If you want to become skilled at securing organizational IT systems, take your time to prepare for the Microsoft SC-200 exam. This path is highly suitable for professionals performing job roles such as Security Engineer and Security Operations Analyst. These specialists work hand in hand with stakeholders in upholding the security of the organization from risks and potential breaches. Those who clear the Microsoft SC-200 test earn the Microsoft Certified: Security Operations Analyst Associate certification. This accreditation validates your proficiency in remediating active environment attacks, giving relevant threat protection advice, and referring organizational policy violations to the right stakeholders.

The Microsoft SC-200 Exam Details

The Microsoft SC-200 exam evaluates how well you perform threat management and response by utilizing different security solutions. These solutions include Microsoft Azure Defender, Azure Sentinel, Microsoft 365 Defender, and other third-party security tools. In addition, it measures your ability to consume the operation output of the said products, making you a relevant stakeholder in terms of the technical configuration and deployment aspects.

The vendor doesn’t reveal much detail regarding the structure of the Microsoft SC-200 exam. However, the candidates can expect around 40-60 questions in their delivery of the test. The time allocated for the completion of the evaluation is 100 minutes. The test comes in multiple languages for your convenience. These include English, Japanese, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), German, Russian, Italian, among others. To register for the exam, you should pay the fee of $165. More than that, the exam does not have a retirement date.

Major Domains Covered In The Exam

Before enrolling for the Microsoft SC-200 test, the candidates need to go through the official skills outline that can be downloaded from the exam webpage. This document provides you with a glimpse of the important topics tested in the exam. Take a look at the key areas covered in the evaluation in the paragraphs below.

• Mitigating threats via Microsoft 365 Defender (25-30%)

  The first domain focuses on specific skills such as detection, investigation, response, and remediation. You will acquire information about threat mitigation in relation to the productivity environment. This includes business threats associated with Microsoft SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive. Aside from business threats, you also need to consider endpoint threats, sensing them, and making necessary actions with the use of the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. Subsequently, you should be able to properly handle threats that arise from applications and identities. Make sure that you take into account the skillset mentioned earlier, starting with the detection phases, and then coursing through the investigation, response, and remediation of threats. To wrap up this section, you need to go over the key ways in managing cross-domain investigations within the Microsoft 365 Defender portal.

• Mitigating threats via Azure Defender (25-30%)

  Within the second domain, you will delve into threat mitigation using another security solution – Azure Defender. Kick-off this domain by understanding the design and configuration stages of an Azure Defender implementation. Here, you have to keep an eye on the crucial settings, relevant roles, data retention policies, and cloud workload protection. Then, you need to know the planning and implementation of data connectors, which are significant for the incorporation of data sources into Azure Defender. This area emphasizes the configuration of Automated Onboarding and data collection along with the connection of on-premises computers and AWS/ GCP cloud resources.

  Moreover, you are required to develop your skills in administering and investigating Azure Defender alert rules and incidents. These include validating alert configurations, setting up email notifications, designing alert suppression rules, managing user data, analyzing threat intelligence, and so on. The chapter also measures your ability to configure automation and remediation. At this point, you dive into the automated responses in Azure Security Center and the automatic responses in Azure Resource Manager. You are then introduced to the proper manner of designing playbooks and remediating incidents using Azure Defender.

• Mitigating threats via Azure Sentinel (40-45%)

  This is the last topic of the Microsoft SC-200 exam, which serves as the most substantial out of all domains. Taking up almost half of the entire test outline, make sure you add extra effort mastering this section. Firstly, it covers the designing and configuration of Azure Sentinel workspaces. You will come across tasks such as preparing key plans, assessing roles, planning storage, and organizing the service security of Azure Sentinel. Furthermore, you are presented with the planning and implementation of data connectors for the usage of data sources. Vital subjects to elaborate on are Syslog & CEF event collections, Windows Events collections, custom threat intelligence connectors, and Azure Log Analytics.

  Apart from the above-mentioned competencies, you need to practice the management of Azure Sentinel analytics rules and incidents. Give ample time to learn about custom analytics rules, scheduled queries, incident creation logic, triage incidents, multi-workspace incidents, and User and Entity Behavior Analytics. Another core segment of this topic is your ability to work with the Security Orchestration Automation and Response. Familiarize yourself with the technicalities of Azure Sentinel playbooks, from its creation to configuration to utilization. And then, delve into the relevance of Azure Sentinel workbooks in examining and interpreting data along with the steps in hunting threats via the Azure Sentinel portal.

Career Opportunities Available After Passing The Microsoft SC-200 Exam

Passing the Microsoft SC-200 exam is more than just obtaining a noteworthy accreditation. It signifies your preparedness to establish a career in your chosen area of technology. And in this case, cybersecurity is the focus. Two of the most remarkable job roles available to successful certification earners are Security Operations Analysts and Security Engineers. These positions are considered to be advanced-level which means that they are lucrative in financial terms as well. For example, according to PayScale, the average annual salaries of these professionals are $62,400 and $94,406 respectively.

Certification Path To Follow After The Exam Completion

After earning the Microsoft Certified: Security Operations Analyst Associate certificate, you may pursue related associate certifications, including Microsoft Certified: Azure Security Engineer Associate, Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate, or Microsoft Certified: Information Protection Administrator Associate.