SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company is using AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team wants to ensure that all Amazon S3 buckets across the organization are encrypted at rest. Which TWO steps should the security team take to enforce this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse detective controls (like AWS Config or CloudTrail) with preventive controls (like SCPs), or they mistakenly think that IAM roles or GuardDuty can enforce encryption policies, when in fact only SCPs and bucket policies with condition keys can deny unencrypted uploads at the API level.
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 AWS Config rule that checks for S3 bucket default encryption and auto-remediates using SSM Automation.
AWS Config can be configured with a managed rule (e.g., s3-bucket-server-side-encryption-enabled) to detect buckets without default encryption, and an automatic remediation action using AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Automation can enforce encryption by applying the bucket's default encryption settings. Option B is correct because a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:PutObject unless the x-amz-server-side-encryption header is present ensures that any object uploaded to S3 must include encryption headers, effectively enforcing encryption at the API level across all accounts in the organization.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create an AWS Config rule that checks for S3 bucket default encryption and auto-remediates using SSM Automation.
Why this is correct
Config rules can enforce and remediate non-compliant resources.
- ✓
Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:PutObject unless the x-amz-server-side-encryption header is present.
Why this is correct
SCPs can deny actions that do not meet conditions.
- ✗
Use Amazon GuardDuty to monitor S3 data access patterns.
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty is for threat detection, not encryption enforcement.
- ✗
Create an IAM role with permissions to encrypt S3 buckets and assign it to all users.
Why it's wrong here
This does not enforce encryption; users can still choose not to use the role.
- ✗
Enable AWS CloudTrail to log all S3 API calls.
Why it's wrong here
Logging does not enforce 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 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.