DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A data analytics company uses Amazon Athena to query data stored in an S3 bucket. The data contains personally identifiable information (PII). The security team wants to ensure that only authorized users can access the data through Athena, and that the data is encrypted at rest in S3. Which combination of actions should the company take? (Choose two.)
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
✓
Attach an IAM policy to users that grants Athena access and S3 read access to the bucket.
Attaching an IAM policy that grants Athena access and S3 read access to the bucket ensures that only authorized users can access the data through Athena via IAM permissions. Option E is correct because enabling server-side encryption (SSE-S3) on the S3 bucket ensures data is encrypted at rest. Option B is incorrect because while Lake Formation can be used for data lake permissions, it is not required for this scenario; IAM policies are sufficient. Option C is incorrect because Kinesis is a streaming service, not used for querying data in Athena. Option D is incorrect because an S3 Access Point with a restricted policy could be used but is not necessary when IAM policies already provide the required access control.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Attach an IAM policy to users that grants Athena access and S3 read access to the bucket.
Why this is correct
Controls access to Athena and underlying data.
- ✗
Use AWS Lake Formation to define data lake permissions.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Lake Formation manages permissions at the database, table, and column level for governed tables, but it does not enforce encryption at rest for the underlying S3 objects; the requirement to encrypt PII in S3 must be satisfied by S3 server-side encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS) or a bucket policy, which Lake Formation alone cannot configure. It is tempting because Lake Formation centralises fine-grained access control for Athena queries, and in a scenario where only authorisation management is needed—without an encryption mandate—it would be the correct choice.
- ✗
Use AWS Kinesis to stream data to Athena.
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis is for streaming, not querying.
- ✗
Create an S3 Access Point with a restricted policy.
Why it's wrong here
Not needed if IAM policies are used.
- ✓
Enable server-side encryption (SSE-S3) on the S3 bucket.
Why this is correct
Encrypts data at rest.
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.