AWS DevOps Engineer Professional Practice Test 2026 - Free DevOps Practice Questions and Certification Study Guide

Amazon GuardDuty is focused on network threat detection by continuously monitoring malicious or unauthorized activity within AWS accounts, workloads, and data stored in Amazon S3. It uses machine learning, anomaly detection, and integrated threat intelligence to identify potential threats such as unusual API calls or potentially unauthorized deployments that can indicate a security issue. This makes GuardDuty an essential service for maintaining security postures and protecting resources against network-based threats.

In contrast, Amazon Inspector is designed for automated security assessments. It evaluates the security and compliance of applications deployed on AWS by identifying vulnerabilities and deviations from best practices. While vulnerability assessments are vital for securing applications, GuardDuty's primary aim is to provide real-time threat detection rather than vulnerability scanning or assessments.

The distinction between threat detection and vulnerability assessment is crucial, as it highlights the different functionalities and roles these services play in the overall security framework of AWS. This understanding forms the backbone of deploying effective security measures in a cloud environment, where both proactive vulnerability management and reactive threat detection are necessary for comprehensive security management.