SCS-C02 Infrastructure Security Practice Question
A company is deploying a web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The security team requires that all traffic between the ALB and the EC2 instances be encrypted. Which configuration should the engineer implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume HTTPS on the listener alone is sufficient, overlooking that the target group protocol must also be HTTPS to encrypt traffic between the ALB and instances, not just between clients and the ALB.
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
✓
Configure the ALB listener with HTTPS protocol and the target group with HTTPS protocol, and install SSL certificates on the EC2 instances.
It ensures end-to-end encryption between the ALB and EC2 instances. The ALB listener uses HTTPS to terminate client SSL/TLS, and the target group uses HTTPS to re-encrypt traffic to the instances, requiring SSL certificates on the EC2 instances to decrypt and re-encrypt. This satisfies the security requirement that all traffic between the ALB and EC2 instances be 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.
- ✗
Configure the ALB listener with HTTP protocol and the target group with HTTP protocol, then use a security group to restrict traffic.
Why it's wrong here
HTTP is not encrypted.
- ✗
Configure the ALB listener with HTTPS protocol and the target group with HTTP protocol.
Why it's wrong here
This encrypts only the frontend, not the backend.
- ✗
Configure the ALB listener with TCP protocol and the target group with TCP protocol, then install SSL certificates on the EC2 instances.
Why it's wrong here
TCP does not provide encryption.
- ✓
Configure the ALB listener with HTTPS protocol and the target group with HTTPS protocol, and install SSL certificates on the EC2 instances.
Why this is correct
This encrypts both frontend and backend traffic.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SCS-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 SCS-C02 exam.