Quick Answer
The answer is AWS Organizations, as it is the foundational service required to enable GuardDuty in a multi-account environment with a delegated admin. GuardDuty integrates directly with Organizations, allowing the management account to designate a delegated administrator account that then centrally enables and manages threat detection for all member accounts, eliminating the need for manual per-account setup. On the AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS-C02 exam, this concept tests your understanding of how Organizations streamlines security services at scale—a common trap is confusing GuardDuty’s delegated admin with IAM cross-account roles or AWS CloudFormation StackSets. Remember that Organizations is the prerequisite; without it, GuardDuty cannot automatically enroll member accounts or delegate administration. Memory tip: think “Org first, then GuardDuty”—the organization structure must exist before you can delegate admin for threat detection.
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 security engineer is configuring Amazon GuardDuty in a multi-account environment using AWS Organizations. The engineer wants to designate a delegated administrator account to manage GuardDuty for all member accounts. Which AWS service must be used to enable GuardDuty for all accounts?
AWS CloudFormation StackSets
Why wrong: StackSets can deploy resources but are not the primary service for multi-account GuardDuty.
AWS Control Tower
Why wrong: Control Tower can set up GuardDuty but is not required.
AWS Config
Why wrong: AWS Config is not for enabling GuardDuty.
AWS Organizations
GuardDuty integrates with AWS Organizations for multi-account management.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS Organizations
Option D is correct because AWS Organizations is the foundational service required to designate a delegated administrator for Amazon GuardDuty in a multi-account environment. GuardDuty integrates directly with Organizations to allow a management account to enable GuardDuty for all member accounts and delegate administration to a specified account, which then manages threat detection across the organization without needing additional services.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS CloudFormation StackSets
Why it's wrong here
StackSets can deploy resources but are not the primary service for multi-account GuardDuty.
AWS Control Tower
Why it's wrong here
Control Tower can set up GuardDuty but is not required.
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config is not for enabling GuardDuty.
AWS Organizations
Why this is correct
GuardDuty integrates with AWS Organizations for multi-account management.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates may confuse AWS Organizations as merely an organizational tool and think they need a separate service like CloudFormation StackSets or Control Tower to enable GuardDuty across accounts, but GuardDuty natively integrates with Organizations for delegated administration and automatic enablement.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, when you designate a delegated administrator for GuardDuty via Organizations, the management account calls the `EnableOrganizationAdminAccount` API in GuardDuty, which registers the specified account as the administrator. This delegated account can then use `CreateMembers` and `InviteMembers` APIs to add member accounts, and GuardDuty automatically propagates findings to the administrator account using cross-account IAM roles and S3 bucket policies for centralized storage. A real-world scenario is a large enterprise with hundreds of accounts where the security team uses a delegated administrator to enable GuardDuty in all accounts via a single API call, avoiding the need to manually enable it in each account.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
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FAQ
Threat Detection and Incident Response — This question tests Threat Detection and Incident Response — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS Organizations — Option D is correct because AWS Organizations is the foundational service required to designate a delegated administrator for Amazon GuardDuty in a multi-account environment. GuardDuty integrates directly with Organizations to allow a management account to enable GuardDuty for all member accounts and delegate administration to a specified account, which then manages threat detection across the organization without needing additional services.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Same concept, more angles
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A security engineer is configuring Amazon GuardDuty in a multi-account environment using AWS Organizations. What is the MOST efficient way to enable GuardDuty for all accounts?
easyWhy D: Option D is correct because AWS Organizations allows you to enable GuardDuty at the management account level and then designate a delegated administrator to manage GuardDuty across all member accounts. This approach is the most efficient as it eliminates the need for per-account manual or scripted enablement, leveraging the Organizations API to automatically enroll all existing and future accounts.
Variation 2. A company uses AWS Organizations and has enabled GuardDuty in the management account. The security team wants to view GuardDuty findings for all member accounts from a single delegated administrator account. Which configuration step is required?
mediumWhy C: Option C is correct because AWS Organizations allows you to designate a delegated administrator account for GuardDuty, which can then manage and view findings from all member accounts without needing to enable GuardDuty individually in each account. Once the delegated administrator is set up, GuardDuty automatically aggregates findings from all member accounts in the organization, providing a single-pane-of-glass view for the security team.
Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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