DBS-C01 Database Security Practice Question
A financial services company uses Amazon DynamoDB to store transaction records. The security team requires that all items be encrypted at rest using a customer-managed AWS KMS key. Additionally, the company must be able to audit key usage and rotation. What is the MOST secure and auditable approach?
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 SSE-KMS with a customer-managed key, enable automatic key rotation, and enable CloudTrail data events for the key.
Using a customer-managed KMS key with automatic annual rotation and enabling CloudTrail logging of key usage provides encryption control and auditing. Option A is wrong because SSE-S3 does not provide customer control or audit. Option B is wrong because manual rotation is less secure and auditable than automatic rotation. Option D is wrong because client-side encryption would require managing encryption keys on the client side, which does not leverage the AWS KMS infrastructure for automatic key rotation and auditing, and is not as integrated or auditable as server-side encryption with KMS.
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 default encryption on the DynamoDB table using SSE-S3.
Why it's wrong here
SSE-S3 uses AWS-managed keys, not customer-managed, and does not provide customer control or audit of key usage.
- ✗
Use SSE-KMS with a customer-managed key and manually rotate the key every 90 days.
Why it's wrong here
Manual rotation every 90 days is less secure and auditable than automatic rotation provided by SSE-KMS.
- ✓
Use SSE-KMS with a customer-managed key, enable automatic key rotation, and enable CloudTrail data events for the key.
Why this is correct
SSE-KMS with customer-managed key and automatic rotation, combined with CloudTrail data events, meets the requirements for control and audit.
- ✗
Use client-side encryption with the AWS Encryption SDK.
Why it's wrong here
Client-side encryption manages keys outside of AWS, preventing CloudTrail logging of key usage and central key management.
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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Variation 1. A financial services company uses Amazon DynamoDB to store transaction data. The table is encrypted with an AWS managed KMS key. The compliance team requires that the encryption key be rotated every 90 days. The current key was created 6 months ago and has not been rotated. The company also needs to ensure that all access to the table is logged for audit purposes. The security engineer proposes to enable DynamoDB Streams and AWS CloudTrail. However, the compliance team notes that CloudTrail only logs management plane events (e.g., CreateTable) and not data plane events (e.g., GetItem, PutItem). What should the engineer do to meet both requirements?
hard- A.Use AWS CloudTrail data events to capture DynamoDB data plane operations and store the logs in S3.
- B.Switch to an AWS managed KMS key and enable automatic rotation.
- C.Enable DynamoDB Streams and stream write events to CloudWatch Logs for auditing.
- ✓ D.Create a customer managed KMS key, enable automatic key rotation, and configure CloudTrail to log data events for the DynamoDB table.
Why D: To meet both requirements, the engineer should create a customer managed KMS key, enable automatic key rotation (which rotates the key annually, but for 90-day rotation, the engineer can create a new key every 90 days and update the table), and configure CloudTrail to log data events for the DynamoDB table. CloudTrail data events capture data plane operations like GetItem and PutItem, which addresses the logging requirement. Option A is incorrect because AWS managed keys do not support automatic rotation; also, CloudTrail data events are not tied to key type. Option B is incorrect because switching to a customer managed key alone does not enable data event logging. Option C is incorrect because DynamoDB Streams are used for change data capture and streaming to other services, not for audit logging of data plane operations; CloudWatch Logs from Streams do not capture all API calls.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DBS-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 DBS-C01 exam.