Azure SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals

 Azure SC-900: Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals

Microsoft SC-900 certification exam is designed for individuals who understands the concepts of security, compliance, and identity (SCI) across cloud-based and other related Microsoft services.

Target Audience

For Microsoft SC-900 Exam, the audience that may include are:

• Business stakeholders,
• New or existing IT professionals,
• Students having an interest in Microsoft security, compliance, and identity solutions.

Microsoft SC-900 Exam: Knowledge Requirement

• For the Microsoft SC-900 Exam, individuals must have familiarity with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft365,
• They must have the ability to understand how Microsoft security, compliance, and identity solutions can range across these solution areas for providing end-to-end solutions.

Microsoft SC-900 Exam Learning Path

Microsoft provides access to its learning path for the SC-900 Exam. This learning path for the SC-900 exam consists of topics covering modules for understanding the concepts in a step-by-step format. Azure SC-900 Official Learning Path

However, the major module include:

• Explaining the concepts of security, compliance, and identity,
• Explaining the capabilities of Microsoft Identity and access management solutions,
• Describing the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions,
• Describing the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions.

Describe the Concepts of Security, Compliance, and Identity

Describe Security Methodologies:

• Describing the Zero-Trust methodology (Microsoft Documentation: zero-trust methodology),
• 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?).

Describe Security Concepts:

• Describing common threats (Microsoft Documentation: Understanding malware & other threats),
• Describe encryption (Microsoft Documentation: Encryption).

Describe Microsoft Security and Compliance Principles:

• Describing Microsoft’s privacy principles (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft’s privacy principles, Microsoft Privacy),
• Describe the offerings of the service trust portal (Microsoft Documentation: offerings of the Service Trust Portal).

Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Identity and Access Management Solutions

Define Identity Principles/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 what identity providers are (Microsoft Documentation: Identity Providers for External Identities),
• Describe Active Directory,
• Describe the concept of Federated services (Microsoft Documentation: concept of Federated Services),
• Define common Identity Attacks.

Describe the basic identity services and identity types of Azure AD:

• Describing what Azure Active Directory is (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Active Directory, Explaining what is Azure Active Directory),
• Describe Azure AD identities (users, devices, groups, service principals/applications) (Microsoft Documentation: Azure AD identity types),
• Describing what hybrid identity is (Microsoft Documentation: concept of hybrid identities),
• Describe the different external identity types (Guest Users) (Microsoft Documentation: types of external identities).

Describe the authentication capabilities of Azure AD:

• Describing the different authentication methods (Microsoft Documentation: Describe the different authentication methods of Azure AD, authentication and verification methods),
• Describe self-service password reset (Microsoft Documentation: self-service password reset (SSPR) in Azure AD, Working of Azure AD self-service password reset),
• 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),
• Describing Multi-factor Authentication (Microsoft Documentation: Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication, Configure Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication settings),
• Describe Windows Hello for Business (Microsoft Documentation: Windows Hello for Business Overview).

Describe access management capabilities of Azure AD:

• Describing what conditional access is (Microsoft Documentation: Define Conditional Access),
• Describe uses and benefits of conditional access (Microsoft Documentation: conditional access and its benefits),
• Describing the benefits of Azure AD roles (Microsoft Documentation: Classic subscription administrator roles, Azure roles, and Azure AD roles, Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)).

Describe the identity protection & governance capabilities of Azure AD:

• Describe what identity governance is (Microsoft Documentation: Azure AD Identity Governance),
• Describing what entitlement management and access reviews is (Microsoft Documentation: Azure AD entitlement management, Azure AD access reviews),
• Describe the capabilities of PIM (Microsoft Documentation: Azure AD Privileged Identity Management, capabilities of Privileged identity Management),
• Describing Azure AD Identity Protection (Microsoft Documentation: Identity Protection).

Describe the capabilities of Microsoft Security Solutions

Describe basic security capabilities in Azure:

• Describing Azure Network Security groups (Microsoft Documentation: Network security groups),
• Describe Azure DDoS protection (Microsoft Documentation: Azure DDoS Protection Standard),
• Describing what Azure Firewall is (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Firewall),
• Describe what Azure Bastion is (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Bastion),
• Describing what Web Application Firewall is (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Web Application Firewall),
• Describe ways Azure encrypts data (Microsoft Documentation: Azure encryption).

Describe security management capabilities of Azure:

• Describing the Azure Security center (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Security Center),
• Describe Azure Secure score (Microsoft Documentation: Secure score in Azure Security Center),
• Describe the benefit and use cases of Azure Defender – previously the cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) (Microsoft Documentation: benefit and use cases of Azure Defender, Azure Defender for servers),
• Describing Cloud security posture management (CSPM),
• Describe security baselines for Azure (Microsoft Documentation: security baselines for Azure, Azure security baseline for Security Center, Azure Resource Manager, Azure Monitor, Windows Virtual Desktop, Virtual Network).

Describe security capabilities of Azure Sentinel:

• Define the concepts of SIEM, SOAR, XDR (Microsoft Documentation: concepts of SIEM, SOAR, XDR),
• Describing the role and value of Azure Sentinel to provide integrated threat protection (Microsoft Documentation: Describe how Sentinel provides integrated threat protection).

