SCS-C02 Threat Detection and Incident Response Practice Question
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of threat detection and incident response. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 Organizations to manage multiple accounts. The security team wants to centralize threat detection across all accounts. They enable Amazon GuardDuty in the management account and intend to use delegated administrator functionality. However, they find that GuardDuty is not detecting threats in member accounts. What is the most likely cause?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
GuardDuty requires an S3 bucket in each account to store findings.
Why wrong: GuardDuty stores findings in the service, not in S3 by default.
B
GuardDuty is not enabled in the member accounts. The security team must invite member accounts or use the delegated administrator to enable GuardDuty in all accounts.
GuardDuty must be enabled in each account. The delegated administrator can enable it for all accounts, but it requires explicit action.
C
GuardDuty only monitors the management account's resources, not member accounts.
Why wrong: GuardDuty can monitor member accounts if properly configured.
D
GuardDuty does not support delegated administrator for AWS Organizations.
Why wrong: GuardDuty does support delegated administrator.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
GuardDuty is not enabled in the member accounts. The security team must invite member accounts or use the delegated administrator to enable GuardDuty in all accounts.
Option B is correct because Amazon GuardDuty must be enabled in each member account to detect threats in those accounts. When using the delegated administrator model, the security team can enable GuardDuty across all accounts programmatically via the delegated administrator API, but they must explicitly perform this action. Simply enabling GuardDuty in the management account does not automatically activate it in member accounts, which is why no threats are detected in those accounts.
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.
✗
GuardDuty requires an S3 bucket in each account to store findings.
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty stores findings in the service, not in S3 by default.
✓
GuardDuty is not enabled in the member accounts. The security team must invite member accounts or use the delegated administrator to enable GuardDuty in all accounts.
Why this is correct
GuardDuty must be enabled in each account. The delegated administrator can enable it for all accounts, but it requires explicit action.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
GuardDuty only monitors the management account's resources, not member accounts.
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty can monitor member accounts if properly configured.
✗
GuardDuty does not support delegated administrator for AWS Organizations.
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty does support delegated administrator.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume enabling GuardDuty in the management account automatically propagates to all member accounts, but AWS requires an explicit delegated administrator action to enable the service across the organization.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, the delegated administrator for GuardDuty uses the EnableOrganizationAdminAccount API to designate an account, and then the delegated administrator can call CreateDetector and UpdateOrganizationConfiguration to enable GuardDuty for all existing and future member accounts. A common real-world scenario is when an organization enables GuardDuty in the management account but forgets to run the UpdateOrganizationConfiguration operation, leaving member accounts without active detectors. This is a subtle but critical step that ensures the service is deployed organization-wide.
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 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
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: GuardDuty is not enabled in the member accounts. The security team must invite member accounts or use the delegated administrator to enable GuardDuty in all accounts. — Option B is correct because Amazon GuardDuty must be enabled in each member account to detect threats in those accounts. When using the delegated administrator model, the security team can enable GuardDuty across all accounts programmatically via the delegated administrator API, but they must explicitly perform this action. Simply enabling GuardDuty in the management account does not automatically activate it in member accounts, which is why no threats are detected in those accounts.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
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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