SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A company uses AWS Organizations with multiple OUs. The security team wants to ensure that no account in the 'Production' OU can disable AWS CloudTrail or delete CloudTrail log files. Which two steps should be taken? (Choose TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers think IAM permissions boundaries or CloudTrail Insights can enforce preventive controls, but only SCPs and resource-based policies (like S3 bucket policies) can deny actions across all users and roles in an account at the organizational 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 SCP attached to the 'Production' OU that denies CloudTrail and S3 actions related to stopping or deleting trails and logs.
Service Control Policies (SCPs) attached to an OU can deny specific AWS actions for all accounts within that OU, including actions like cloudtrail:StopLogging, cloudtrail:DeleteTrail, and s3:DeleteObject on the CloudTrail log bucket. This ensures that no account in the 'Production' OU can disable CloudTrail or delete its log files, regardless of IAM permissions within the account. Option D is correct because an S3 bucket policy on the CloudTrail log bucket that explicitly denies s3:DeleteObject for all principals in the 'Production' OU adds a second layer of defense, preventing deletion of log files even if an account gains elevated privileges.
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 AWS CloudTrail Insights to detect unusual activity.
Why it's wrong here
Insights detects but does not prevent deletion.
- ✓
Create an SCP attached to the 'Production' OU that denies CloudTrail and S3 actions related to stopping or deleting trails and logs.
Why this is correct
SCP prevents the actions at the account level.
- ✗
Use IAM roles with a permissions boundary that restricts CloudTrail actions.
Why it's wrong here
Permissions boundaries only affect IAM roles, not all principals.
- ✓
Add an S3 bucket policy on the CloudTrail log bucket that denies s3:DeleteObject for all principals in the 'Production' OU.
Why this is correct
Bucket policy adds an additional layer of protection.
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.