Quick Answer
The answer is Amazon EventBridge and AWS CloudTrail. CloudTrail is correct because it records all API calls to create, modify, or delete security groups, such as AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress and RevokeSecurityGroupEgress, providing the complete audit trail needed to detect unauthorized security group changes. EventBridge then ingests these CloudTrail events in real time and can trigger automated notifications—for example, sending an SNS alert to the operations team whenever a security group rule is modified. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this pairing tests your understanding of how to build a detection and notification pipeline without custom scripting; a common trap is choosing AWS Config alone, which evaluates compliance but does not natively stream real-time events for notification. Remember the memory tip: “Trail tracks the action, Bridge triggers the reaction.”
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 SysOps administrator needs to detect unauthorized changes to security groups and automatically notify the operations team. Which two AWS services should be part of the solution? (Choose 2.)
AWS CloudTrail.
CloudTrail records API calls such as AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress.
Amazon EventBridge.
EventBridge can match CloudTrail events and invoke targets such as SNS or Lambda.
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration.
Why wrong: This improves S3 transfer performance, not change detection.
AWS Snowball Edge.
Why wrong: Snowball Edge is for edge/data transfer workloads, not security group monitoring.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS CloudTrail.
AWS CloudTrail is correct because it records API calls made to create, modify, or delete security groups, providing the audit trail needed to detect unauthorized changes. By enabling CloudTrail on the account and configuring a trail to deliver logs to Amazon S3, the administrator can monitor security group events such as AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress or RevokeSecurityGroupEgress. This log data is essential for identifying when a change occurred, who made it, and from which source IP.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS CloudTrail.
Why this is correct
CloudTrail records API calls such as AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon EventBridge.
Why this is correct
EventBridge can match CloudTrail events and invoke targets such as SNS or Lambda.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration.
Why it's wrong here
This improves S3 transfer performance, not change detection.
AWS Snowball Edge.
Why it's wrong here
Snowball Edge is for edge/data transfer workloads, not security group monitoring.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration with S3 event notifications or S3 server access logging, mistakenly thinking it can trigger alerts, when in fact it is solely a performance optimization for uploads.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, CloudTrail captures management events (including security group API calls) as JSON records with fields like eventSource, eventName, userIdentity, and requestParameters. EventBridge can then consume these events via a custom rule that matches specific patterns (e.g., eventSource: ec2.amazonaws.com and eventName: AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress) and route them to an SNS topic or Lambda function for real-time notification. A subtle behavior is that CloudTrail delivers events within about 15 minutes of the API call, so near-real-time detection requires EventBridge’s event-driven architecture rather than polling S3 logs.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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FAQ
Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — This question tests Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS CloudTrail. — AWS CloudTrail is correct because it records API calls made to create, modify, or delete security groups, providing the audit trail needed to detect unauthorized changes. By enabling CloudTrail on the account and configuring a trail to deliver logs to Amazon S3, the administrator can monitor security group events such as AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress or RevokeSecurityGroupEgress. This log data is essential for identifying when a change occurred, who made it, and from which source IP.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Same concept, more angles
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 SysOps administrator needs to track changes to security group rules in a VPC. Which AWS services can be used to monitor and log these changes? (Choose TWO.)
easyWhy C: AWS CloudTrail is correct because it records API calls made to the Amazon EC2 service, including AuthorizeSecurityGroupIngress, RevokeSecurityGroupEgress, and CreateSecurityGroup. These events capture the identity, source IP, and timestamp of every change to security group rules, providing an audit trail for compliance and troubleshooting.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.
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