SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company is using AWS CloudTrail to log all API activity. The security team wants to be alerted when an IAM user creates a new access key. What is the simplest way to achieve this?
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 an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches the 'CreateAccessKey' API call and sends an SNS notification.
Amazon EventBridge can be configured with a rule that matches the 'CreateAccessKey' API call from CloudTrail and sends an SNS notification to alert the security team. Option A is incorrect because S3 event notifications are triggered by object-level operations (e.g., object created/deleted) in the S3 bucket, not by API calls logged by CloudTrail. Option B is incorrect because enabling log file validation on a CloudTrail trail only ensures the integrity of log files, it does not generate alerts. Option C is incorrect because AWS Config rules evaluate the configuration state of AWS resources (e.g., whether an IAM user has a key older than 90 days), not real-time API calls.
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 an S3 event notification on the CloudTrail log bucket to trigger a Lambda function.
Why it's wrong here
S3 events are not for real-time API monitoring.
- ✗
Set up a CloudTrail trail with log file validation enabled.
Why it's wrong here
Log file validation does not provide alerts.
- ✗
Use AWS Config to create a rule that checks for access keys.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config evaluates resource configurations, not API events.
- ✓
Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches the 'CreateAccessKey' API call and sends an SNS notification.
Why this is correct
EventBridge can filter CloudTrail events and trigger actions.
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.