When it comes to the Microsoft SC-400 exam, many individuals lack in terms of having a good preparation start. This as a result creates a fear of “how to pass the exam” and that’s what makes the exam difficult. However, as we are well familiar that the Microsoft Information Protection Administrator (SC-400) deals with planning and implementing controls for meeting organizational information protection and governance requirements by using Microsoft 365 information protection services. Keeping this in mind, we have created this blog to help you work on your skills to translate information protection requirements and control technical implementation.
Furthermore, we will understand all the areas of the SC-400 exam in order to help you understand each and every concept and study the detailed training resources essential to pass the exam. So, let’s begin with the overview of Microsoft SC-400 and learn about the basic details!
What is Microsoft Azure SC-400 Exam?
Microsoft SC-400 exam validates your knowledge and abilities for assisting information technology (IT) personnel, business application owners, human resources, and legal stakeholders in putting in place technological solutions that support the policies and controls required to adequately address regulatory requirements for their organization.
- In terms of the subject matter covered by this exam, you must have prior experience collaborating with security and governance leadership, such as a chief compliance officer, chief data officer, and security officer, in order to assess the full range of associated enterprise risk and create the policies.
- You should be able to define relevant and important requirements and examine IT operations and processes in connection to those regulations.
- Knowledge of developing policies and regulations for content classification, data loss prevention, governance, and protection is essential.
- Lastly, a good experience with Microsoft 365 services.
Basic Microsoft SC-400 Exam Details:
- There will be 40–60 questions in the Microsoft Information Protection Administrator (SC-400) exam.
- For the SC-400 exam, a score of 700 is required to pass.
- In addition, applicants may take the SC-400 exam in any of the following languages: Arabic (Saudi Arabia), German, English, Spanish, French, Indonesian (Indonesia), Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Chinese (Simplified), and Chinese (Traditional).
- This test will cost you $165 USD*.
The overview and fundamentals of the Microsoft SC-400 test have been covered, now let’s find out how to study it and what strategies we may use to ace it.
Tips for Passing the Microsoft SC-400 Exam
Passing the SC-400 exam will help you create a good career and end up your journey by becoming a Microsoft Certified: Information Protection Administrator Associate. However, to find the best way to pass the exam you first need to understand and assess yourself to check if you are a good fit for the SC-400 exam or not. That is to say, if you have the skills and knowledge in the following area then preparation for this exam will become smooth and easy. This include:
- Organize and implement procedures to meet organizational compliance requirements.
- Technical implementation of requirements and compliance controls.
- Using technology effectively to meet regulatory requirements.
- Creating rules and guidelines for content classification, data loss prevention, governance, and protection by defining requirements and testing IT processes and operations.
After this, the next important thing is the exam study guide!
1. Explore and get an understanding of SC-400 Exam Topics
The Microsoft SC-400 exam study guide’s objective is to provide you with an overview of the ideas you’ll encounter when preparing for the examination. Consider the recommendation to carefully go through and review each of the exam subjects as the first and most important step. However, the topics are broken down into parts and sub-sections. If you understand the principles of the subjects, you can study for the exam more effectively. The following are the main subjects for the Microsoft SC-400 exam:
1. Implement Information Protection (25-30%)
Create and manage sensitive information types
- Identify sensitive information requirements for an organization’s data
- Translate sensitive information requirements into built-in or custom sensitive info types
- Creating and maintaining custom sensitive information types (Microsoft Documentation- Custom sensitive information types and Create & manage custom sensitive information types)
- Create and manage custom sensitive info types
- Create and manage exact data match (EDM) classifiers
- Implementing document fingerprinting (Microsoft Documentation- Document fingerprinting and Implementing document fingerprinting)
Creating and managing trainable classifiers
- Identifying when to use trainable classifiers (Microsoft Documentation- Classifying data using trainable classifiers)
- Design and create a trainable classifier (Microsoft Documentation- Creating a trainable classifier)
- Test a trainable classifier (Microsoft Documentation- Testing content and Testing the predictive model)
- Retraining a classifier (Microsoft Documentation- Retraining classifiers)
Implement and manage sensitivity labels
- Implement roles and permissions for administering sensitivity labels (Microsoft Documentation- Permissions required to create & manage sensitivity labels)
- Design and create sensitivity labels (Microsoft Documentation- Configure sensitivity labels)
- Configuring and managing sensitivity label policies (Microsoft Documentation- Configuring sensitivity label policies)
- Configure auto-labeling policies for sensitivity labels
- Monitor data classification and label usage by using Content explorer, Activity explorer, and audit search (Microsoft Documentation- Monitoring label performance using label analytics)
- Applying bulk classification to on-premises data by using the the Microsoft Purview Information Protection scanner
- Manage protection settings and marking for applied sensitivity labels (Microsoft Documentation- What sensitivity labels can do?)
