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SCS-C02 Threat Detection and Incident Response Practice Question
A security engineer is investigating a potential data exfiltration incident. The engineer notices large volumes of data being transferred from an Amazon S3 bucket to an external IP address. Which AWS services can be used to detect and alert on such behavior? (Choose THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently think VPC Flow Logs (Option E) are sufficient for S3 data exfiltration detection, but they lack the application-layer context needed to identify S3-specific operations and external IPs in S3 access logs or CloudTrail events.
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
✓
Amazon CloudWatch Logs with S3 access log analysis.
Amazon CloudWatch Logs can ingest and analyze S3 access logs, which record detailed information about requests made to an S3 bucket, including the source IP address, request type, and bytes transferred. By analyzing these logs with CloudWatch Logs Insights or metric filters, you can detect large data transfers to external IPs and trigger alerts via CloudWatch Alarms, making it a valid detection and alerting mechanism for data exfiltration.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Amazon CloudWatch Logs with S3 access log analysis.
Why this is correct
S3 server access logs can be sent to CloudWatch Logs for monitoring and alerting.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail with S3 data event logging.
Why this is correct
CloudTrail data events record S3 object-level operations, including GetObject for data downloads.
- ✓
Amazon GuardDuty with anomaly detection.
Why this is correct
GuardDuty uses machine learning to detect unusual data access patterns, such as large volumes from an unfamiliar IP.
- ✗
AWS Config with compliance rules.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config checks resource configurations, not data transfer.
- ✗
VPC Flow Logs.
Why it's wrong here
VPC Flow Logs capture traffic to/from S3 via VPC endpoints, but the data transfer itself is encrypted and not visible in flow logs; they show connection metadata but not object-level details.
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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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 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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