Describe threat protection with Microsoft 365 Defender (formerly Microsoft Threat Protection):

• Describe Microsoft 365 Defender services (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft 365 Defender),
• Describing Microsoft Defender for Identity (formerly Azure ATP) (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Defender for Identity),
• Describe Microsoft Defender for Office 365 (formerly Office 365 ATP) (Microsoft Documentation: Office 365 Security, Microsoft Defender for Office 365),
• Describing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint (formerly Microsoft Defender ATP) (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint),
• Describe Microsoft Cloud App Security (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Cloud App Security).

Describe security management capabilities of Microsoft365:

• Describing the Microsoft 365 Security Center (Microsoft Documentation: Describe and explore the Microsoft 365 security center, unified Microsoft 365 security center),
• Describe how to use Microsoft Secure Score (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Secure Score, how to use Microsoft Secure Score),
• Describing security reports and dashboards (Microsoft Documentation: Security Dashboard, security reports and dashboards),
• Describe incidents and incident management capabilities (Microsoft Documentation: Incident management, incidents capabilities).

Describe endpoint security with Microsoft Intune:

• Describing what Intune is (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Intune is an MDM and MAM provider for your devices),
• Describe endpoint security with Intune (Microsoft Documentation: Manage endpoint security in Microsoft Intune),
• Describing the endpoint security with the Microsoft Endpoint Manager admin center (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Endpoint Manager overview, Walkthrough Intune in Microsoft Endpoint Manager).

Describe the Capabilities of Microsoft Compliance Solutions

Describe the compliance management capabilities in Microsoft365:

• Describing the compliance center (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft 365 compliance center),
• Describing compliance manager (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Compliance Manager),
• Describe use and benefits of compliance score (Microsoft Documentation: Understanding your compliance score).

Describe information protection and governance capabilities of Microsoft365:

• Describing data classification capabilities (Microsoft Documentation: Know your data – data classification, data classification capabilities in the Microsoft 365 Compliance Center),
• Describe the value of content and activity explorer (Microsoft Documentation: activity explorer, content explorer),
• Describing sensitivity labels (Microsoft Documentation: sensitivity labels),
• Describe Retention Policies and Retention Labels (Microsoft Documentation: retention policies and retention labels),
• Describe Records Management (Microsoft Documentation: records management in Microsoft 365),
• Describing Data Loss Prevention (Microsoft Documentation: Overview of data loss prevention, Data loss prevention).

Describe insider risk capabilities in Microsoft365:

• Describe Insider risk management solution (Microsoft Documentation: insider risk management in Microsoft 365),
• Describing communication compliance (Microsoft Documentation: communication compliance in Microsoft 365),
• Describe information barriers (Microsoft Documentation: information barriers in Microsoft 365, Information barriers in Microsoft Teams),
• Describing privileged access management (Microsoft Documentation: Privileged access management in Microsoft 365),
• Describe customer lockbox (Microsoft Documentation: Customer Lockbox, Customer Lockbox for Microsoft Azure).

Describe the eDiscovery capabilities of Microsoft365:

• Describing the purpose of eDiscovery (Microsoft Documentation: eDiscovery solutions in Microsoft 365),
• Describe the capabilities of the content search tool (Microsoft Documentation: Content Search),
• Describing the core eDiscovery workflow (Microsoft Documentation: Core eDiscovery),
• Describe the advanced eDisovery workflow (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft 365 Advanced eDiscovery).

Describe the audit capabilities in Microsoft365:

• Describing the core audit capabilities of M365 (Microsoft Documentation: core audit capabilities of Microsoft 365),
• Describe the purpose and value of Advanced Auditing (Microsoft Documentation: Advanced Audit in Microsoft 365, purpose and value of Advanced Auditing).

Describe resource governance capabilities in Azure:

• Describing the use of Azure Resource locks (Microsoft Documentation: use of Azure Resource Manager locks, Lock resources to prevent unexpected changes),
• Describe what Azure Blueprints is (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Blueprints),
• Define Azure Policy and describe its use cases (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Policy),
• Describe cloud adoption framework (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure, cloud adoption framework).

Experts Tips for SC-900 Certification Exam

• ● Make sure that you plan your preparations well ahead of the date of examination with adequate time for practice.
• ● Complete the recommended Microsoft Azure learning paths for the SC-900 exam.
• ● Focus more on the Azure Security Concepts, Azure AD, Azure Sentinel Security Features, Microsoft 365, Identity Features, and Principles of Microsoft Security and Compliance.
• ● Use hands-on practice labs to your advantage for practicing with all concepts in the SC-900 exam.
• ● Review all the exam questions carefully and do not spend too much time on a particular question.
• ● Check all your answers carefully before the final submission, if you have the time.
• ● Take care of your health and mental peace during your preparations and the exam.

Final Words

Candidates who are aspiring for the SC-900 certification must understand its long-term implications for their career in Azure. The certification opens the gate to various career opportunities in cloud security, and one could pursue lucrative career opportunities by investing their dedication in preparing for the SC-900 exam. Follow the best practices recommended by experts after reviewing the exam details carefully. A detailed understanding of the weightage and subtopics is important when preparing for the SC-900 exam, as it can help in determining the areas where you must focus more on your preparations. It is highly important to maintain accountability to your preparation schedule for a winning chance. So, start your preparation now to become a Microsoft Certified Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals!

Should I use dumps for SC-900 exam?

Although nothing is stopping you from using dumps, it all comes down to what is your end goal!

Remember, dumps will not help you in your real job or clear an interview or, for that matter, give you an understanding of the concepts. If you do not put in your 100%, you will not succeed long term.

So, my suggestion is to say no to dumps and use Practice Exams instead.

Hope this blog will be helpful and encourage you to take the right decisions!

All The Best!!