SCS-C02 Data Protection Practice Question
A company uses AWS Organizations and wants to enforce that all S3 buckets created in any account within the organization have default encryption enabled. Which policy should be used?
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
✓
Use a service control policy (SCP) to deny creation of buckets without default encryption
(SCP) is correct because a service control policy can be applied to all accounts in an AWS Organization to deny the creation of S3 buckets without default encryption, providing a preventive control. Option A is incorrect because bucket policies are applied per bucket and are not preventive during creation. Option C is incorrect because IAM policies are account-specific and do not cover all accounts in the organization. Option D is incorrect because AWS Config rules are detective, not preventive; they can trigger remediation but do not prevent creation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use a bucket policy on each bucket to enforce encryption
Why it's wrong here
Bucket policies attach to individual buckets, so they cannot govern buckets that do not yet exist across every account in the organisation. They are tempting because they enforce encryption on access, and would be correct for controlling requests to a specific existing bucket.
- ✓
Use a service control policy (SCP) to deny creation of buckets without default encryption
Why this is correct
Service control policies set permission guardrails across every account in AWS Organizations, so an SCP denying s3:CreateBucket without default encryption blocks non-compliant buckets organisation-wide. This satisfies the requirement to enforce encryption centrally in all accounts, which bucket policies cannot do.
- ✗
Use an IAM policy to require encryption on all bucket creation actions
Why it's wrong here
IAM policies grant or deny API permissions to principals; they cannot mandate that a CreateBucket request include default encryption settings. IAM policies are tempting because they govern S3 actions, and they would be correct for restricting who may create buckets or delete objects within an account.
- ✗
Use AWS Config rules to automatically enable encryption on new buckets
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config rules detect and can remediate non-compliant buckets after creation, so they do not prevent an unencrypted bucket from existing. Config is tempting as an automated compliance mechanism, and it would be correct for continuous detection and auto-remediation rather than creation-time enforcement.
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.