DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A company uses AWS Glue to process sensitive data stored in Amazon S3. The security team requires that all data in transit between AWS Glue and S3 be encrypted. Which configuration should be used to meet this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse encryption at rest (SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, client-side encryption) with encryption in transit (TLS/HTTPS), and may incorrectly assume that enabling default encryption or using KMS keys secures the data during transfer.
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
✓
Use an S3 bucket policy that denies requests not using HTTPS.
Requiring HTTPS for all requests to the S3 bucket ensures that data in transit between AWS Glue and S3 is encrypted using TLS. By using an S3 bucket policy with a condition that denies requests where `aws:SecureTransport` is false, the company enforces encryption for all connections, including those from AWS Glue. This meets the security requirement without needing to modify Glue or S3 configurations beyond the bucket policy.
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 an S3 bucket policy that denies requests not using HTTPS.
Why this is correct
An S3 bucket policy denying requests where aws:SecureTransport is false enforces TLS on every request, so Glue-to-S3 traffic cannot fall back to plain HTTP. This satisfies the in-transit encryption requirement at the bucket level, covering all clients including AWS Glue.
- ✗
Use an AWS KMS key to encrypt the data before uploading to S3.
Why it's wrong here
KMS encryption protects data at rest, not the TLS session carrying bytes between Glue and S3, so the in-transit requirement stays unmet. It is tempting because KMS keys are the standard control for encrypting sensitive S3 objects, and would be correct if the requirement were encryption at rest.
- ✗
Configure AWS Glue to use SSL by setting the 'ssl' parameter to 'true'.
Why it's wrong here
Glue connection options govern JDBC sources such as RDS, not S3 reads and writes, which already use HTTPS by default; setting 'ssl' changes nothing for S3 traffic. It is tempting because it appears to enable transport encryption, and would be correct for encrypting a JDBC connection to a relational database.
- ✗
Enable default encryption on the S3 bucket using SSE-S3.
Why it's wrong here
SSE-S3 encrypts objects at rest within the bucket and does not encrypt the transport channel between Glue and S3. It is tempting because bucket default encryption is the standard way to enforce encryption at rest, and would be correct if the requirement covered stored objects rather than data in transit.
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
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DEA-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 DEA-C01 exam.