Exam SC-100: Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect

Exam SC-100 is a certification exam offered by Microsoft for individuals seeking to become a certified Cybersecurity Architect. This exam tests the candidate’s knowledge and skills in designing, implementing, and maintaining secure computing environments using Microsoft technologies and services.

The importance of Exam SC-100 lies in the fact that cybersecurity is an increasingly critical concern in today’s digital landscape. With the rise of cyber threats and the growing reliance on technology, organizations need qualified professionals who can design and implement effective cybersecurity solutions. The certification provides a reliable measure of an individual’s ability to fulfill this role, making them an attractive candidate for job opportunities in the field.

This tutorial provides an overview of the key concepts and skills required to pass Exam SC-100 and become a certified Cybersecurity Architect. It covers topics such as cybersecurity architecture, threat and vulnerability management, security solution design and implementation, incident response, and identity and access management. By following this tutorial, individuals can gain a solid understanding of Microsoft’s approach to cybersecurity and the best practices for implementing effective security solutions.

Exam Overview

The SC-100 Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect exam is aimed towards candidates who have a wide range of knowledge in different areas of Microsoft Security and are able to design and implement security solutions. You will also be expected to be familiar with both hybrid and cloud-only environments and implementations. The exam is an expert level exam so it is not deemed to be easy. You can read the full exam description on the Microsoft exam page here.

After last year’s announcement of the new certifications exams that focus on Security, Compliance, and Identity (SCI) solutions, Microsoft Learning announced a new certification exam to complement the security learning path by introducing the new Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Expert certification, which expands Azure training and certification portfolio.

To obtain the Cybersecurity Architect Expert certification you need to pass the new SC-100 exam (this study guide) and ONLY ONE of the following four prerequisites security exams:

Option 1: Exam SC-200: Microsoft Security Operations Analyst.

Option 2: Exam SC-300: Microsoft Identity and Access Administrator.

Option 3: Exam AZ-500: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies.

Option 4: Exam MS-500: Microsoft 365 Security Administration.

SC-100 Exam knowledge area:

• Candidates preparing for the Microsoft cybersecurity architect role should have experience building and evolving cybersecurity strategies to defend an organization’s mission and business operations across all areas of the enterprise architecture.
• Secondly, the cybersecurity architect creates a Zero Trust strategy and architecture, including data, application, access management, identity, and infrastructure security techniques.
• They should have the skills to evaluate Governance Risk Compliance (GRC) technological strategies and security operations strategies.
• Lastly, the cybersecurity architect works with executives and practitioners in IT security, privacy, and other positions to create and implement a cybersecurity strategy that fits the organization’s business needs.

Certification prerequisite:

• Candidates must also complete one of the following tests to acquire the Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect certification: SC-200, SC-300, AZ-500, or MS-500. This is something we strongly advise you to complete before taking the Exam. Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect (SC-100).

Exam Details

• There are 40-60 questions in the Microsoft SC-100 exam. 
• Questions on the Microsoft SC-100 can be:
  • scenario-based single-answer questions,
  • multiple-choice questions, arrange in the correct sequence type questions
  • drag & drop questions
  • mark review
  • drag, and drop
• A candidate must, however, achieve a score of 700 or better in order to pass the exam. Furthermore, the exam is only offered in English and will cost you $165 USD.

Exam Course Outline

To assist in better preparation for the SC-100 exam, Microsoft provides a course outline that covers the major sections. This includes the following:

Design solutions that align with security best practices and priorities (20–25%)

Design a resiliency strategy for ransomware and other attacks based on Microsoft Security Best Practices

• Design a security strategy to support business resiliency goals, including identifying and prioritizing threats to business-critical assets (Microsoft Documentation: Define a security strategy, Business resilience)
• Design solutions for business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR), including secure backup and restore for hybrid and multicloud environments (Microsoft Documentation: Security features to help protect hybrid backups that use Azure Backup)
• Design solutions for mitigating ransomware attacks, including prioritization of BCDR and privileged access (Microsoft Documentation: Backup cloud and on-premises workloads to cloud, Quickly deploy ransomware preventions)
• Evaluate solutions for security updates (Microsoft Documentation: Security design principles)

