The Microsoft SC-100 exam, also known as the Microsoft Security Operations Analyst certification exam, is considered to be of intermediate difficulty. It is designed to test the candidate’s skills and knowledge in security monitoring, threat detection, and incident response in a Microsoft Azure environment.
Is the Microsoft SC-100 exam challenging?
Your level of preparation, the study materials you’re using, and the amount of relevant experience or expertise you possess will all have a direct impact on how difficult the Microsoft SC-100 test is for you. However, the only way to be certain is to evaluate your abilities to see if you fit in with them or not.
Knowledge required
- The applicant must be highly skilled and knowledgeable in a variety of security engineering disciplines, including identity and access management, platform protection, security operations, and securing data and applications.
- contributes to the creation of cybersecurity architectural components
- aids in evaluating the technical expertise and knowledge of governance risk compliance (GRC) initiatives
- and helps to verify the expertise in developing a zero-trust strategy.
- The applicant needs to have knowledge of implementing cloud and hybrid systems.
- Prior to attempting the SC-100 exam, they must first complete the SC-200, SC-300, AZ-500, or MS-500 certifications.
If you believe you possess these abilities, passing the SC-100 exam will not be a challenge for you. But for those who are unfamiliar with the concept, we have compiled a list of resources you can utilize to advance your knowledge and skills and earn the title.
Before moving ahead, let’s checkout some sample questions on SC-100.
Scenario:
You work as a Security Operations Analyst for a company that uses Microsoft Azure as their primary cloud platform. The company has recently experienced a data breach, and your team has been tasked with investigating the incident. You suspect that the breach was caused by a malicious insider who used their credentials to access sensitive data.
1. What Azure service can help you identify the user account that was used to access the data?
A. Azure Security Center
B. Azure Advanced Threat Protection
C. Azure Active Directory
D. Azure Sentinel
2. What Azure service can help you monitor and alert on suspicious activities in real-time?
A. Azure Security Center
B. Azure Advanced Threat Protection
C. Azure Active Directory
D. Azure Sentinel
3. What Azure service can help you analyze the logs of the breached system and identify the root cause of the incident?
A. Azure Security Center
B. Azure Advanced Threat Protection
C. Azure Log Analytics
D. Azure Sentinel
4. What Azure service can help you detect and respond to network-based attacks targeting your Azure environment?
A. Azure Security Center
B. Azure Advanced Threat Protection
C. Azure Active Directory
D. Azure Sentinel
Answers:
- C. Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) can help you identify the user account that was used to access the data. You can use Azure AD auditing logs to investigate the sign-in activity of the user and track their actions.
- D. Azure Sentinel can help you monitor and alert on suspicious activities in real-time. It uses machine learning algorithms and built-in threat intelligence to detect threats and generate alerts for your security team to investigate.
- C. Azure Log Analytics can help you analyze the logs of the breached system and identify the root cause of the incident. You can use Log Analytics to collect and analyze log data from various sources and create custom queries to investigate the incident.
- A. Azure Security Center can help you detect and respond to network-based attacks targeting your Azure environment. It provides a centralized dashboard for monitoring security alerts and offers recommendations for improving the security of your environment.
What is SC-100: Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Exam?
The Microsoft SC-900 exam is intended for candidates who are adept at creating cybersecurity plans to protect an organization’s objectives and daily operations across the board. This validates your capacity to create a Zero Trust strategy and architecture as well as security controls for data, apps, access management, identity, and infrastructure. Additionally, expertise in technology plans, governance risk compliance (GRC), and security operations methods.
Exam Format:
- Number of questions: 40-60 questions
- Exam cost: $165 USD
- Questions types: Multiple choice, build list, case studies, and additionally, it includes the introductory screens and instructions
- Passing score: 700
- Language: English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Arabic (Saudi Arabia), Chinese (Traditional), Italian, Indonesian (Indonesia)
Preparation Guide for SC-100 Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect Exam
Let us now look at some of the important areas to focus on while preparing for the exam.