Design and implement encryption for email messages
- Design an email encryption solution based on methods available in Microsoft 365
- Implementing Microsoft Purview Message Encryption
- Implementing Microsoft Purview Advanced Message Encryption (Microsoft Documentation- Advanced message encryption )
2. Implement DLP (15-20%)
Create and configure DLP policies
- Design DLP policies based on an organization’s requirements
- Configure permissions for DLP
- Create and manage DLP policies
- Interpret policy and rule precedence in DLP
- Configure a Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps file policy to use DLP policies
Implement and monitor Endpoint DLP
- Configure advanced DLP rules for devices in DLP policies
- Configure Endpoint DLP settings (Microsoft Documentation- Preparing Endpoint DLP)
- Specify a deployment method for device onboarding
- Identify endpoint requirements for device onboarding
- Monitor endpoint activities (Microsoft Documentation- Endpoint activities you can monitor & take action on and Monitored files)
- Implement Microsoft Purview Extension
Monitor and manage DLP activities
- Analyzing DLP reports (Microsoft Documentation- Reviewing and analyzing data loss prevention reports)
- Analyze DLP activities by using Activity explorer
- Remediate DLP alerts in the Microsoft Purview compliance portal
- Remediate DLP alerts generated by Defender for Cloud Apps
3. Implement data lifecycle and records management (10–15%)
Retain and delete data using retention labels
- Plan for information retention and disposition by using retention labels
- Creating retention labels for data lifecycle management (Microsoft Documentation- Configuring retention labels and Creating retention labels and apply them in apps)
- Configure and manage adaptive scopes
- Configure a retention label policy to publish labels
- Configure a retention label policy to auto-apply labels
- Interpret the results of policy precedence, including using Policy lookup
Manage data retention in Microsoft 365 Workloads
- Create and applying retention policies in SharePoint and OneDrive (Microsoft Documentation- Retention in SharePoint & OneDrive and Explaining retention in SharePoint Online and OneDrive)
- Build and apply retention policies in Microsoft Groups
- Create and apply retention policies for Teams
- Create and apply retention policies for Yammer
- Create and apply retention policies for Exchange Online
- Apply mailbox holds in Exchange Online
- Implementing Microsoft Exchange Online archiving policies (Microsoft Documentation- Setting up an archive policy for mailboxes)
- Recover retained content in Microsoft 365
Implementing Microsoft Purview records management
- Create and configure retention labels for records management (Microsoft Documentation- Configuring retention labels)
- Manage retention requirements with a file plan, including file plan descriptors (Microsoft Documentation- Importing a file plan and Importing retention labels into your file plan)
- Classifying records using retention labels and policies (Microsoft Documentation- Creating retention labels and apply them in apps)
- Configure event-based retention (Microsoft Documentation- Configuring event-driven retention)
- Managing disposition of records in records management (Microsoft Documentation- Disposition of records)
- Configure records management settings, including retention label settings and disposition settings
4. Monitor and investigate data and activities by using Microsoft Purview (15–20%)
Plan and manage regulatory requirements by using Microsoft Purview Compliance Manager
- Plan for regulatory compliance in Microsoft 365
- Create and manage assessments
- Create and modify custom templates
- Interpret and manage improvement actions
- Create and manage alert policies for assessments
Plan and manage eDiscovery and Content search
- Choose between eDiscovery (Standard) and eDiscovery (Premium) based on an organization’s requirements
- Plan and implement eDiscovery
- Delegate permissions to use eDiscovery and Content search
- Perform searches and respond to results from eDiscovery
- Manage eDiscovery cases
- Perform searches by using Content search
Manage and analyze audit logs and reports in Microsoft Purview
- Choose between Audit (Standard) and Audit (Premium) based on an organization’s requirements
- Plan for and configure auditing
- Investigate activities by using the unified audit log
- Review and interpret compliance reports and dashboards
- Configure alert policies
- Configure audit retention policies
5. Manage insider and privacy risk in Microsoft 365 (15–20%)
Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Communication Compliance
- Plan for communication compliance
- Create and manage communication compliance policies
- Investigate and remediate communication compliance alerts and reports
Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Insider Risk Management
- Plan for insider risk management
- Create and manage insider risk management policies
- Investigate and remediate insider risk activities, alerts, and reports
- Manage insider risk cases
- Manage forensic evidence settings
- Manage notice templates
Implement and manage Microsoft Purview Information Barriers (IBs)
- Plan for IBs
- Create and manage IB segments and policies
- Configure Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive to enforce IBs, including setting barrier modes
- Investigate issues with IB policies
Implement and manage privacy requirements by using Microsoft Priva
- Configure and maintain privacy risk management
- Create and manage Privacy Risk Management policies
- Identify and monitor potential risks involving personal data
- Evaluate and remediate alerts and issues
- Implement and manage subject rights requests
2. Get trained with Microsoft Learning Path
Microsoft provides access to learning pathways with a range of resources to help with test preparation. The modules in these courses cover a variety of subjects to help you better comprehend the ideas. Consider this a knowledge base that offers a thorough summary of the test subjects covered in the SC-400 exam. Following are the learning paths:
– Implement Information Protection in Microsoft 365
Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/implement-information-protection/
To protect valuable information against theft and unintentional loss, organizations need information protection solutions. Find out how to protect your private data.
