AIF-C01 Practice Question: Security, Compliance, and Governance for AI Solutions
A machine learning engineer wants to detect if sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), exists in a training dataset stored in S3 before training a model. Which AWS service should they use?
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
✓
Amazon Macie
Amazon Macie uses machine learning to automatically discover, classify, and protect sensitive data in S3 buckets.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Amazon Inspector
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Inspector scans EC2 instances, container images and Lambda functions for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure; it does not examine S3 objects for PII. It is tempting because Inspector performs automated security scanning, which is correct when the requirement is vulnerability assessment of compute workloads.
- ✓
Amazon Macie
Why this is correct
Macie uses managed data identifiers and pattern matching to scan S3 objects and report PII such as names, addresses and credit card numbers. It satisfies the requirement to detect sensitive data in the training dataset before training begins, without modifying the data.
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Amazon GuardDuty
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty analyses CloudTrail, VPC flow and DNS logs for malicious activity; it never inspects S3 object contents for PII. It is tempting because GuardDuty does offer S3 protection, but that feature looks for suspicious access patterns, making it right when the requirement is threat detection rather than data classification.
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AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config records resource configuration changes and evaluates compliance rules; it does not scan S3 object contents for PII. It is tempting because Config can detect S3 bucket policy drift, which is the correct choice when the requirement is tracking configuration state rather than inspecting data.
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 |
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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.