1– Understand the SC-100 Exam Topics
The exam outline is arguably the most crucial thing to completely comprehend while preparing for the certification. Here is the course outline for this certification –
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 that align with Microsoft ransomware best practices, including backup, restore, and privileged access (Microsoft Documentation: Backup cloud and on-premises workloads to cloud, Quickly deploy ransomware preventions)
- Design configurations for secure backup and restore by using Azure Backup for hybrid and multicloud environments (Microsoft Documentation: Security features to help protect hybrid backups that use Azure Backup)
- Design 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 and external 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 (Microsoft Documentation: DevSecOps controls)
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 (Microsoft Documentation: Introduction to hybrid and multicloud)
- Design a solution for centralized logging and auditing (Microsoft Documentation: Azure security 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) (Microsoft Documentation: extended detection and response (XDR))
- Design a solution for security orchestration automated response (SOAR), including Microsoft Sentinel and Microsoft Defender (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, incident management, and threat intelligence (Microsoft Documentation: Understand threat intelligence in Microsoft Sentinel)
- Design and evaluate threat detection coverage by using MITRE ATT&CK (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, threat intelligence integration, and risk scoring (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)
- Design an identity governance solution, including Privileged Identity Management (PIM), Privileged Access Management (PAM), privileged entitlement management, and access reviews (Microsoft Documentation: Azure AD Privileged Identity Management, Privileged Access Management for Active Directory Domain Services)
- 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?)
- 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 risk and compliance solutions (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 infrastructure compliance by using Microsoft Defender for Cloud (Microsoft Documentation: Improve your regulatory compliance)
Design security solutions for infrastructure (20–25%)
Design solutions for security posture management in hybrid and multicloud environments
- Evaluate security posture by using 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 Defender for Cloud
- Evaluate security posture by using Microsoft Secure Score (Microsoft Documentation: Secure score)
- Design integrated security posture management and workload protection solutions in hybrid and multicloud environments, including Microsoft Defender for Cloud (Microsoft Documentation: What is Microsoft Defender for Cloud?)
- Design cloud workload protection solutions that use Microsoft 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 (Microsoft Documentation: Azure Arc overview)
- Design a solution for Microsoft Defender External Attack Surface Management (Defender EASM) (Microsoft Documentation: Defender EASM Overview)
Design solutions 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
- Design a solution for secure remote access (Microsoft Documentation: Security management in Azure)
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, including Azure App Service (Microsoft Documentation: Security in Azure App Service, Azure security baseline for App Service)
- Specify security requirements for containers (Microsoft Documentation: Security considerations for Azure Container Instances)
- 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 Defender for Cloud secure score
- Design a Microsoft 365 Defender solution (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft 365 Defender portal)
- Design secure configurations and operational practices for Microsoft 365 workloads and data (Microsoft Documentation: Advanced deployment guides for Microsoft 365 and Office 365 products)
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 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 (Microsoft Documentation: Mitigate threats by using Windows 10 security features)
- 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 (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 SQL (Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft Defender for SQL)
2 – Use Microsoft Learning Path to help you better understand the subjects.
On Microsoft’s learning route, you can choose from a number of courses to get exam-related knowledge. These study guides are available on the official Microsoft SC-100 exam website. The following are some learning paths:
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
3. Start acquiring knowledge and experience from the real world.
No experience is gained unless it is put into practice in the actual world. If you want to progress your career in this field, you must put what you’ve learned into practice before using your practical knowledge to take it to the next level. You can investigate many topics with its assistance and come to comprehend its fundamentals.
4 – Utilizing practice tests
It is important to keep in mind that the test will cover a variety of subjects. You should therefore gain as much experience as you can before the exam. Taking practice tests is the most effective approach to accomplish this. You may better grasp your study strategy and get ready for the real thing by passing the Microsoft SC-100 Exam practice exams. With the use of these sample tests, you may identify your areas of weakness and take steps to strengthen them. Understanding the test’s question pattern and honing your answer skills can help you better manage your time.
5 – Join the Microsoft Community
To share best practices and get access to the most recent Microsoft Exam content, join the Microsoft community. From technical support and breaking/fixing difficulties to aid & education on relevant topics, you may receive assistance from these communities. You’ll be able to stay informed about exam modifications by participating in group discussions with subject-matter experts about your questions.
Last Words
If you have the capacity to collaborate with leaders and practitioners in IT security, privacy, and other areas within an organization to develop and implement a cybersecurity plan that meets an organization’s business goals, passing the SC-100 test won’t be an issue for you. However, in order to reach complete proficiency in this, make an effort to enhance your study techniques, use the above-mentioned training materials, familiarize yourself with the subject, and pass the test.
