SCS-C02 Management and Security Governance Practice Question
A company uses AWS Organizations with a management account and several member accounts. The security team wants to restrict the use of specific AWS services (e.g., EC2, Lambda) in certain accounts based on the account's environment (dev, test, prod). Which approach should be used to implement this requirement?
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 AWS Organizations to tag accounts (e.g., Environment=Dev) and use SCPs with conditions to deny access to services based on tags.
By tagging accounts in AWS Organizations (e.g., Environment=Dev) and using Service Control Policies (SCPs) with conditions based on those tags, the security team can restrict usage of specific AWS services per account environment. SCPs are applied at the organization level and affect all users and roles in the account, providing preventive controls. Option A is incorrect because CloudTrail only logs API calls and does not prevent usage; revoking access after the fact is not a preventive measure. Option B is incorrect because IAM roles are identity-based and do not restrict services at the account level; also, managing roles per account would be cumbersome. Option D is incorrect because AWS Config rules detect non-compliant resource configurations but do not prevent the use of services; they are detective controls.
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 AWS CloudTrail to monitor API calls and revoke access after the fact.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail logs, does not enforce.
- ✗
Create IAM roles in each account with policies that deny access to services.
Why it's wrong here
Roles are for users, not for restricting services in an account.
- ✓
Use AWS Organizations to tag accounts (e.g., Environment=Dev) and use SCPs with conditions to deny access to services based on tags.
Why this is correct
Tag-based SCPs allow fine-grained control across accounts.
- ✗
Use AWS Config rules to detect and alert when restricted services are used.
Why it's wrong here
Config is detective, not preventive.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.