easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
AIF-C01 Practice Question: Using Amazon SageMaker to train machine learning…
A company is using Amazon SageMaker to train machine learning models on sensitive customer data. Which AWS service can be used to encrypt the data at rest in the S3 bucket used by SageMaker?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse AWS CloudHSM with KMS, thinking that a dedicated HSM is required for encryption, but KMS is the simpler, fully managed service that directly integrates with S3 and SageMaker for at-rest encryption.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS Key Management Service (KMS)
AWS Key Management Service (KMS) is the correct service because it provides managed encryption keys that can be used to enable server-side encryption (SSE-KMS) for Amazon S3 buckets. When SageMaker accesses training data from S3, it can use a customer-managed KMS key to encrypt data at rest, ensuring sensitive customer data remains protected. KMS integrates directly with S3 and SageMaker, allowing you to specify a KMS key in the SageMaker training job configuration.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
AWS Key Management Service (KMS)
Why this is correct
KMS creates and manages encryption keys used for S3 server-side encryption.
- ✗
AWS CloudHSM
Why it's wrong here
CloudHSM provides hardware security modules but is not the typical choice for S3 encryption; KMS is more common.
- ✗
AWS Secrets Manager
Why it's wrong here
Secrets Manager manages secrets like database credentials, not encryption keys for S3.
- ✗
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM)
Why it's wrong here
ACM manages SSL/TLS certificates, not encryption keys for data at rest.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This AIF-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 619-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AIF-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AIF-C01 exam.