easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
CCSP Practice Question: A financial services company is migrating…
A financial services company is migrating sensitive customer data to a cloud environment. The compliance team requires that all data at rest be encrypted using a key managed by the organization, not the cloud provider. Which solution should the company implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse server-side encryption with customer-managed keys (SSE-C) as meeting the requirement, but SSE-C still involves the cloud provider performing the encryption on their infrastructure, whereas client-side encryption ensures the provider never sees the plaintext or the key.
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
✓
Client-side encryption using a customer-managed key
Client-side encryption ensures that data is encrypted before it leaves the organization's control, and the customer retains sole possession of the encryption key. This satisfies the compliance requirement that the cloud provider never has access to the key, as the provider only stores the encrypted ciphertext. In contrast, server-side encryption options (like SSE-S3) involve the provider managing or having access to the key material.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enforce TLS 1.2 for all data transfers
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Protects in transit, not at rest.
- ✗
Implement tokenization for all sensitive fields
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Tokenization does not use customer-managed encryption keys.
- ✓
Client-side encryption using a customer-managed key
Why this is correct
Correct: Data encrypted before upload; keys held by customer.
- ✗
Server-side encryption with AWS S3 managed keys (SSE-S3)
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Cloud provider manages keys.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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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.