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SC-900: How Do Microsoft 365 Defender and Sentinel Provide Advanced Threat Protection?

Why Are Both Microsoft 365 Defender and Sentinel Key to Modern Security Operations?

Learn why Microsoft 365 Defender and Microsoft Sentinel are considered advanced security services for the SC-900 exam. Understand their roles as XDR and SIEM/SOAR platforms that deliver sophisticated threat detection, investigation, and automated response capabilities.

Question

Microsoft 365 Defender and Microsoft Sentinel are both considered advanced Microsoft Security Services. Is this statement correct? [Select Yes or No]

A. Yes
B. No

Answer

A. Yes

Explanation

Both tools provide sophisticated threat detection, investigation, and response capabilities.

Both Microsoft 365 Defender and Microsoft Sentinel are considered advanced security services because they move beyond traditional prevention and provide sophisticated, post-breach capabilities for threat detection, investigation, and response. They represent the core of Microsoft’s modern security operations (SecOps) strategy.

Differentiating Advanced Security Services

The SC-900 exam requires you to understand the distinct but complementary roles of these two platforms.

Microsoft 365 Defender (XDR)

This service is an eXtended Detection and Response (XDR) platform. Its advanced nature comes from its ability to automatically collect, correlate, and analyze signal data from across the entire Microsoft 365 ecosystem. This includes endpoints (Defender for Endpoint), identities (Defender for Identity), email and collaboration tools (Defender for Office 365), and cloud applications (Defender for Cloud Apps). It stitches together low-level alerts from these different domains into a single, correlated incident, providing a complete attack story. This automated investigation and response capability significantly reduces analyst workload and response times.

Microsoft Sentinel (SIEM/SOAR)

This service is a cloud-native Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) solution. Its advanced capabilities lie in its ability to provide a “bird’s-eye view” across the entire digital estate, not just Microsoft services. It ingests data from virtually any source, including third-party firewalls, other cloud providers (AWS, GCP), and on-premises systems. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect subtle threats and anomalies. The SOAR functionality allows security teams to build automated response workflows (playbooks) to handle incidents without manual intervention.

While Microsoft 365 Defender provides deep, automated protection for the Microsoft 365 environment, Microsoft Sentinel provides broad visibility and orchestration across the entire enterprise. They are designed to work together, with Microsoft 365 Defender feeding high-fidelity, correlated incidents into Sentinel for enterprise-wide context and threat hunting.

SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance & Identity Fundamentals certification exam assessment practice question and answer (Q&A) dump including multiple choice questions (MCQ) and objective type questions, with detail explanation and reference available free, helpful to pass the SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance & Identity Fundamentals exam and earn SC-900 Microsoft Security, Compliance & Identity Fundamentals certificate.