft. The candidate can find every possible information on the official site. For this exam, the candidate will find many learning paths and documentations. Finding relatable content on the Microsoft website is quite an easy task. Also, you can find the study guide for Exam SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals on the official website of Microsoft.
- Microsoft Documentation – Microsoft Documentations are an important learning resource while preparing for exams. The candidate will find documentation on every topic relating to the particular exam.
SC-900 part 1: Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity
SC-900 part 2: Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Identity and access management solutions
- Instructor-Led Training– The training programs that Micorosft provides itself are available on their website. The instructor-led training is an essential resource to prepare for an exam like Microsoft SC-900.
- Testprep Online Tutorials– Exam SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals Online Tutorial enhances your knowledge and provides a depth understanding of the exam concepts. Additionally, they also cover exam details and policies. Therefore learning with Online Tutorials will result in strengthening your preparation.
- Try Practice Test– Practice tests are the one who ensures the candidate about their preparation. The practice test will help the candidates acknowledge their weak areas to work on them. Further, there are many practice tests available on the internet nowadays, so the candidate can choose which they want. We at Testprep training also offer practice tests which are very helpful for the ones who are preparing.
We at Testprep Training hope that this article helped you to get an understanding of how difficult this exam can be! For better preparation, the candidate should practice upper mention learning resources and try practice tests as well. We wish you good luck with your exam!
