This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of threat detection and incident response. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company's security policy requires that all S3 buckets be encrypted at rest. An security engineer needs to detect any S3 bucket that does not have default encryption enabled. Which AWS service should the engineer use to continuously monitor and alert on non-compliant buckets?
AWS CloudTrail
Why wrong: CloudTrail logs API calls, not the current state of encryption.
AWS Config
Config can continuously evaluate resource configurations and trigger notifications for non-compliant resources.
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why wrong: Trusted Advisor provides a point-in-time check, not continuous monitoring and alerts.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why wrong: GuardDuty focuses on threat detection, not configuration compliance.
Answer choices
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 the correct service because it provides continuous monitoring and evaluation of your AWS resource configurations against desired policies. You can create an AWS Config rule, such as the managed rule 's3-bucket-default-encryption-enabled', which automatically checks each S3 bucket for the presence of default encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS) and triggers an alert or remediation action for any non-compliant bucket. This aligns directly with the requirement to detect and alert on buckets lacking encryption at rest.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS CloudTrail
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail logs API calls, not the current state of encryption.
AWS Config
Why this is correct
Config can continuously evaluate resource configurations and trigger notifications for non-compliant resources.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor provides a point-in-time check, not continuous monitoring and alerts.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty focuses on threat detection, not configuration compliance.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS CloudTrail (which logs API calls) with AWS Config (which evaluates resource configurations), leading them to choose CloudTrail for monitoring encryption settings when it only records the actions that change encryption, not the current state of encryption on each bucket.
Detailed technical explanation
AWS Config evaluates resource configurations by recording configuration items (CIs) and comparing them against rules defined in AWS Config managed or custom rules. For the 's3-bucket-default-encryption-enabled' rule, Config checks the 'BucketEncryption' property of the S3 bucket resource; if the property is absent or set to 'None', the bucket is marked as non-compliant. This rule can be combined with automatic remediation using AWS Systems Manager Automation to enable encryption on non-compliant buckets, ensuring continuous compliance without manual intervention.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
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FAQ
Threat Detection and Incident Response — This question tests Threat Detection and Incident Response — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS Config — AWS Config is the correct service because it provides continuous monitoring and evaluation of your AWS resource configurations against desired policies. You can create an AWS Config rule, such as the managed rule 's3-bucket-default-encryption-enabled', which automatically checks each S3 bucket for the presence of default encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS) and triggers an alert or remediation action for any non-compliant bucket. This aligns directly with the requirement to detect and alert on buckets lacking encryption at rest.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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