DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company stores sensitive data in Amazon S3. They need to ensure that all objects are encrypted at rest. Which approach meets this requirement with minimal effort?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse enforcing encryption at upload (via bucket policy) with automatically encrypting data at rest, leading them to choose option D, which requires additional policy management and does not guarantee encryption of all objects without explicit headers.
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
✓
Enable default encryption on the S3 bucket with SSE-S3
Enabling default encryption on an S3 bucket with SSE-S3 (Server-Side Encryption with S3-Managed Keys) automatically encrypts all objects at rest using AES-256, with no additional effort from the user. This ensures that any object uploaded without explicit encryption headers is encrypted by default, meeting the requirement with minimal configuration overhead.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use client-side encryption before uploading
Why it's wrong here
Requires application changes and key management.
- ✓
Enable default encryption on the S3 bucket with SSE-S3
Why this is correct
Automatically encrypts all new objects with minimal effort.
- ✗
Enable S3 Versioning and MFA Delete
Why it's wrong here
Does not provide encryption.
- ✗
Use a bucket policy to deny PutObject without encryption
Why it's wrong here
Requires careful policy management and may be bypassed.
Quick reference
Symmetric Encryption Algorithm Comparison
| Algorithm | Key Size | Block Size | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AES-128 | 128-bit | 128-bit | Current standard | NIST approved; WPA3, TLS |
| AES-256 | 256-bit | 128-bit | Current standard | Preferred for sensitive / govt data |
| 3DES | 112-bit effective | 64-bit | Deprecated (2023) | Replaced by AES |
| DES | 56-bit | 64-bit | Broken | Cracked in < 24 h; never deploy |
| ChaCha20 | 256-bit | Stream cipher | Current | TLS 1.3, WireGuard |
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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