CCSP Cloud Security Operations Practice Question
A security engineer is investigating a potential data exfiltration incident involving an Amazon S3 bucket. Which set of logs would provide the most relevant information to identify the source IP and API calls made to the bucket?
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
✓
AWS CloudTrail data events for the S3 bucket
S3 access logs record details of requests made to an S3 bucket, including the requester's IP and the operation performed. CloudTrail data events also capture S3 API calls at the object level. VPC Flow Logs show network traffic but not API calls. CloudWatch logs could contain application logs but are not specific to S3 access.
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 Flow Logs for the subnet where the bucket resides
Why it's wrong here
VPC Flow Logs record network IP traffic but do not capture API call details.
- ✗
AWS Config configuration history for the S3 bucket
Why it's wrong here
AWS Config tracks configuration changes, not access requests.
- ✓
AWS CloudTrail data events for the S3 bucket
Why this is correct
CloudTrail data events capture S3 object-level API calls, including source IP and identity.
- ✗
Amazon CloudWatch Logs for the EC2 instance accessing the bucket
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs capture application logs but not S3 API calls directly.
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every CCSP question from scratch — 964 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.