Pass the Microsoft Certified: Security Operations Analyst Associate SC-200 Questions and answers with ExamsMirror

According to Microsoft Security Operations documentation, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is designed to protect endpoint devices—including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS—against cyberattacks through advanced behavioral analysis, threat intelligence, and automated investigation and remediation. In the given case study, the sales team exclusively uses iOS devices and has previously experienced attacks while exchanging files using third-party applications. These unmanaged file-sharing methods exposed the team to malware, phishing, and data leakage threats.

By implementing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on iOS, Contoso can apply unified endpoint protection across all mobile devices. Defender for Endpoint’s mobile threat defense (MTD) capabilities detect malicious apps, risky network connections, jailbroken devices, and phishing attempts. It also integrates with Microsoft Intune for compliance enforcement and conditional access—ensuring only secure, compliant devices can access corporate resources. This directly mitigates the security challenges faced by the sales team while minimizing manual investigation effort through automated response.

Therefore, the issue affecting the sales team (mobile device attacks and unsafe file transfers) can be effectively resolved using Microsoft Defender for Endpoint.

To complete the KQL query against the BehaviorAnalytics table, you need to know the exact column name (for example, the Boolean field that flags a new or first-time country for the sign-in). Microsoft’s standard method to discover table schemas and column names is the Logs (Log Analytics) query window. In this pane, the left-hand Schema browser lists all connected tables and, when expanded, shows every column name and data type. Selecting a table (e.g., BehaviorAnalytics) reveals its fields, and the editor provides IntelliSense/autocomplete for columns as you type your KQL, making it straightforward to complete a clause like | where == true.

Security alerts in Azure Security Center (Defender for Cloud), the Azure Activity log, and Azure Advisor do not expose the per-table column schema needed to build KQL filters. Security Center surfaces alerts and recommendations; the Activity log records control-plane operations; and Advisor provides optimization guidance—none of these replace the Logs experience for exploring data schemas.

Therefore, to accurately identify and verify the column required in the where clause for failed sign-ins from a first-time country, you should use the Log Analytics workspace query window, consult the Schema pane for the BehaviorAnalytics table, and leverage the editor’s autocomplete to insert the correct column name.

 Internal threat: Modify the access policy settings for the key vault.

 External threat: Modify the Key Vault firewall settings.

For internal threats involving a potential compromise of Fabrikam’s own Azure AD applications, the most direct and least disruptive remediation is to modify the Key Vault access policies (or RBAC assignments, if RBAC for Key Vault data-plane is in use) to immediately remove or reduce the compromised service principal’s permissions (Get/List/Decrypt/Sign/Wrap). Microsoft guidance for Key Vault access emphasizes least privilege and promptly revoking credentials or app permissions when compromise is suspected. Access policies (or data-plane RBAC) govern which identities can access secrets, keys, and certificates; adjusting these stops further data-plane actions by the compromised app. “Resource locks” protect against deletion or configuration changes at the management plane, but they do not remove a compromised identity’s ability to read or use vault objects, so they are not an appropriate first response for this scenario.

For external threats, Microsoft recommends hardening Key Vault firewall and networking: restrict public network access, allow only required IPs, use virtual network rules, and prefer private endpoints. Key Vault includes a built-in firewall for IP and VNet ACLs; tuning these controls reduces exposure to the public internet and blocks unauthorized traffic. NSGs apply to IaaS subnets/nics and don’t directly secure the public Key Vault endpoint. Azure Firewall can add perimeter control, but it is not necessary for remediating a specific Key Vault Defender alert; the most effective and immediate remediation is tightening the Key Vault firewall settings to limit external access pathways.

To monitor and detect higher-than-normal volumes of password resets, you need to gather password reset event data both from Azure Active Directory (cloud identities) and from on-premises Active Directory (domain accounts). Microsoft’s official Defender XDR and Sentinel integration guidance describes that:

Azure AD Password Protection enforces and monitors password policies in both cloud and hybrid environments. It can detect weak, commonly used, or compromised passwords and logs related password change/reset activities. Deploying Azure AD Password Protection extends password reset visibility to on-premises domain controllers through the Password Protection proxy and DC agent. This makes it the correct choice for implementing monitoring at the identity environment level.

In Microsoft Sentinel, to ingest and analyze password reset activities from on-premises servers (e.g., domain controllers), you must use the Windows Security Events via AMA connector. This connector collects Event ID 4723 (password change), 4724 (password reset), and related security logs directly from Windows Servers into the Sentinel Log Analytics workspace through the Azure Monitor Agent (AMA). Once the events are available in Sentinel, they can be correlated with other identity or behavioral analytics to detect abnormal reset volumes or potential compromise attempts.

