CCSP Cloud Data Security Practice Question
A healthcare company stores patient records in a cloud storage bucket. They need to encrypt the data at rest using encryption keys that they manage themselves, but they want to generate the keys within the cloud provider's key management service. Which encryption option should they choose?
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
✓
Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK)
CMEK (Customer-Managed Encryption Keys) allows the customer to create and manage keys within the cloud provider's KMS, giving them control over key lifecycle without the operational overhead of generating keys externally.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Client-side encryption
Why it's wrong here
Client-side encryption encrypts data before upload, which is different from using a cloud-managed key service.
- ✗
Server-side encryption with Amazon S3-managed keys (SSE-S3)
Why it's wrong here
This uses cloud provider-managed keys, not customer-managed.
- ✓
Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK)
Why this is correct
CMEK allows customers to create and manage keys in the cloud KMS, meeting the requirement.
- ✗
Customer-Supplied Encryption Keys (CSEK)
Why it's wrong here
CSEK requires the customer to supply their own key, not generate it within the cloud.
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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.