Design solutions that align with the Microsoft Cybersecurity Reference Architectures (MCRA) and Microsoft cloud security benchmark (MCSB)

• Design solutions that align with best practices for cybersecurity capabilities and controls (Microsoft Documentation: Design solutions that align with security best practices)
• Design solutions that align with best practices for protecting against insider, external, and supply chain attacks
• Design solutions that align with best practices for Zero Trust security, including the Zero Trust Rapid Modernization Plan (RaMP) (Microsoft Documentation: Zero Trust security)

Design solutions that align with the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure and the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework

• Design a new or evaluate an existing strategy for security and governance based on the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) and the Microsoft Well-Architected Framework (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework, Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure)
• Recommend solutions for security and governance based on the the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure and the Microsoft Well-Architected Framework (Microsoft Documentation: Security in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure)
• Design solutions for implementing and governing security by using an Azure landing zone
• Design a DevSecOps process that aligns with best practices in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF)

Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities (25–30%)

Design solutions for security operations

• Design a solution for detection and response that includes extended detection and response (XDR) and security information and event management (SIEM) (Microsoft Documentation: extended detection and response (XDR))
• Design a solution for centralized logging and auditing, including Microsoft Purview Audit
• Design monitoring to support hybrid and multicloud environments (Microsoft Documentation: Introduction to hybrid and multicloud)
• Design a solution for security orchestration automated response (SOAR), including Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender XDR (Microsoft Documentation: What is Microsoft Sentinel?, Microsoft Sentinel SOAR content catalog, Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) in Microsoft Sentinel)
• Design and evaluate security workflows, including incident response, threat hunting, and incident management (Microsoft Documentation: Understand threat intelligence in Microsoft Sentinel)
• Design and evaluate threat detection coverage by using MITRE ATT&CK matrices, including Cloud, Enterprise, Mobile, and ICS (Microsoft Documentation: Understand security coverage by the MITRE ATT&CK® framework)

Design solutions for identity and access management

• Design a solution for access to software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), hybrid/on-premises, and multicloud resources, including identity, networking, and application controls (Microsoft Documentation: What is PaaS?, IaaS, SaaS, public, private and hybrid clouds)
• Design a solution for Microsoft Microsoft Entra ID, including hybrid and multi-cloud environments
• Design a solution for external identities, including business-to-business (B2B), business-to-customer (B2C), and Decentralized Identity
• Design a modern authentication and authorization strategy, including Conditional Access, continuous access evaluation, risk scoring, and protected actions (Microsoft Documentation: Continuous access evaluation, Azure Active Directory IDaaS in security operations)
• Validate the alignment of Conditional Access policies with a Zero Trust strategy
• Specify requirements to secure Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) (Microsoft Documentation: Active Directory Domain Services Overview)
• Design a solution to manage secrets, keys, and certificates (Microsoft Documentation: About Azure Key Vault)

Design solutions for securing privileged access

• Design a solution for assigning and delegating privileged roles by using the enterprise access model (Microsoft Documentation: Least privileged roles by task in Azure Active Directory)
• Evaluate the security and governance of Microsoft Entra ID, including Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM), entitlement management, and access reviews
• Evaluate the security and governance of on-premises Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS), including resilience to common attacks
• Design a solution for securing the administration of cloud tenants, including SaaS and multicloud infrastructure and platforms (Microsoft Documentation: Hybrid and multicloud solutions)
• Design a solution for cloud infrastructure entitlement management that includes Microsoft Entra Permissions Management (Microsoft Documentation: Permissions Management, What is entitlement management?)
• Evaluate an access review management solution that includes Microsoft Entra Permissions Management
• Design a solution for Privileged Access Workstation (PAW) and bastion services (Microsoft Documentation: Securing devices as part of the privileged access story, Privileged access deployment)

Design solutions for regulatory compliance

• Translate compliance requirements into a security solution
• Design a solution to address compliance requirements by using Microsoft Purview (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Purview compliance portal)
• Design a solution to address privacy requirements, including Microsoft Priva (Microsoft Documentation: Learn about Microsoft Priva)
• Design Azure Policy solutions to address security and compliance requirements (Microsoft Documentation: What is Azure Policy?)
• Evaluate and validate alignment with regulatory standards and benchmarks by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Design security solutions for infrastructure (25–30%)

