New Microsoft Security Certifications released

Exams such as AZ-500 and MS-500 measures your overall knowledge of Azure and Microsoft 365 security solutions and features. Microsoft has now released four new exams measuring skills on specific security solutions instead.

You can obtain a new Fundamentals certification and three new Associate certifications. The new exams/certifications are as follows:

Since these exams are still in beta, you won’t get your results immediately. Results are usually received 2-3 weeks after the exam comes out of beta. You can find more information on participating in beta exams here:

About Microsoft Certification exams | Microsoft Docs

Skills measured

You can find the information on the exam page on Microsoft Learn. I am providing the skills measured as outlined on the exam information pages to give you a quick overview of the different skills measured for each exam. Always refer to the exam information page for the latest details.

SC-900 | Security, Compliance and Identity Fundamentals

Describe the concepts of security, compliance, and identity
Describe the capabilities of Microsoft identity and access management solutions
Describe the capabilities of Microsoft security solutions
Describe the capabilities of Microsoft compliance solutions

SC-200 | Security Operations Analyst Associate

Mitigate threats using Microsoft 365 Defender
Mitigate threats using Azure Defender
Mitigate threats using Azure Sentinel

SC-300 | Identity and Access Administrator Associate

Implement an identity management solution
Implement an authentication and access management solution
Implement access management for apps
Plan and implement an identity governance strategy

SC-400 | Information Protection Administrator Associate

Implement information protection
Implement data loss prevention
Implement information governance

MS-500 | Microsoft 365 Certified: Security Administrator Associate

I’ve included this older exam as an example of the overall skills measured in this exam. You can see that it measures your skills on a broad range of security solutions compared to the new exams which are more specific.

Implement and manage identity and access
Implement and manage threat protection
Implement and manage information protection
Manage governance and compliance features in Microsoft 365

Preparing for the exams

The good news is that there are already content available for these exams on Microsoft Learn. I’ve completed SC-900 last night after reviewing the learning content provided. You can easily find the relevant learning paths directly from the exam information page. Let’s take SC-900 as an example:

The certification details provides you with the skills measured as I’ve listed here on this blog. You can also download the exam skills outline which is a PDF document with a more detailed breakdown of the skills being measured. This should help you in your learning as a checklist to ensure you understand everything that is required from you in the exam.

Below the skills measured you will find two options to prepare. This is where the Microsoft Learn learning paths are listed, with content for each of the skills measured. I’ve added each of these learning paths to a collection for easy access at a later stage.

Mark Grimes | YouTube

Mark Grimes has been doing internal exam preparation sessions in Microsoft for some time. These sessions highlight exam objectives, give tips and tricks, and provide resources for studying. You may find some information for items that are less commonly known. This does not cover specific exam questions or content.

He recently started publishing some of these sessions on YouTube. It is mostly Azure exams (AZ-XXX) but hopefully some additional content will be added soon.

https://aka.ms/cert/youtube

Johan Heyneke