2.1.1 AWS services that monitor events and provide alarms (for example, CloudWatch, EventBridge)

2.1.1 AWS services that monitor events and provide alarms for example, CloudWatch, EventBridge - Amazon CloudWatch and Amazon EventBridge are essential AWS services for security monitoring and alerting, serving distinct but complementary roles. CloudWatch provides real-time observability through the collection and analysis of metrics and logs from AWS resources and applications, enabling organizations to detect anomalies such as unauthorized access attempts or spikes in network activity. Key features include custom metrics, log insights for advanced querying, composite alarms to reduce false positives, machine learning-based anomaly detection, and integration with dashboards for centralized monitoring. In contrast, EventBridge excels at event-driven automation by routing security-related events from AWS services like GuardDuty and CloudTrail and third-party sources to various targets, such as triggering Lambda functions for automated response and integrating seamlessly with incident management tools. For AWS security engineers and exam candidates, its important to know how to design effective metric filters and alarms in CloudWatch, troubleshoot issues like permission gaps or misconfigured log groups, and master log analysis using tools like CloudWatch Logs Insights. With EventBridge, proficiency involves crafting precise event patterns to filter security events, automating incident response, and ensuring reliable event delivery using features like Dead Letter Queues DLQ. Both services should be integrated with AWS tools like Security Hub, GuardDuty, and Lambda for comprehensive security workflows, and their configurations must balance performance, cost, and scalabilityespecially in multi-account environments. A practical example combining both services is monitoring unauthorized S3 bucket policy changes CloudWatch can trigger alarms when certain API actions are detected, while EventBridge can route related events to automation workflows for response and auditing. Ultimately, leveraging CloudWatchs analytical depth alongside EventBridges powerful automation enables robust and proactive AWS security monitoring, ensuring real-time detection and remediation of threats. For those preparing for the AWS Certified Security - Specialty exam, mastering these services and their integration patterns is crucial for both certification success and operational excellence in the cloud.