DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a data pipeline that ingests data from an on-premises system into Amazon S3 using AWS Transfer Family. The data must be encrypted at rest using a customer-managed key in AWS KMS. The S3 bucket policy must allow only encrypted connections. Which policy condition should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
DEA-C01 often tests the confusion between encryption in transit and encryption at rest, and candidates may incorrectly choose a condition related to server-side encryption headers instead of 'aws:SecureTransport' for enforcing encrypted connections.
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
✓
aws:SecureTransport
The correct condition is 'aws:SecureTransport' because it ensures that requests to the S3 bucket are made over HTTPS (TLS), thereby enforcing encrypted connections. This condition key is a boolean that indicates whether the request used SSL/TLS. Setting it to 'true' in a bucket policy denies any non-encrypted (HTTP) requests.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
aws:SecureTransport
Why this is correct
aws:SecureTransport is a boolean condition key that evaluates whether the request arrived over HTTPS. Setting it to false in a Deny statement blocks unencrypted connections, satisfying the bucket policy requirement that only encrypted transport be permitted to the Transfer Family endpoint.
- ✗
kms:EncryptionContext
Why it's wrong here
EncryptionContext is a KMS condition key for auditing and restricting key usage during cryptographic operations; it cannot be evaluated in an S3 bucket policy to require TLS or a KMS key on uploads. It is tempting because it relates to KMS encryption, and it would be correct inside a KMS key policy for context-bound operations.
- ✗
s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption-aws-kms-key-id
Why it's wrong here
This enforces a specific KMS key for SSE, not in-transit encryption.
- ✗
s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption
Why it's wrong here
This enforces SSE, not in-transit encryption.
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 and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.