This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of infrastructure security. 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 uses AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team wants to enforce that all Amazon S3 buckets across the organization have server-side encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS) enabled. Which approach should be used to enforce this policy?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:CreateBucket if the bucket does not have encryption enabled.
Option D is correct because Service Control Policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations allow you to centrally deny API actions across all accounts. By creating an SCP that denies `s3:CreateBucket` unless the request includes encryption parameters (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS), you enforce encryption at the point of bucket creation, preventing non-compliant buckets from ever being created. This is the only approach that proactively enforces the policy across the entire organization, rather than relying on detection or per-account configurations.
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.
✗
Create an S3 bucket policy in each account to deny access to unencrypted buckets.
Why it's wrong here
Bucket policies are per-bucket and do not prevent creation of new buckets without encryption.
✗
Use AWS Config rules to detect buckets without encryption and send alerts.
Why it's wrong here
Config rules are detective, not preventive.
✗
Create an IAM role in each account that requires encryption when creating buckets.
Why it's wrong here
IAM roles cannot enforce policies across all accounts centrally.
✓
Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:CreateBucket if the bucket does not have encryption enabled.
Why this is correct
SCPs allow central policy enforcement across all accounts in the organization.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse detective controls (like AWS Config) with preventive controls (like SCPs), or assume that bucket policies or IAM roles can enforce encryption at creation time, when only SCPs can centrally deny the API call across an entire organization.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
SCPs work by attaching to the root, OU, or account level in AWS Organizations and use AWS IAM policy language to allow or deny actions. The SCP in this case uses a `Deny` effect with a `Condition` block checking that `s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption` is not present or is not set to `AES256` (SSE-S3) or `aws:kms` (SSE-KMS). This leverages the fact that S3 API calls for `CreateBucket` include the `x-amz-server-side-encryption` header, and SCPs can evaluate request parameters before the action is executed. A real-world nuance is that SCPs do not affect the management account by default, so the security team must ensure the policy is applied to all accounts including the management account if needed.
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.
Infrastructure Security — This question tests Infrastructure Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies s3:CreateBucket if the bucket does not have encryption enabled. — Option D is correct because Service Control Policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations allow you to centrally deny API actions across all accounts. By creating an SCP that denies `s3:CreateBucket` unless the request includes encryption parameters (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS), you enforce encryption at the point of bucket creation, preventing non-compliant buckets from ever being created. This is the only approach that proactively enforces the policy across the entire organization, rather than relying on detection or per-account configurations.
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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