The answer is to enable Amazon CloudWatch Lambda Insights, as it captures all Lambda invocations including internal retries with CloudWatch Lambda Insights, providing telemetry directly from the execution environment rather than relying solely on API call logs. CloudTrail data events only record the initial Invoke API call, missing retries that occur within the Lambda service due to throttling or errors, whereas Lambda Insights collects detailed metrics and logs from the runtime, ensuring full visibility into every invocation. On the AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 exam, this question tests your understanding of the gap between control plane logging (CloudTrail) and data plane telemetry (Lambda Insights)—a common trap is assuming CloudTrail captures all activity, but it does not see internal service retries. Memory tip: think of CloudTrail as the front door camera (sees who knocks), while Lambda Insights is the room monitor (sees everything that happens inside).
SCS-C02 Threat Detection and Incident Response Practice Question
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of threat detection and incident response. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 uses AWS Lambda functions that process sensitive data. The security team wants to ensure that any unauthorized invocation of the functions is detected and alerted. The team has enabled AWS CloudTrail and is monitoring for Lambda Invoke API calls. However, they are concerned about missing events that occur within the Lambda service itself (e.g., internal retries). What should the team do to capture all relevant events?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable Amazon CloudWatch Lambda Insights.
Option C is correct because Amazon CloudWatch Lambda Insights provides a monitoring and troubleshooting solution for serverless applications, capturing detailed metrics and logs for all Lambda invocations, including internal retries and invocations that occur within the Lambda service itself. Unlike CloudTrail data events, which only log API calls made to the Lambda Invoke API, Lambda Insights collects telemetry from the Lambda execution environment, ensuring visibility into events that happen after the initial invocation, such as retries triggered by the Lambda service due to throttling or errors.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 VPC Flow Logs for the Lambda function's VPC.
Why it's wrong here
VPC Flow Logs capture network traffic, not Lambda invocation events.
✗
Configure CloudWatch Logs to capture all Lambda function logs.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs captures logs written by the function code, not all invocation events.
✓
Enable Amazon CloudWatch Lambda Insights.
Why this is correct
Lambda Insights provides detailed monitoring of function invocations, including internal retries and performance metrics.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Enable CloudTrail data events for Lambda functions.
Why it's wrong here
Data events capture Invoke API calls, but not internal Lambda service events like retries.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume CloudTrail data events capture all Lambda invocation activity, but they miss that internal retries and service-side invocations are not API calls and thus are invisible to CloudTrail, requiring a monitoring solution like Lambda Insights that operates within the execution environment.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
CloudWatch Lambda Insights works by deploying a CloudWatch agent as a Lambda extension that collects performance metrics (e.g., cold start duration, memory usage) and invocation-level telemetry from the Lambda execution environment, including internal retries that happen asynchronously. Under the hood, the Lambda service may retry failed invocations up to three times for asynchronous invocations, and these retries are not logged as separate CloudTrail events because they are internal service operations, not API calls. In a real-world scenario, if a malicious actor triggers a Lambda function via an asynchronous invocation that fails and is retried internally, CloudTrail would only log the initial Invoke API call, but Lambda Insights would capture all retry attempts, providing complete visibility.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Threat Detection and Incident Response — This question tests Threat Detection and Incident Response — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable Amazon CloudWatch Lambda Insights. — Option C is correct because Amazon CloudWatch Lambda Insights provides a monitoring and troubleshooting solution for serverless applications, capturing detailed metrics and logs for all Lambda invocations, including internal retries and invocations that occur within the Lambda service itself. Unlike CloudTrail data events, which only log API calls made to the Lambda Invoke API, Lambda Insights collects telemetry from the Lambda execution environment, ensuring visibility into events that happen after the initial invocation, such as retries triggered by the Lambda service due to throttling or errors.
What should I do if I get this SCS-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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