Design solutions for security posture management in hybrid and multicloud environments

• Evaluate security posture by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud, including the Microsoft cloud security benchmark (MCSB) (Microsoft Documentation: Evaluate security posture and recommend technical strategies to manage risk, Introduction to the Microsoft cloud security benchmark)
• Evaluate security posture by using Microsoft Secure Score (Microsoft Documentation: Secure score)
• Design integrated security posture management solutions that include Microsoft Defender for Cloud in hybrid and multi-cloud environments
• Select cloud workload protection solutions in Microsoft Defender for Cloud
• Design a solution for integrating hybrid and multicloud environments by using Azure Arc (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Arc overview)
• Design a solution for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (Defender EASM) (Microsoft Documentation: Defender EASM Overview)
• Specify requirements and priorities for a posture management process that uses Exposure Management attack paths, attack surface reduction, security insights, and initiatives

Specify requirements for securing server and client endpoints

• Specify security requirements for servers, including multiple platforms and operating systems (Microsoft Documentation: Supported operating systems, platforms and capabilities)
• Specify security requirements for mobile devices and clients, including endpoint protection, hardening, and configuration (Microsoft Documentation: Use security baselines to configure Windows devices in Intune)
• Specify security requirements for IoT devices and embedded systems (Microsoft Documentation: Getting Started with Windows IoT Enterprise)
• Design a solution for securing operational technology (OT) and industrial control systems (ICS) by using Microsoft Defender for IoT
• Specify security baselines for server and client endpoints
• Evaluate Windows Local Admin Password Solution (LAPS) solutions

Specify requirements for securing SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services

• Specify security baselines for SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services (Microsoft Documentation: Design a strategy for securing PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS services)
• Specify security requirements for IoT workloads (Microsoft Documentation: Security in your IoT workload)
• Specify security requirements for web workloads
• Specify security requirements for containers (Microsoft Documentation: Security considerations for Azure Container Instances)
• Specify security requirements for container orchestration
• Evaluate solutions that include Azure AI Services Security

Evaluate solutions for network security and Security Service Edge (SSE)

• Evaluate network designs to align with security requirements and best practices
• Evaluate solutions that use Microsoft Entra Internet Access as a secure web gateway
• Evaluate solutions that use Microsoft Entra Internet Access to access Microsoft 365, including cross-tenant configurations
• Evaluate solutions that use Microsoft Entra Private Access

Design security solutions for applications and data (20–25%)

Design solutions for securing Microsoft 365

• Evaluate security posture for productivity and collaboration workloads by using metrics, including Secure Score and Defender for Cloud secure score
• Evaluate solutions that include Microsoft Defender for Office and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
• Evaluate device management solutions that include Microsoft Intune
• Evaluate solutions for securing data in Microsoft 365 by using Microsoft Purview
• Evaluate data security and compliance controls in Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 services

Design solutions for securing applications

• Evaluate the security posture of existing application portfolios
• Evaluate threats to business-critical applications by using threat modeling (Microsoft Documentation: Integrating threat modeling with DevOps)
• Design and implement a full lifecycle strategy for application security
• Design and implement standards and practices for securing the application development process (Microsoft Documentation: Secure development best practices on Azure)
• Map technologies to application security requirements (Microsoft Documentation: Security in the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure)
• Design a solution for workload identity to authenticate and access Azure cloud resources (Microsoft Documentation: Workload identity federation)
• Design a solution for API management and security
• Design solutions that secure applications by using Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Design solutions for securing an organization’s data

• Evaluate solutions for data discovery and classification
• Specify priorities for mitigating threats to data (Microsoft Documentation: Mitigate threats by using Windows 10 security features)
• Evaluate solutions for encryption of data at rest and in transit, including Azure KeyVault and infrastructure encryption
• Design a security solution for data in Azure workloads, including Azure SQL, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Azure Cosmos DB (Microsoft Documentation: What is Azure Synapse Link for Azure Cosmos DB?, Configure and use Azure Synapse Link for Azure Cosmos DB)
• Design a security solution for data in Azure Storage
• Design a security solution that includes Microsoft Defender for Storage and Microsoft Defender for Databases

SC-100: Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Exam FAQs

Check for faqs here.

