- A
Amazon Inspector
Why wrong: Amazon Inspector is a vulnerability management service that scans workloads for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure. It does not continuously analyze CloudTrail logs, VPC Flow Logs, or DNS logs for threat detection.
- B
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why wrong: AWS Trusted Advisor provides best practice recommendations across cost, performance, security, and fault tolerance. It does not analyze real-time log data or detect malicious activity.
- C
Amazon GuardDuty
Amazon GuardDuty is a managed threat detection service that continuously monitors AWS accounts and workloads for malicious activity. It analyzes CloudTrail management events, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS logs to detect threats such as anomalous API calls, crypto-mining, and compromised credentials. It operates without requiring custom rules and can be centrally enabled across all accounts in an AWS Organization.
- D
AWS Config
Why wrong: AWS Config is a service that evaluates and records resource configuration changes over time. It is used for compliance auditing and tracking configuration history, but it does not analyze log data for threat detection.
CLF-C02 Security and Compliance Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security and compliance. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company manages over 100 AWS accounts using AWS Organizations. The security team wants a centralized service that continuously monitors for malicious or unauthorized behavior across all accounts. The service must analyze AWS CloudTrail management event logs, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS query logs to automatically detect threats such as anomalous API calls, crypto-mining activity, and compromised credentials. The security team wants to receive actionable alerts without having to write custom detection rules or manage underlying infrastructure. Which AWS service should the security team 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 GuardDuty
Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that continuously monitors for malicious or unauthorized behavior using machine learning, anomaly detection, and integrated threat intelligence. It natively analyzes AWS CloudTrail management event logs, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS query logs across all accounts in an AWS Organization, automatically generating actionable alerts without requiring custom rules or infrastructure management.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon Inspector
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Inspector is a vulnerability management service that scans workloads for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure. It does not continuously analyze CloudTrail logs, VPC Flow Logs, or DNS logs for threat detection.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to automatically assess EC2 instances for common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) and network reachability issues, and needs to generate reports on findings without managing infrastructure.
- ✗
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
AWS Trusted Advisor provides best practice recommendations across cost, performance, security, and fault tolerance. It does not analyze real-time log data or detect malicious activity.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants a service that automatically checks AWS accounts for compliance with best practices (e.g., security groups open to unrestricted access, IAM key rotation) and provides recommendations to improve security posture without needing to deploy agents or analyze logs. Trusted Advisor would be the correct answer.
- ✓
Amazon GuardDuty
Why this is correct
Amazon GuardDuty is a managed threat detection service that continuously monitors AWS accounts and workloads for malicious activity. It analyzes CloudTrail management events, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS logs to detect threats such as anomalous API calls, crypto-mining, and compromised credentials. It operates without requiring custom rules and can be centrally enabled across all accounts in an AWS Organization.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config is a service that evaluates and records resource configuration changes over time. It is used for compliance auditing and tracking configuration history, but it does not analyze log data for threat detection.
When this WOULD be correct
AWS Config would be correct in a scenario where the company needs to continuously monitor and evaluate AWS resource configurations for compliance with internal policies or industry standards, such as ensuring all S3 buckets are private or EC2 instances have required tags, and receive alerts on configuration changes.
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.
✓Amazon GuardDutyCorrect answer▾
Why this is correct
Amazon GuardDuty is a managed threat detection service that continuously monitors AWS accounts and workloads for malicious activity. It analyzes CloudTrail management events, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS logs to detect threats such as anomalous API calls, crypto-mining, and compromised credentials. It operates without requiring custom rules and can be centrally enabled across all accounts in an AWS Organization.
✗Amazon InspectorWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Amazon Inspector is a vulnerability management service that scans for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure, not a threat detection service that analyzes CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, or DNS logs for malicious behavior.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to automatically assess EC2 instances for common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) and network reachability issues, and needs to generate reports on findings without managing infrastructure.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'monitoring for threats' with 'vulnerability scanning,' and Inspector's name suggests it inspects for security issues, leading them to overlook that it does not analyze logs for threat detection.
✗AWS Trusted AdvisorWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
AWS Trusted Advisor provides best-practice recommendations for cost optimization, performance, security, and fault tolerance, but it does not continuously monitor for malicious activity or analyze CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, or DNS logs to detect threats like crypto-mining or compromised credentials.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants a service that automatically checks AWS accounts for compliance with best practices (e.g., security groups open to unrestricted access, IAM key rotation) and provides recommendations to improve security posture without needing to deploy agents or analyze logs. Trusted Advisor would be the correct answer.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse Trusted Advisor's security checks with threat detection, assuming that its security recommendations include real-time monitoring for malicious behavior, when in fact it only provides static checks and recommendations.
✗AWS ConfigWrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
AWS Config is a service for evaluating resource configurations against desired policies, not for threat detection. It does not analyze CloudTrail logs, VPC Flow Logs, or DNS logs to identify malicious activity.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
AWS Config would be correct in a scenario where the company needs to continuously monitor and evaluate AWS resource configurations for compliance with internal policies or industry standards, such as ensuring all S3 buckets are private or EC2 instances have required tags, and receive alerts on configuration changes.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse AWS Config's monitoring and alerting capabilities with security threat detection, as both involve continuous monitoring and rule-based evaluations, but Config focuses on configuration compliance, not threat analysis.
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?”
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Amazon Inspector (a vulnerability scanner) with GuardDuty (a threat detector), or assume AWS Config can perform threat detection when it is actually a compliance and configuration tracking service.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
GuardDuty uses integrated threat intelligence from AWS and third-party sources (e.g., CrowdStrike, Proofpoint) combined with machine learning models to detect patterns like crypto-mining communication (e.g., connections to known mining pools) or anomalous API calls (e.g., IAM user enumeration). It can be enabled across an AWS Organization with a single delegated administrator account, automatically aggregating findings from all member accounts into a centralized console. The service operates without deploying agents or managing infrastructure, as it ingests and analyzes log data directly from CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs (via Amazon VPC), and DNS logs (via Route 53 Resolver).
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
Visual reference
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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Security and Compliance — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Security and Compliance — This question tests Security and Compliance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon GuardDuty — Amazon GuardDuty is a threat detection service that continuously monitors for malicious or unauthorized behavior using machine learning, anomaly detection, and integrated threat intelligence. It natively analyzes AWS CloudTrail management event logs, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS query logs across all accounts in an AWS Organization, automatically generating actionable alerts without requiring custom rules or infrastructure management.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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