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Question 127 of 1,748

Security Logging and Monitoring →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Why Doesn't CloudTrail Organization Trail Include Newly Added Accounts?

This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security logging and monitoring. 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 runs a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Organizations. The security team needs to implement centralized logging for all AWS CloudTrail events across all accounts. They create a new trail in the management account with the following configuration: trail name 'central-trail', apply to all accounts in the organization, enable data events for all S3 buckets, and store logs in a centralized S3 bucket. After one week, they notice that some accounts are not delivering CloudTrail logs to the central bucket. The security engineer verifies that the trail is still configured to apply to all accounts and that the S3 bucket policy allows cross-account access. What is the MOST likely reason for the missing logs?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.

A
The member accounts have not enabled CloudTrail Insights
Why wrong: CloudTrail Insights is optional and not required for logging.
B
The S3 bucket policy does not grant the correct permissions to the member accounts
Why wrong: The engineer verified the policy is correct.
C
The trail is not configured as a multi-region trail
Why wrong: Organization trails are multi-region by default.
D
Some accounts were added to the organization after the trail was created, and the trail was not updated to include them
When new accounts join, the trail must be updated or they need to enable the trail manually.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Some accounts were added to the organization after the trail was created, and the trail was not updated to include them

When a trail is created in the management account with 'apply to all accounts in the organization', it automatically includes all current member accounts. However, if new accounts are added to the AWS Organization after the trail is created, the trail does not automatically extend to those new accounts. The trail must be updated (e.g., via the CloudTrail console or API) to include the newly added accounts, or the organization trail feature must be re-enabled. This is why logs from accounts added after trail creation are missing.

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.

✗
The member accounts have not enabled CloudTrail Insights
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail Insights is optional and not required for logging.
✗
The S3 bucket policy does not grant the correct permissions to the member accounts
Why it's wrong here
The engineer verified the policy is correct.
✗
The trail is not configured as a multi-region trail
Why it's wrong here
Organization trails are multi-region by default.
✓
Some accounts were added to the organization after the trail was created, and the trail was not updated to include them
Why this is correct
When new accounts join, the trail must be updated or they need to enable the trail manually.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
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 assume 'apply to all accounts' means the trail dynamically includes any account added later, but in reality, the trail only applies to accounts that were members at the time of creation and must be manually updated for new accounts.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

When you enable an organization trail in AWS CloudTrail, the trail is created in the management account and automatically applies to all existing member accounts. However, the CloudTrail service does not automatically propagate the trail configuration to accounts that join the organization after the trail is created. You must either update the trail (using the `UpdateTrail` API with the `--include-global-service-events` and `--is-organization-trail` flags) or re-create the organization trail to include new accounts. This behavior is documented in the AWS CloudTrail User Guide under 'Creating a Trail for an Organization'.

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.

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

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.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SCS-C02 question test?

Security Logging and Monitoring — This question tests Security Logging and Monitoring — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Some accounts were added to the organization after the trail was created, and the trail was not updated to include them — When a trail is created in the management account with 'apply to all accounts in the organization', it automatically includes all current member accounts. However, if new accounts are added to the AWS Organization after the trail is created, the trail does not automatically extend to those new accounts. The trail must be updated (e.g., via the CloudTrail console or API) to include the newly added accounts, or the organization trail feature must be re-enabled. This is why logs from accounts added after trail creation are missing.

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.

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

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Same concept, more angles

1 more ways this is tested on SCS-C02

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 company has a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Organizations. The security team wants to centralize all CloudTrail logs from all accounts into a single S3 bucket in the management account. They have enabled CloudTrail in the management account with an organization trail that delivers logs to an S3 bucket. However, logs from member accounts are not appearing. The S3 bucket policy includes permissions for CloudTrail to write logs, but it does not explicitly grant access to member accounts. What should the team do to ensure that member account CloudTrail logs are delivered to the central S3 bucket?

hard

A.Ask each member account to create a new trail that delivers logs to the same S3 bucket.
B.Disable the organization trail and recreate it, ensuring that all member accounts are selected.
✓ C.Verify that the organization trail is configured correctly with the 'Include all accounts in my organization' option enabled, and that the S3 bucket policy allows CloudTrail to write from all accounts.
D.Modify the S3 bucket policy to grant write access to the CloudTrail service principal for each member account's AWS account ID.

Why C: The correct answer is C. An organization trail automatically delivers logs from all accounts without needing separate trails in each account. If logs are not appearing, the issue is likely that the organization trail is not properly configured or member accounts are not enabled. Option A is incorrect because member trails cannot write to a bucket in another account without proper cross-account permissions, and this approach is not recommended. Option B is incorrect because disabling and re-enabling might not fix the underlying issue. Option D is incorrect because the bucket policy must allow CloudTrail from all accounts, but the primary cause is often the organization trail setup.

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