SCS-C02 Threat Detection and Incident Response Practice Question
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of threat detection and incident response. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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.
During a security incident, a security engineer needs to preserve forensic evidence from an EC2 instance that may be compromised. The instance is running a critical application. Which approach minimizes data loss while ensuring the integrity of the evidence?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Create an EBS snapshot, then isolate the instance by modifying the security group and removing it from the load balancer.
Option A is correct because creating an EBS snapshot preserves the disk state at the point of the incident, capturing forensic evidence without altering the running instance. Isolating the instance by modifying the security group (e.g., removing all inbound/outbound rules) and removing it from the load balancer stops network traffic and prevents further compromise, minimizing data loss while maintaining the integrity of the evidence for later analysis.
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 EBS snapshot, then isolate the instance by modifying the security group and removing it from the load balancer.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Immediately terminate the instance to stop any ongoing malicious activity.
Why it's wrong here
Termination destroys volatile data and logs.
✗
SSH into the instance and run forensic tools to capture memory.
Why it's wrong here
SSHing may alert the attacker and alter evidence.
✗
Detach the instance from the Auto Scaling group and leave it running without changes.
Why it's wrong here
Leaving it running risks further damage and data alteration.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may think terminating the instance is the safest way to stop malicious activity, but they overlook the irreversible loss of forensic evidence and the need to preserve the disk state for investigation.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
EBS snapshots are point-in-time, crash-consistent copies stored in Amazon S3, capturing the entire block-level volume without requiring the instance to be stopped. For forensic integrity, the snapshot should be used to launch a new, isolated instance for analysis, avoiding any interaction with the original compromised instance. In real-world scenarios, memory capture (e.g., via LiME or AWS Nitro's memory dump feature) may also be needed, but the question focuses on minimizing data loss and ensuring integrity, which the snapshot achieves by preserving disk state without modification.
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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.
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.
Threat Detection and Incident Response — This question tests Threat Detection and Incident Response — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create an EBS snapshot, then isolate the instance by modifying the security group and removing it from the load balancer. — Option A is correct because creating an EBS snapshot preserves the disk state at the point of the incident, capturing forensic evidence without altering the running instance. Isolating the instance by modifying the security group (e.g., removing all inbound/outbound rules) and removing it from the load balancer stops network traffic and prevents further compromise, minimizing data loss while maintaining the integrity of the evidence for later analysis.
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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