The other options are not suitable:

Microsoft Defender for Identity focuses on identity compromise detection, not specifically on password reset volume monitoring.

Smart lockout protects against brute-force sign-in attempts but doesn’t generate detailed reset event telemetry.

Microsoft security rule and UEBA are higher-level analytic configurations, not data ingestion mechanisms.

Therefore, to meet the Sentinel requirements for monitoring password reset anomalies:

✅ Implement in the identity environment: Azure AD Password Protection

✅ Configure in Microsoft Sentinel: The Windows Security Events via AMA connector

In Microsoft Sentinel’s Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM), DNS queries are normalized through the Im_Dns parser, which unifies DNS telemetry from multiple sources (Infoblox, Windows DNS, Azure Firewall DNS proxy, etc.). Microsoft guidance states that when you need broad compatibility and want to “use built-in ASIM parsers whenever possible,” you should call the generic Im_Dns() parser. To minimize overhead, ASIM provides a pack parameter that restricts the parser to a specific content pack (vendor/source) so it won’t iterate through all available source parsers under the hood. For Infoblox NIOS, you pass the Infoblox pack via the pack parameter, which limits parsing to the Infoblox implementation and reduces query cost/latency while keeping the query portable across environments.

Putting it together, the recommended pattern is:

Im_Dns(pack="InfobloxNIOS")

| where DnsResponseCodeName == "NXDOMAIN"

| summarize count()

This approach satisfies all requirements:

Uses built-in ASIM (Im_Dns).

Minimizes query overhead (uses pack to limit parsing to Infoblox).

Targets NXDOMAIN responses for counting DNS request failures from Infoblox1.

The case study requires:

“Ensure that the Group1 members can create and edit playbooks.”

In Microsoft Sentinel, the ability to create, edit, and assign playbooks is granted by the Microsoft Sentinel Automation Contributor role.

This role allows users to:

Create and manage automation rules,

Create and edit playbooks (Logic Apps) in the connected subscription,

Associate playbooks with Sentinel incidents or alerts.

By contrast:

Logic App Contributor allows Logic App creation but doesn’t include Sentinel-level integration permissions.

Automation Operator can run playbooks but not edit or create them.

Sentinel Playbook Operator can execute playbooks but cannot modify or assign them.

✅ Answer for Question 11: A. Microsoft Sentinel Automation Contributor

The Defender for Cloud requirement states:

“The members of Group1 must be able to enable Defender for Cloud plans and apply regulatory compliance initiatives.”

According to Microsoft Defender for Cloud’s RBAC documentation, the Security Assessment Contributor role provides permissions to:

Enable and configure Defender plans,

Manage security policies and initiatives,

View and edit recommendations and compliance results.

This role gives enough permissions to perform Defender configuration tasks but follows the principle of least privilege, unlike broader roles like Owner or Contributor, which grant excessive rights.

✅ Answer for Question 9: C. Security Assessment Contributor

To monitor Windows Security events from Server1 using the Windows Security Events via AMA connector, the first object you must create is a Data Collection Rule (DCR). With the Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) model used by Microsoft Sentinel, data flow is controlled by DCRs, not by the legacy MMA/OMS workspace settings. A DCR defines what to collect (e.g., the Security event log, specific event IDs or XPath queries), from where (the target machines or machine groups), and where to send it (the Sentinel/Log Analytics workspace). After creating the DCR, you associate it with Server1 (Arc-enabled), and the connector will begin streaming Security events to your Sentinel workspace. Creating a Sentinel scheduled rule or an automation rule does not enable collection; those features act after data is already ingested. Event Grid topics are unrelated to Windows event collection. Therefore, the correct first step for meeting the Sentinel requirement to monitor Server1’s Security log via AMA is to create a DCR, then assign it to Server1 and the Sentinel workspace.

To have a Microsoft Sentinel workbook pull live data from an external web service, you use the workbook’s built-in JSON data source. Workbooks can query REST endpoints that return JSON and render results dynamically in visuals. Because the Azure portal (where the workbook runs) is a different origin than your on-prem/public Webapp1, browsers will block these cross-origin requests unless the endpoint explicitly allows them. Therefore, the external service must enable CORS to permit the portal’s origin to fetch the JSON. This aligns with Microsoft guidance that Workbooks can query HTTP/HTTPS JSON endpoints and that external endpoints must allow cross-origin requests for client-side calls from the Azure portal. Enforcing CORS on Webapp1 satisfies the security model while enabling the workbook to retrieve data at view time—meeting the requirement to “dynamically retrieve data from Webapp1.” Options like “custom endpoint” or “custom resource provider” aren’t needed here, and enabling SOP or only enforcing TLS 1.2 wouldn’t address the browser’s cross-origin policy blocking the call.