CCSP Cloud Platform and Infrastructure Security Practice Question
A cloud security professional is designing network security for a VPC hosting a three-tier application. The database tier must be isolated from direct internet access and only accessible from the application tier. Which TWO AWS services can be used together 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
✓
Security Groups
Security Groups act as instance-level firewalls and can restrict traffic to the database tier from only the application tier. NACLs provide subnet-level stateless filtering as an additional layer.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
VPC Peering
Why it's wrong here
VPC peering is for connecting separate VPCs, not for subnet isolation.
- ✗
Internet-facing Application Load Balancer
Why it's wrong here
This would expose the database tier indirectly, not isolate it.
- ✓
Security Groups
Why this is correct
Security Groups can allow inbound traffic only from the application tier's security group.
- ✗
Internet Gateway
Why it's wrong here
Internet Gateway provides internet access; not suitable for isolation.
- ✓
Network ACLs (NACLs)
Why this is correct
NACLs can deny all inbound traffic from the internet at the subnet level.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CCSP practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CCSP exam.