Exam Policies

All test-related facts and information, as well as exam-giving methods, are contained in the Microsoft Certification exam policies. According to these exam policies, certain rules must be followed during exam time or at testing venues. The following are some of them:

• Exam retake policy
  • According to this rule, candidates who fail the exam for the first time must wait 24 hours before retaking it. During this time, they can reschedule the exam on the certification dashboard.
  • Secondly, they may be asked to wait at least 14 days before taking the exam again if this happens a second time. However, a 14-day waiting period is imposed between the third and fourth attempts, as well as the fourth and fifth attempts. 
  • Candidates, on the other hand, are limited to five attempts per year. In addition, the 12-month period begins with the first attempt.
• Exam reschedule and the cancellation policy
  • Candidates must reschedule and cancel exam appointments at least 24 hours before the appointment. Furthermore, those who reschedule or cancel less than 24 hours before the appointment will forfeit their exam money.
  • Additionally, if candidates used a voucher purchased by their company, their company may be penalized if they postpone or cancel an appointment less than 24 hours before it.

Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect: SC-100 Exam Study Guide

Are you preparing for the SC-100 Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect certification? This study guide will share with you how to prepare and pass the SC-100: Microsoft Certified Cybersecurity Architect Expert successfully.

The purpose of the study guide is to help you study and gain the experience required to pursue and pass the SC-100 Exam and earn the Microsoft Certified: Cybersecurity Architect Expert certification. Below you will find various study materials and a solid study path to help you plan and take the SC-100 exam.

Microsoft is keeping evolving its learning programs to help you and your career keep pace with today’s demanding IT environments. The new updated role-based certifications will help you to keep pace with today’s business requirements. Microsoft Learning is constantly evolving its learning program to better offer what you need to skill up, prove your expertise to employers and peers, and get the recognition—and opportunities you’ve earned.

Study Guide for Microsoft SC-100 Exam

1. Exam objectives

Candidates must be familiar with the exam objectives in order to get a head start on the Microsoft SC-100 exam preparation. The exam objectives for the Microsoft SC-100 exam contain crucial topics that will help you understand the major portions. This exam assesses your technical ability to do the following tasks:

• Design a Zero Trust strategy and architecture
• Evaluate Governance Risk Compliance (GRC) technical strategies and security operations strategies
• Design security for infrastructure
• Design a strategy for data and applications

So, examine the exam guide to gain a better understanding of the topics and to boost your preparation.

2. Microsoft Learning Partners

Whether you’re an individual trying to further your career or a manager looking to improve your team’s cloud abilities, Microsoft Learning Partners has a variety of training options to match your needs, including blended learning, in-person, and online. Around the world, Microsoft Learning Partners have met program requirements to teach Microsoft-developed training content provided by Microsoft Certified Trainers.

3. Microsoft Docs

The Microsoft documentation is a knowledge base that contains in-depth information regarding the subjects covered in the SC-100 exam. You may also learn about the various sizes of different Azure services by reading Microsoft documentation. This is made up of modules that will help you learn lots about the many services and ideas included in the test.

4. Online Study Groups

Collaborating with others who are also preparing for the exam can be helpful in providing additional insights, answering questions, and sharing resources.

5. Gain hands-on experience

Microsoft offers a range of technologies and services related to cybersecurity, such as Azure Active Directory, Azure Security Center, and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. Try to gain hands-on experience with these tools to better understand how they work and how they can be used to secure computing environments.

6. Study cybersecurity concepts

In addition to Microsoft technologies, you will also need a solid understanding of cybersecurity concepts such as threat and vulnerability management, security architecture, and incident response. Consider taking courses or reading books on these topics to strengthen your knowledge.

7. Practice Tests

Practice examinations are essential for improving your preparedness. You will learn about your weak and strong areas by testing yourself with Microsoft SC-100 practice exams. You will also be able to enhance your response abilities, which will help you to save time on the test. After you’ve completed a full topic, it’s advisable to take the SC-100 exam practice exams. This will also help with revision efficiency. Go online to get the greatest practice exam tests to help you prepare for the certification exam.