SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company has a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Organizations. The security team wants to enforce that all S3 buckets in the organization are encrypted at rest. Which TWO approaches can the company use to achieve this? (Choose TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse SCPs with IAM policies or bucket policies, thinking they can enforce encryption on existing objects or buckets, when in fact SCPs only affect future API calls (like CreateBucket) and AWS Config is needed for ongoing compliance of existing resources.
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
✓
Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:CreateBucket unless the bucket has default encryption enabled.
A service control policy (SCP) can be applied at the organization, organizational unit (OU), or account level to deny the s3:CreateBucket action unless the request includes the x-amz-bucket-object-lock-enabled header or the bucket is created with default encryption enabled. This enforces encryption at rest for all new S3 buckets across the entire organization. Option E is correct because AWS Config rules can evaluate existing S3 buckets for encryption compliance and trigger an automatic remediation action, such as enabling default encryption via AWS Systems Manager Automation, ensuring both new and existing buckets are encrypted.
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 a bucket policy to each bucket that denies PutObject without encryption.
Why it's wrong here
Only works if bucket policy is set and not overridden.
- ✓
Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:CreateBucket unless the bucket has default encryption enabled.
Why this is correct
Prevents creation of unencrypted buckets.
- ✗
Create an IAM policy that denies s3:PutObject unless encryption is specified.
Why it's wrong here
Can be bypassed by other principals or services.
- ✗
Enable S3 Block Public Access at the organization level.
Why it's wrong here
Addresses public access, not encryption.
- ✓
Use AWS Config rules to detect S3 buckets without encryption and automatically apply encryption.
Why this is correct
Detective and corrective (via auto-remediation).
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 SAP-C02 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 SAP-C02 exam.