SCS-C02 Threat Detection and Incident Response Practice Question
A company wants to detect anomalous behavior in their AWS environment. Which THREE AWS services can be used for threat detection? (Choose THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse AWS Trusted Advisor's security checks (like open port alerts) with threat detection, but Trusted Advisor is a best-practice advisor, not a real-time threat detection service—it lacks the ML-based anomaly detection and threat intelligence that GuardDuty and Security Hub provide.
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
✓
AWS Security Hub
Amazon GuardDuty (D) is correct because it is a managed threat detection service that continuously monitors VPC Flow Logs, AWS CloudTrail management and S3 data events, and DNS logs to identify malicious or anomalous activity such as cryptocurrency mining, credential compromise, and reconnaissance. AWS Security Hub (B) is correct because it aggregates and correlates findings from GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, and other sources, applies security standards checks, and surfaces prioritized threat-detection insights across accounts and Regions. Amazon Inspector (E) is correct because it performs automated vulnerability management by scanning EC2 instances, container images in ECR, and Lambda functions for software vulnerabilities and unintended network exposure, which supports detecting risky or anomalous configurations. AWS Trusted Advisor (A) is not a threat-detection service; it provides best-practice checks on cost, performance, security, fault tolerance, and service quotas. AWS Config (C) is a configuration recording and compliance-evaluation service that tracks resource changes and rule compliance, but it does not itself detect threats or malicious behavior.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
AWS Trusted Advisor is a diagnostic and recommendation service that evaluates your AWS environment against best practices for cost optimization, performance, service limits, fault tolerance, and security. While it does flag security misconfigurations like MFA on root accounts or open security groups, it does not analyze behavioral signals such as VPC Flow Logs, API patterns, or DNS queries to detect anomalous activity. It provides point-in-time, rule-based checks, not continuous threat detection.
- ✓
AWS Security Hub
Why this is correct
AWS Security Hub is correct because it acts as a central aggregation point for security findings from multiple AWS services, including GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, and Config, as well as partner products. It normalizes findings using the AWS Security Finding Format (ASFF) and applies consolidated security standards like CIS AWS Foundations and the AWS Foundational Security Best Practices. While it can perform correlation and enrichment, Security Hub itself does not analyze raw telemetry for anomalies; its value is in unifying and prioritizing signals across accounts and regions.
- ✗
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config is a configuration management and compliance service that tracks resource configuration changes and evaluates them against rules you define. It can detect drift from desired configurations, such as an S3 bucket becoming public or a security group allowing unrestricted inbound traffic, but it does not inspect network traffic, user behavior, or API activity to identify security anomalies. Config answers 'what changed?' or 'is this compliant?', not 'is this behavior anomalous or malicious?'
- ✓
Amazon GuardDuty
Why this is correct
Amazon GuardDuty is a continuous threat detection service that uses machine learning, anomaly detection, and integrated threat intelligence to analyze AWS platform telemetry, including VPC Flow Logs, CloudTrail management and S3 data events, and DNS query logs. It detects compromised credentials, suspicious API calls, and malicious network behavior that indicate an active threat. GuardDuty directly identifies anomalous activity in your environment, whereas Security Hub aggregates and correlates those findings after they are generated.
- ✓
Amazon Inspector
Why this is correct
Amazon Inspector is a vulnerability management service that continuously scans Amazon EC2 instances and container images in Amazon ECR for software vulnerabilities, unintended network exposure, and deviations from security best practices. It assesses workloads for known CVEs and missing patches, but it does not analyze behavioral patterns like login anomalies, lateral movement, or unusual API usage. Inspector answers 'is my workload vulnerable?', not 'is something anomalous happening right now in my environment?'
Visual reference
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 |
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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.