CLF-C02 Security and Compliance Practice Question
A healthcare startup is migrating its patient records database to Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. The company must comply with HIPAA and ensure that all protected health information (PHI) is encrypted at rest and in transit. Which task is the company responsible for under the AWS shared responsibility model?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse customer-managed patching (Option C) with AWS-managed patching in RDS, or they assume network ACLs (Option D) satisfy encryption requirements, when the question specifically targets encryption responsibilities under HIPAA.
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
✓
Enabling encryption at rest for the Amazon RDS instance and configuring SSL for connections.
Under the AWS shared responsibility model, the customer is responsible for encryption in transit and at rest for the data they store in AWS services. For Amazon RDS, enabling encryption at rest (via AWS KMS) and configuring SSL/TLS for client connections are customer-side tasks. AWS handles the physical security of data centers and the underlying infrastructure, but the customer must explicitly enable these encryption features to meet HIPAA compliance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Encrypting the physical disk drives in the AWS data center that host the database.
Why it's wrong here
The shared responsibility model assigns AWS full responsibility for physical data center security, including the encryption and destruction of physical disk drives. A healthcare startup cannot directly encrypt AWS's physical infrastructure, as it never controls or accesses the underlying hardware. This option describes a provider-side safeguard, not a customer action, so it fails to satisfy the security measure the startup must implement in the exam scenario.
When this WOULD be correct
A question asking which responsibility belongs to AWS under the shared responsibility model, such as 'Which task is AWS responsible for when using Amazon RDS?'
- ✓
Enabling encryption at rest for the Amazon RDS instance and configuring SSL for connections.
Why this is correct
This is the customer's responsibility. The customer must choose to enable encryption at rest when creating or modifying the RDS instance and must configure SSL/TLS settings to ensure data in transit is encrypted. AWS provides the underlying infrastructure, but the customer controls the encryption settings.
- ✗
Applying operating system patches to the Amazon RDS database engine.
Why it's wrong here
In Amazon RDS, the managed service model places responsibility for applying operating system and database engine patches on AWS. The customer cannot perform these patching operations because they lack SSH access or OS-level control to RDS instances. Moreover, patching is a maintenance activity, not an encryption control, so it does not address the requirement for encrypting data at rest and in transit.
- ✗
Configuring network ACLs to block all traffic except from authorized sources.
Why it's wrong here
Configuring network ACLs is indeed a customer responsibility and helps restrict traffic at the subnet boundary, but network ACLs are a network-layer access control mechanism, not a data encryption mechanism. They do not encrypt patient records stored in the RDS database or protect data in transit with SSL/TLS. Thus, this action would not meet the specific encryption-at-rest and in-transit requirements stated in the question.
When this WOULD be correct
A question asks: 'A company wants to restrict database access to only specific IP addresses from its corporate network. Which security mechanism should the company configure?' In that scenario, configuring network ACLs to block all traffic except from authorized sources would be the correct answer.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The CLF-C02 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓Enabling encryption at rest for the Amazon RDS instance and configuring SSL for connections.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
This is the customer's responsibility. The customer must choose to enable encryption at rest when creating or modifying the RDS instance and must configure SSL/TLS settings to ensure data in transit is encrypted. AWS provides the underlying infrastructure, but the customer controls the encryption settings.
✗Encrypting the physical disk drives in the AWS data center that host the database.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Under the AWS shared responsibility model, AWS is responsible for the security of the physical infrastructure, including encrypting physical disk drives. The customer does not perform this task.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question asking which responsibility belongs to AWS under the shared responsibility model, such as 'Which task is AWS responsible for when using Amazon RDS?'
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse physical security controls with customer-managed encryption, or assume that all encryption tasks are the customer's responsibility.
✗Configuring network ACLs to block all traffic except from authorized sources.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Configuring network ACLs is a network-level security task, but the question specifically requires encryption at rest and in transit. Network ACLs do not provide encryption; they control traffic flow. The customer's responsibility for encryption is to enable RDS encryption and SSL, not to manage network ACLs for this purpose.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A question asks: 'A company wants to restrict database access to only specific IP addresses from its corporate network. Which security mechanism should the company configure?' In that scenario, configuring network ACLs to block all traffic except from authorized sources would be the correct answer.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that network ACLs are a necessary part of securing the database, but they confuse network-level access control with encryption requirements. The question's focus on encryption leads them to overestimate the role of ACLs in meeting compliance.
Analysis generated from the official CLF-C02blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CLF-C02 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 CLF-C02 exam.