SC-401 Administering Information Security in Microsoft 365 Questions and Answers

The requirement states that all Microsoft 365 data for users must be retained for at least one year. In Microsoft 365, retention policies must be configured for each type of data storage.

Step 1: Identifying Where Data is Stored

From the case study, users store data in the following locations:

● SharePoint Online sites

● OneDrive accounts

● Exchange email

● Exchange public folders

● Teams chats

● Teams channel messages

Since these locations fall under two broad categories:

● Microsoft Exchange data (Emails, Public folders)

● SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams data

Step 2: Required Retention Policies

1️. A single retention policy can cover:

● SharePoint Online

● OneDrive

● Microsoft Teams

2. A second retention policy is required for:

● Exchange (Emails & Public Folders)

Thus, the minimum number of retention policies required to meet the requirement is 2.

Microsoft 365 retention policies can be applied broadly across multiple services with just two policies:

● One for Exchange & Public Folders

● One for SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams

There's no need for separate policies for each individual workload unless different retention durations are required, which is not stated in the requirement.

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The goal is to automatically label documents in Site1 that contain credit card numbers. To achieve this, we need a sensitivity label with an auto-labeling policy based on a sensitive info type that detects credit card numbers.

Step 1: Create a Sensitive Info Type

● A sensitive info type is needed to detect credit card numbers in documents.

● Microsoft Purview includes built-in sensitive info types for credit card numbers, but we can also create a custom one if necessary.

Step 2: Create a Sensitivity Label

● A sensitivity label is required to classify and protect documents containing sensitive information.

● This label can apply encryption, watermarking, or access controls to credit card data.

Step 3: Create an Auto-Labeling Policy

● An auto-labeling policy ensures that the sensitivity label is applied automatically when credit card numbers are detected in Site1.

● This policy is configured to scan files and automatically apply the correct sensitivity label.

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Understanding DLP Policy Impact on File Access

The DLP policy (DLPpolicy1) applies to Site2 and restricts access when:

● Content contains SWIFT Codes.

● Instance count is 2 or more.

File Analysis (Based on SWIFT Codes Count)

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Files that remain accessible (not restricted by DLP):

● File1.docx (Contains only 1 SWIFT Code → Below restriction threshold)

User access after DLP policy is applied:

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User1 (Site Owner):

● Has higher privileges and can override DLP restrictions (through admin intervention).

● Can access 2 files (File1.docx + override access to another file).

User2 (Site Visitor):

● Has read-only access but DLP blocks access to restricted files.

● Can only access 1 file (File1.docx), since all others are restricted.

EDM does not store raw data; instead, it requires hashed versions of sensitive data for privacy and security. To upload the hashed data, Microsoft provides the EDM upload agent. This ensures that the data is securely processed and recognized by the EDM service in Microsoft 365.

The False positive and override report helps identify rules that were applied but did not generate an actual policy alert, which means they were overridden or deemed false positives.

The DLP policy matches report provides details on files that matched DLP policies, including the top 10 files.

The Incident reports report helps analyze and review alerts, including those that may have been miscategorized.

In Microsoft Purview, when multiple alert policies trigger alerts, duplicate alerts within a short period (typically 5 minutes) may be suppressed to avoid redundancy.

Step-by-step Analysis:

● Policy1 at 10:00:04 is ignored because Policy1 already triggered at 10:00:00, and it's within 5 minutes.

● Policy2 at 10:00:31 is ignored because Policy2 already triggered at 10:00:03, and it's within 5 minutes.

● Policy1 at 10:01:01 is a new alert because it's over 1 minute after the previous Policy1 alert.

● Policy1 at 10:04:45 is a new alert because it's over 3 minutes after the previous Policy1 alert.

To create a keyword dictionary for a sensitive information type in Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP), you must use a plain text (.txt) file where each keyword is on a separate line.

Format Example (TXT file):

confidential

sensitive

classified

top secret

This format is simple, efficient, and directly compatible with Microsoft 365 DLP policies for keyword dictionaries.

How to use the keyword dictionary?

● Create a text file with one keyword per line.

● Upload it to Microsoft Purview under Data Classification > Sensitive Info Types.

● Use the dictionary in a DLP policy to identify and protect sensitive information.

To customize encrypted email in Microsoft 365, including adding a company logo, you need to modify the Office Message Encryption (OME) branding settings. The Set-OMEConfiguration PowerShell cmdlet allows you to configure branding elements such as:

● Company logo

● Custom text

● Background color

This cmdlet is used to update existing OME branding settings, ensuring that encrypted emails sent from your organization include the required customizations.