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Question 1,042 of 1,748

Security Logging and Monitoring →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Real-Time Alerting for Security Group Modifications with EventBridge

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 critical application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The security team needs to monitor for unauthorized changes to security groups. They have enabled AWS Config with the security-group-change detection rule. However, they notice that changes are being detected but not all changes trigger a notification. The team wants to ensure that every security group modification (create, delete, or rule change) sends an alert to the security operations center via Amazon SNS. The current setup: AWS Config rules evaluate resources periodically, and SNS notifications are sent only when the rule compliance status changes. What should the team do to achieve real-time alerts for all security group changes?

A
Deploy Amazon GuardDuty and enable the Security Group Monitoring feature.
Why wrong: GuardDuty focuses on threat detection (e.g., suspicious API activity), not on monitoring all security group configuration changes. It does not have a 'Security Group Monitoring feature' and does not provide real-time alerts for every security group modification.
B
Configure an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches API calls via CloudTrail for security group modifications and sends notifications to an SNS topic.
CloudTrail logs all API calls, including security group modifications, in real time. An EventBridge rule can match these events and trigger an SNS notification, ensuring immediate alerts for every change.
C
Increase the frequency of AWS Config rule evaluations to every minute to reduce detection latency.
Why wrong: Even with increased evaluation frequency, AWS Config rules evaluate configuration snapshots periodically and do not provide real-time alerting for each individual change. They are designed for compliance assessment, not real-time monitoring.
D
Enable VPC Flow Logs and set up a metric filter for security group-related traffic anomalies.
Why wrong: VPC Flow Logs monitor network traffic (IP traffic) and are not capable of detecting changes to security group configurations. They do not provide alerts for security group modifications.

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

✓

Configure an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches API calls via CloudTrail for security group modifications and sends notifications to an SNS topic.

The correct answer is B. CloudTrail logs all API calls, including security group modifications, in real time. By creating an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches SecurityGroup events and targets an SNS topic, the team can receive immediate notifications. Option A is incorrect because GuardDuty focuses on threat detection (e.g., suspicious API activity), not on monitoring all security group configuration changes. Option C is incorrect because even with frequent evaluations, AWS Config rules evaluate configuration snapshots periodically and do not provide real-time alerting for each change. Option D is incorrect because VPC Flow Logs monitor network traffic, not security group modifications.

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.

✗
Deploy Amazon GuardDuty and enable the Security Group Monitoring feature.
Why it's wrong here
GuardDuty focuses on threat detection (e.g., suspicious API activity), not on monitoring all security group configuration changes. It does not have a 'Security Group Monitoring feature' and does not provide real-time alerts for every security group modification.
✓
Configure an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches API calls via CloudTrail for security group modifications and sends notifications to an SNS topic.
Why this is correct
CloudTrail logs all API calls, including security group modifications, in real time. An EventBridge rule can match these events and trigger an SNS notification, ensuring immediate alerts for every change.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Increase the frequency of AWS Config rule evaluations to every minute to reduce detection latency.
Why it's wrong here
Even with increased evaluation frequency, AWS Config rules evaluate configuration snapshots periodically and do not provide real-time alerting for each individual change. They are designed for compliance assessment, not real-time monitoring.
✗
Enable VPC Flow Logs and set up a metric filter for security group-related traffic anomalies.
Why it's wrong here
VPC Flow Logs monitor network traffic (IP traffic) and are not capable of detecting changes to security group configurations. They do not provide alerts for security group modifications.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.

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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.

TExam Day Tips

Underline the problem statement mentally.
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 SCS-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.

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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: Configure an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches API calls via CloudTrail for security group modifications and sends notifications to an SNS topic. — The correct answer is B. CloudTrail logs all API calls, including security group modifications, in real time. By creating an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches SecurityGroup events and targets an SNS topic, the team can receive immediate notifications. Option A is incorrect because GuardDuty focuses on threat detection (e.g., suspicious API activity), not on monitoring all security group configuration changes. Option C is incorrect because even with frequent evaluations, AWS Config rules evaluate configuration snapshots periodically and do not provide real-time alerting for each change. Option D is incorrect because VPC Flow Logs monitor network traffic, not security group modifications.

What should I do if I get this SCS-C02 question wrong?

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

About these practice questions

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Same concept, more angles

2 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 security engineer needs to be alerted when an IAM user attempts to modify an S3 bucket policy. Which method is the MOST efficient?

easy

A.Enable VPC Flow Logs and analyze for S3 API traffic
B.Configure an AWS Config rule to detect changes and invoke a Lambda function
✓ C.Create an Amazon CloudWatch Events rule that matches the PutBucketPolicy API call and triggers an SNS notification
D.Enable S3 server access logs and parse them for PutBucketPolicy entries

Why C: Option C is correct because Amazon CloudWatch Events (now Amazon EventBridge) can directly capture the PutBucketPolicy API call as a real-time event and trigger an SNS notification without any additional compute or polling. This is the most efficient method as it requires no log parsing, no custom code, and no additional infrastructure, providing immediate alerting with minimal overhead.

Variation 2. A company uses AWS CloudTrail to log all API calls. The security team needs to be alerted when an IAM user creates a new access key. Which approach is most efficient?

medium

A.Enable AWS Config managed rule to detect access key creation and trigger an SNS notification.
✓ B.Create a CloudWatch Events rule that matches the CreateAccessKey event and targets an SNS topic.
C.Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to run a query every minute on CloudTrail logs and send results to SNS.
D.Configure CloudTrail to send logs to an S3 bucket and enable S3 event notifications to an SNS topic.

Why B: Option B is correct because CloudWatch Events (now part of Amazon EventBridge) can directly match the CreateAccessKey API call from AWS CloudTrail in real time and trigger an SNS notification. This approach is the most efficient as it requires no polling, no additional infrastructure, and provides immediate alerting with minimal latency.

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