DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question

A data engineer needs to audit all access to an Amazon S3 bucket containing sensitive data. The audit must capture who accessed the bucket, from which IP address, and what actions were performed. Which AWS service should be enabled?

⚠ Common exam trap

DEA-C01 often tests the confusion between S3 server access logging and CloudTrail data events — candidates pick access logging because it sounds like an audit log, but only CloudTrail captures the full identity and IP context required for compliance audits.

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 AWS CloudTrail with data events for the S3 bucket.

AWS CloudTrail data events capture object-level API activity on S3 buckets, including the identity of the caller, source IP address, timestamp, and the specific action (GetObject, PutObject, DeleteObject). Enabling data events on the bucket produces an auditable record of who accessed sensitive objects and from where, which is exactly what the requirement demands. Management events alone would only show bucket-level configuration changes, not object reads/writes.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
Enable S3 server access logging for the bucket.
Why it's wrong here
S3 server access logging records bucket requests but delivers best-effort logs to a target bucket, without the CloudTrail data-event fields for identity and IP that the audit requires. It is tempting because it is a native, low-cost S3 feature for basic request visibility, and would suit simple traffic-pattern reviews.
✓
Enable AWS CloudTrail with data events for the S3 bucket.
Why this is correct
CloudTrail data events capture object-level S3 operations, recording the caller identity, source IP address and action performed. Management events alone omit GetObject and PutObject, so enabling data events for the bucket is necessary to audit who accessed the sensitive data.
✗
Use AWS Config to record S3 bucket-level changes.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config records bucket configuration changes, such as policy or encryption edits, not object-level access events, so it cannot show who read the data or from which IP. It is tempting because Config is the standard tool for compliance auditing of resource configuration drift over time.
✗
Configure Amazon CloudWatch Logs to monitor S3 access.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs does not natively ingest S3 access events; S3 does not publish data-plane access records to it, so identity and IP details are absent. It is tempting because CloudWatch Logs is the usual destination for application and service logs, and would be correct for monitoring custom application output.

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

DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

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