SCS-C02 Security Logging and Monitoring Practice Question
A company needs to monitor for unauthorized changes to its Amazon S3 bucket policies. Which TWO services can be used together to achieve this? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse AWS CloudTrail (which logs API calls) with AWS Config (which monitors configuration state), leading them to select CloudTrail instead of Config, even though CloudTrail alone cannot trigger notifications for unauthorized changes without additional services like EventBridge or SNS.
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
✓
AWS Config
AWS Config is correct because it provides continuous monitoring and evaluation of your AWS resource configurations, including S3 bucket policies. You can create AWS Config rules (e.g., s3-bucket-policy-grantee-check) to detect changes to bucket policies and trigger compliance evaluations. When a policy change is detected, AWS Config can invoke an SNS topic to send notifications, enabling real-time alerting for unauthorized modifications.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon Route 53
Why it's wrong here
DNS service, not relevant.
- ✗
AWS CloudTrail
Why it's wrong here
Logs API calls but does not alert on configuration changes.
- ✗
VPC Flow Logs
Why it's wrong here
Captures network traffic, not policy changes.
- ✓
AWS Config
Why this is correct
Tracks configuration changes to S3 bucket policies.
- ✓
Amazon SNS
Why this is correct
Sends notifications when policy changes are detected.
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 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.