DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a data pipeline that ingests customer data from an on-premises database into Amazon S3. The data contains personally identifiable information (PII). The company policy requires that all PII be masked before it is stored in S3. The pipeline uses AWS DMS for migration and AWS Glue for transformation. The engineer needs to ensure that the masking is applied consistently and that no unmasked data is written to S3. The engineer has set up DMS to replicate data to an S3 bucket, and then a Glue job reads from S3, applies masking, and writes to another S3 bucket. However, there is a risk that unmasked data in the first S3 bucket could be accessed before the Glue job runs. What should the engineer do to mitigate this risk?
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
✓
Set an S3 Lifecycle policy on the first bucket to delete objects after 1 hour.
An S3 Lifecycle policy with expiration can automatically delete objects from the first bucket after a short time, reducing the window of exposure for unmasked data. Option A is incorrect because DMS does not have native masking capabilities; it can transform data types but not mask PII. Option B is incorrect because blocking all access except for the Glue role would still leave unmasked data accessible to the Glue job, and the risk of exposure exists if the Glue job fails or is delayed. Option C is incorrect because Kinesis Data Firehose is not part of the existing pipeline and would require re-architecting.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure DMS to apply masking transformations before writing to S3 using DMS's built-in transformation rules.
Why it's wrong here
DMS does not have native masking capabilities; it can perform schema and data type transformations but not apply PII masking. This option does not solve the risk.
- ✗
Block all access to the first S3 bucket except for the Glue job's IAM role.
Why it's wrong here
Blocking all access except for the Glue role still leaves unmasked data in the bucket, and the Glue job itself could be compromised or delayed, leaving data exposed. This does not mitigate the risk of data persistence.
- ✗
Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to stream data directly to Glue for real-time masking.
Why it's wrong here
Using Kinesis Data Firehose would require redesigning the pipeline and does not address the risk of unmasked data already in S3 from DMS. It also does not guarantee masking before storage.
- ✓
Set an S3 Lifecycle policy on the first bucket to delete objects after 1 hour.
Why this is correct
An S3 Lifecycle policy with expiration deletes objects from the first bucket within a short time (e.g., 1 hour), minimizing the window during which unmasked data could be accessed. This directly mitigates the risk.
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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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.