Later this month SC-900 exam receives a minor update, with the introduction of Microsoft Defender XDR into the objectives, replacing Microsoft 365 Defender. This shouldn’t impact any of the existing preparation you may have undertaken, but does give some insight into some of the changes we may see in future exam updates.
If you work with Azure and Microsoft 365 security and compliance capabilities, this should be a straightforward exam for you. If you only focus on the security or compliance capabilities, or only Azure or Microsoft 365, make sure you focus your preparation on the areas that you are least familiar with.
The final note for this exam that I’ve received feedback on is that for many people who are familiar with Microsoft 365 and Azure, but not necessarily the security and compliance components, is that the wording/language used may not what they are used to. I guess you could view this is it being industry terminology that is being used, rather than Microsoft speak, so make sure that you don’t skip past any unusual wording in your preparation.
Describe the Concepts of Security, Compliance, and Identity (10-15%)
Describe security and compliance concepts
- Describe the shared responsibility model
- Define defense in depth
- Describe the Zero-Trust model
- Describe encryption and hashing
- Describe Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) concepts
Describe identity concepts
- Define identity as the primary security perimeter
- Define authentication
- Define authorization
- Describe identity providers
- Describe the concept of directory services and Active Directory
- Describe the concept of federation
Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra ID (25-30%)
Describe function and identity types of Microsoft Entra ID
- Describe Microsoft Entra ID
- Describe types of identities
- Describe hybrid identity
Describe authentication capabilities of Microsoft Entra ID
- Describe the authentication methods
- Describe multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Describe password protection and management capabilities
Describe access management capabilities of Microsoft Entra ID
- Describe Conditional Access
- Describe Microsoft Entra roles and role-based access control (RBAC)
Describe identity protection and governance capabilities of Microsoft Entra
- Describe Microsoft Entra ID Governance
- Describe access reviews
- Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Entra ID Privileged Identity Management
- Describe Microsoft 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
- Describe Azure Firewall
- Describe Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- Describe network segmentation with Azure virtual networks
- Describe network security groups (NSGs)
- Describe Azure Bastion
- Describe Azure Key Vault
Describe security management capabilities of Azure
- Describe Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- Describe Cloud security posture management (CSPM)
- Describe how security policies and initiatives improve the cloud security posture
- Describe enhanced security features provided by cloud workload protection
Describe capabilities of Microsoft Sentinel
- Define the concepts of security information and event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automated response (SOAR)
- Describe threat detection and mitigation capabilities in Microsoft Sentinel
Describe threat protection with Microsoft 365 Defender XDR
- Describe Microsoft 365 Defender services
- Describe Microsoft Defender for Office 365
- Describe Microsoft Defender for Endpoint
- Describe Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
- Describe Microsoft Defender for Identity
- Describe Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management
- Describe Microsoft Defender Threat Intelligence (Defender TI)
- Describe the Microsoft 365 Defender portal
Describe the Capabilities of Microsoft Compliance Solutions (20-25%)
Describe Microsoft Service Trust Portal and privacy principles
- Describe the Service Trust Portal offerings
- Describe the privacy principles of Microsoft
- Describe Microsoft Priva
Describe compliance management capabilities of Microsoft Purview
- Describe the Microsoft Purview compliance portal
- Describe Compliance Manager
- Describe the uses and benefits of compliance score
Describe information protection, data lifecycle management, and data governance capabilities of Microsoft Purview
- Describe the data classification capabilities
- Describe the benefits of Content explorer and Activity explorer
- Describe sensitivity labels and sensitivity label policies
- Describe data loss prevention (DLP)
- Describe records management
- Describe retention policies, retention labels, and retention label policies
- Describe unified data governance solutions in Microsoft Purview
DDescribe insider risk, eDiscovery, and audit capabilities in Microsoft Purview
- Describe insider risk management
- Describe eDiscovery solutions in Microsoft Purview
- Describe audit solutions in Microsoft Purview
Check out my other exam reference guides here.
intunedin.net 