Prerequisites:
- Foundational knowledge of Microsoft security and compliance technologies
- Basic knowledge of information protection concepts
Modules in this learning path:
- Introduction to information protection and data lifecycle management in Microsoft Purview
- Prevent data loss
- Classify data for protection and governance
- Create and manage sensitive information types
- Understand Microsoft 365 encryption
- Deploy Microsoft Purview Message Encryption
- Protect the information in Microsoft Purview
- Apply and manage sensitivity labels
– Implement Data Loss Prevention
Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/implement-data-loss-prevention/
We will go over data loss prevention approaches and how to use them to safeguard your Microsoft 365 data in this lesson.
Prerequisites:
- Foundational knowledge of Microsoft security and compliance technologies
- Basic knowledge of information protection concepts
Modules in this learning path:
- Prevent data loss in Microsoft Purview
- Configure DLP policies for Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps and Power Platform
- Manage data loss prevention policies and reports in Microsoft 365
– Implement Data Lifecycle and Records Management
Reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/paths/implement-information-governance/
Learn how to organize an organization’s data lifecycle and records management procedures.
Prerequisites:
- Understanding of cloud computing concepts and Microsoft 365 products and services.
- Basic understanding of Microsoft Purview compliance features.
Modules in this learning path:
- Manage the data lifecycle in Microsoft Purview and data retention in Microsoft 365 workloads
- Manage records in Microsoft Purview
3. Enhance your skills with Instructor-led Training
Microsoft Information Protection Administrator
The protection of information within your business and data governance are the main topics of this course. Implementing data loss protection rules, sensitive information categories, sensitivity labels, data retention guidelines, and Microsoft Purview message encryption are just a few of the connected topics covered in the course.
Audience Profile:
- The Information Protection Administrator is responsible for planning and implementing controls for meeting organizational compliance needs.
- They have the ability to convert requirements and compliance controls into technical implementation.
- Thirdly, they link with organizational control owners to become and stay compliant as well as operate with information technology (IT) personnel, business application owners, human resources, and legal stakeholders for applying technology that supports policies and controls to address regulatory requirements.
- This role requires working with the compliance and security leadership that can be a Chief Compliance Officer and Security Officer for examining the associated enterprise risk and partnering for developing those policies.
- Lastly, Information protection administrators can provide relevant requirements and evaluate IT operations and procedures in comparison to such rules and regulations.
Prerequisites:
Before taking this course, you should have:
- Basic knowledge of Microsoft security and compliance technologies and information protection concepts.
- Understanding of:
- Cloud computing concepts.
- Microsoft 365 products and services.
4. Explore Microsoft Security Virtual Training
Security is a major problem for businesses, so it’s important to keep up with the ever-changing environment and secure critical data wherever it resides or travels. No matter what is your level of expertise, free Microsoft Security Virtual Training Day events will assist you in acquiring the technical know-how required to empower staff to operate more productively and safely from anywhere. Discover how to use Microsoft’s robust security features to safeguard your company’s data and remote access against attacks. Utilize protections created for the modern workforce to take control of your organization’s digital security requirements.
5. Get connected with Online Study Groups/Communities
Online study groups can be beneficial for preparing for exams. To put it another way, participating in study groups will help you keep in touch with professionals and experts who have previously taken this road. You can use this group to discuss any concerns or questions you have concerning the test while using the SC-400 exam study materials.
6. Start taking Practice Test
Exam practice is crucial for better preparation since it enables you to identify your weaknesses and strengths. You can begin taking practice tests for the SC-400 exam, which will not only help you assess or evaluate yourself but will also enhance your replying abilities, enabling you to save a lot of time. Additionally, you should start giving mock exams whenever you’ve finished covering a single topic.
7. Increase your knowledge using Cloud Games
Use the knowledge gained from passing the Microsoft SC-400 test to solve real-world problems in realistic role-playing games that can help you improve your technical abilities. You can use Microsoft Learn Cloud Games to:
- Get immersed in the excitement of skill development:
- Playing while working will help you perform better. You may have fun validating and extending your knowledge of Microsoft technology by playing Cloud Games in an immersive, captivating universe.
- Solve real-world problems:
- Test your expertise by resolving technical issues that are pertinent to your line of work and built on the experience of other experts working for companies much like yours. Through intensive cooperation and hands-on experience, increase your level of competence.
- Learn to resolve problems in more different manners:
- Play games to learn how to react to obstacles more skillfully when they suddenly arise.
Final Words
You won’t only get a decent position in the industry by becoming a Microsoft Certified: Information Protection Administrator Associate. However, you will be able to provide the required specifications and check IT operations and procedures against those guidelines and regulations. For content classification, preventing data loss, governance, and protection, you will define policies and rules with confidence. In order to do this and maximize your efforts, you might need to adapt your SC-400 exam preparation strategies to match the most recent developments. On the basis of the information given, develop a study timetable and pattern. Then, start the preparation process in a step-by-step manner.
