- A
Create a CloudWatch Events rule that matches GuardDuty findings with severity HIGH or CRITICAL and targets an SNS topic.
CloudWatch Events provides real-time event filtering and notification.
- B
Use the GuardDuty console to set up email alerts for high-severity findings.
Why wrong: GuardDuty console does not have a built-in alerting feature.
- C
Configure GuardDuty to export findings to an S3 bucket and use S3 event notifications to trigger an SNS topic.
Why wrong: GuardDuty exports to S3 periodically, not real-time.
- D
Stream GuardDuty findings to CloudWatch Logs and create a metric filter to trigger an alarm.
Why wrong: Findings are not streamed to CloudWatch Logs by default.
Question 355 of 1,748
SCS-C02 Security Logging and Monitoring Practice Question
This SCS-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security logging and monitoring. 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.
A company uses Amazon GuardDuty to detect threats. The security team wants to receive real-time notifications for all GuardDuty findings with a severity of HIGH or CRITICAL. What is the MOST efficient way to achieve this?
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
✓
Create a CloudWatch Events rule that matches GuardDuty findings with severity HIGH or CRITICAL and targets an SNS topic.
Option A is correct because Amazon GuardDuty integrates natively with Amazon CloudWatch Events (now part of Amazon EventBridge) to emit findings as events. By creating a CloudWatch Events rule that filters for findings with a severity value of 7.0 or higher (HIGH or CRITICAL), you can directly target an Amazon SNS topic to send real-time notifications. This approach is the most efficient as it avoids intermediate storage or polling, providing near-instantaneous alerting with minimal latency and operational overhead.
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 a CloudWatch Events rule that matches GuardDuty findings with severity HIGH or CRITICAL and targets an SNS topic.
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Events provides real-time event filtering and notification.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use the GuardDuty console to set up email alerts for high-severity findings.
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty console does not have a built-in alerting feature.
- ✗
Configure GuardDuty to export findings to an S3 bucket and use S3 event notifications to trigger an SNS topic.
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty exports to S3 periodically, not real-time.
- ✗
Stream GuardDuty findings to CloudWatch Logs and create a metric filter to trigger an alarm.
Why it's wrong here
Findings are not streamed to CloudWatch Logs by default.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may think exporting to S3 or CloudWatch Logs is necessary for analysis, but for real-time notifications, CloudWatch Events (EventBridge) is the direct and most efficient integration, avoiding unnecessary intermediate steps.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
GuardDuty findings are automatically sent to the default event bus in Amazon EventBridge (formerly CloudWatch Events) as structured JSON events. The severity field in a GuardDuty finding is a numeric value: 0.1–3.9 for LOW, 4.0–6.9 for MEDIUM, 7.0–8.9 for HIGH, and 9.0–10.0 for CRITICAL. By using an event pattern filter like {"detail": {"severity": [{"numeric": [">=", 7]}]}}, you can precisely target HIGH and CRITICAL findings. This method is the most efficient because it leverages the native event-driven architecture of AWS, ensuring sub-second delivery to SNS without any intermediate storage or polling.
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.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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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: Create a CloudWatch Events rule that matches GuardDuty findings with severity HIGH or CRITICAL and targets an SNS topic. — Option A is correct because Amazon GuardDuty integrates natively with Amazon CloudWatch Events (now part of Amazon EventBridge) to emit findings as events. By creating a CloudWatch Events rule that filters for findings with a severity value of 7.0 or higher (HIGH or CRITICAL), you can directly target an Amazon SNS topic to send real-time notifications. This approach is the most efficient as it avoids intermediate storage or polling, providing near-instantaneous alerting with minimal latency and operational overhead.
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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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 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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