SC-100 is about to receive a minor update at the end of the month, just some changes for naming and branding fixes, with no change to the topics covered in the objectives. Last year SC-100 received a major restructure, and rather than go through and highlight all the changes, it’s easier if we focus on the end result of those changes. Overall, there wasn’t a major change in the content the exam will focus on, instead it was the streamlining of the objective categories that was the focus.
The biggest challenges I hear about from people who are preparing for this exam, or have attempted it, is that they usually encounter something that they aren’t aware of, or at least aren’t very familiar with it. This is usually a byproduct of perhaps having strong skills in some areas of the exam, but not necessarily having exposure to other things the exam includes.
The easiest example to illustrate this could be someone who works on Azure solutions, but with very little Microsoft 365 exposure, or vice versa, which is very common in some organisations. If we convert that into what you really should be doing with this exam is making sure you aren’t just looking at the exam descriptions for topics you should be aware of, but also make sure you are looking closely at the MCRA diagrams to make sure there isn’t anything lurking that you may not be aware of.
Let’s take a look at the simplified domain objectives and the ones that they replaced
- Updated domain objectives and weighting
- Design solutions that align with security best practices and priorities (20–25%)
- Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities (30–35%)
- Design security solutions for infrastructure (20–25%)
- Design security solutions for applications and data (20–25%)
- Previous domain objectives and weighting
- Design a Zero Trust strategy and architecture (30–35%)
- Evaluate Governance Risk Compliance (GRC) technical strategies and security operations
strategies (10–15%) - Design security for infrastructure (10–15%)
- Design a strategy for data and applications (15–20%)
- Recommend security best practices and priorities (20–25%)
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
- Design solutions that align with Microsoft ransomware best practices, including backup, restore, and privileged access
- Design configurations for secure backup and restore by using Azure Backup for hybrid and multicloud environments
- Design solutions for security updates
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
- Design solutions that align with best practices for protecting against insider and external attacks
- Design solutions that align with best practices for Zero Trust security, including the Zero Trust Rapid Modernization Plan (RaMP)
Design solutions that align with the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure and the Azure Well-Architected Framework
- Design a new or evaluate an existing strategy for security and governance based on the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) for Azure and the Microsoft Azure Well-Architected Framework
- Recommend solutions for security and governance based on the the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure and the Well-Architected Framework
- Design solutions for implementing and governing security by using an Azure landing zones
- Design a DevSecOps process
Design security operations, identity, and compliance capabilities (30–35%)
Design solutions for security operations
- Develop security operations capabilities to support a hybrid or multicloud environment
- Design a solution for centralized logging and auditing
- Design a solution for security information and event management (SIEM), including Microsoft Sentinel
- Design a solution for detection and response that includes extended detection and response (XDR)
- Design a solution for security orchestration automated response (SOAR), including Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender
- Design and evaluate security workflows, including incident response, threat hunting, incident management, and threat intelligence
- Design and evaluate threat detection coverage by using MITRE ATT&CK
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
- Design a solution for Microsoft Entra ID, including hybrid and multi-cloud environments
- Design a solution for external identities, including B2B, B2C, and decentralized identities
- Design a modern authentication and authorization strategy, including Conditional Access, continuous access evaluation, threat intelligence integration, and risk scoring
- Validate the alignment of Conditional Access policies with a Zero Trust strategy
- Specify requirements to secure Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS)
- Design a solution to manage secrets, keys, and certificates
Design solutions for securing privileged access
- Design a solution for assigning and delegating privileged roles by using the enterprise access model
- Design an identity governance solution, including Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Privileged Access Management (PAM), entitlement management, and access reviews
- Design a solution for securing the administration of cloud tenants, including SaaS and multicloud infrastructure and platforms
- Design a solution for cloud infrastructure entitlement management that includes Microsoft Entra Permissions Management
- Design a solution for Privileged Access Workstation (PAW) and bastion services
Design solutions for regulatory compliance
- Translate compliance requirements into a security solution
- Design a solution to address compliance requirements by using Microsoft Purview risk and compliance solutions
- Design a solution to address privacy requirements, including Microsoft Priva
- Design Azure Policy solutions to address security and compliance requirements
- Evaluate infrastructure compliance by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
Design security solutions for infrastructure (20–25%)
Design solutions for security posture management in hybrid and multicloud environments
- Evaluate security posture by using MCSB
- Evaluate security posture by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- Evaluate security posture by using Microsoft Secure Score
- Design integrated security posture management and workload protection solutions in hybrid and multicloud environments, including Defender for Cloud
- Design cloud workload protection solutions that use Defender for Cloud, such as Microsoft Defender for Servers, Microsoft Defender for App Service, and Microsoft Defender for SQL
- Design a solution for integrating hybrid and multicloud environments by using Azure Arc
- Design a solution for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (Defender EASM)
Design solutions for securing server and client endpoints
- Specify security requirements for servers, including multiple platforms and operating system
- Specify security requirements for mobile devices and clients, including endpoint protection, hardening, and configuration
- Specify security requirements for IoT devices and embedded systems
- 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
- Design a solution for secure remote access
Specify requirements for securing SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services
- Specify security baselines for SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services
- Specify security requirements for IoT workloads
- Specify security requirements for web workloads, including Azure App Service
- Specify security requirements for containers
- Specify security requirements for container orchestration
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 Microsoft Defender for Cloud secure score
- Design a Microsoft 365 Defender solution
- Design secure configurations and operational practices for Microsoft 365 workloads and data
Design solutions for securing applications
- Evaluate the security posture of existing application portfolios
- Evaluate threats to business-critical applications by using threat modeling
- Design and implement a full lifecycle strategy for application security
- Design and implement standards and practices for securing the application development process
- Map technologies to application security requirements
- Design a solution for workload identity to authenticate and access Azure cloud resources
- Design a solution for API management and security
- Design a solution for secure access to applications, including Azure Web Application Firewall (WAF) and Azure Front Door
Design solutions for securing an organization’s data
- Design a solution for data discovery and classification by using Microsoft Purview data governance solutions
- Specify priorities for mitigating threats to data
- Design a solution for protection of data at rest, data in motion, and data in use
- Design a security solution for data in Azure workloads, including Azure SQL, Azure Synapse Analytics, and 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 SQL
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