Ray Nicholson works as a senior cloud security engineer in TerraCloud Sec Pvt. Ltd. His organization deployed all applications in a cloud environment in various virtual machines. Using IDS, Ray identified that an attacker compromised a particular VM. He would like to limit the scope of the incident and protect other resources in the cloud.
If Ray turns off the VM, what will happen?
- A . The data required to be investigated will be lost
- B . The data required to be investigated will be recovered
- C . The data required to be investigated will be stored in the VHD
- D . The data required to be investigated will be saved
A
Explanation:
When Ray Nicholson, the senior cloud security engineer, identifies that an attacker has compromised a particular virtual machine (VM) using an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), his priority is to limit the scope of the incident and protect other resources in the cloud environment. Turning off the compromised VM may seem like an immediate protective action, but it has significant implications: Shutdown Impact: When a VM is turned off, its current state and all volatile data in the RAM are lost. This includes any data that might be crucial for forensic analysis, such as the attacker’s tools and running processes.
Forensic Data Loss: Critical evidence needed for a thorough investigation, such as memory dumps, active network connections, and ephemeral data, will no longer be accessible.
Data Persistence: While some data is stored in the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD), not all of the forensic data can be retrieved from the disk image alone. Live analysis often provides insights that cannot be captured from static data.
Thus, by turning off the VM, Ray risks losing essential forensic data that is necessary for a complete
investigation into the incident.
Reference: NIST SP 800-86: Guide to Integrating Forensic Techniques into Incident Response
AWS Cloud Security Best Practices
Azure Security Documentation
An IT company uses two resource groups, named Production-group and Security-group, under the same subscription ID. Under the Production-group, a VM called Ubuntu18 is suspected to be compromised. As a forensic investigator, you need to take a snapshot (ubuntudisksnap) of the OS disk of the suspect virtual machine Ubuntu18 for further investigation and copy the snapshot to a storage account under Security-group.
Identify the next step in the investigation of the security incident in Azure?
- A . Copy the snapshot to file share
- B . Generate shared access signature
- C . Create a backup copy of snapshot in a blob container
- D . Mount the snapshot onto the forensic workstation
B
Explanation:
When an IT company suspects that a VM called Ubuntu18 in the Production-group has been compromised, it is essential to perform a forensic investigation. The process of taking a snapshot and ensuring its integrity and accessibility involves several steps:
Snapshot Creation: First, create a snapshot of the OS disk of the suspect VM, named ubuntudisksnap. This snapshot is a point-in-time copy of the VM’s disk, ensuring that all data at that moment is captured.
Snapshot Security: Next, to transfer this snapshot securely to a storage account under the Security-group, a shared access signature (SAS) needs to be generated. A SAS provides delegated access to Azure storage resources without exposing the storage account keys.
Data Transfer: With the SAS token, the snapshot can be securely copied to a storage account in the Security-group. This method ensures that only authorized personnel can access the snapshot for further investigation.
Further Analysis: After copying the snapshot, it can be mounted onto a forensic workstation for detailed examination. This step involves examining the contents of the snapshot for any malicious activity or artifacts left by the attacker.
Generating a shared access signature is a critical step in ensuring that the snapshot can be securely accessed and transferred without compromising the integrity and security of the data.
Reference: Microsoft Azure Documentation on Shared Access Signatures (SAS)
Azure Security Best Practices and Patterns
Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing
The GCP environment of a company named Magnitude IT Solutions encountered a security incident. To respond to the incident, the Google Data Incident Response Team was divided based on the different aspects of the incident.
Which member of the team has an authoritative knowledge of incidents and can be involved in different domains such as security, legal, product, and digital forensics?
- A . Operations Lead
- B . Subject Matter Experts
- C . Incident Commander
- D . Communications Lead
B
Explanation:
In the context of a security incident within the GCP environment of Magnitude IT Solutions, the Google Data Incident Response Team would be organized to address various aspects of the incident effectively. Among the team, the role with the authoritative knowledge of incidents and involvement in different domains such as security, legal, product, and digital forensics is the Incident Commander. Here’s why:
Authority and Responsibility: The Incident Commander (IC) is typically responsible for the overall management of the incident response. This includes making critical decisions, coordinating the efforts of the entire response team, and ensuring that all aspects of the incident are addressed. Cross-Functional Involvement: The IC has the expertise and authority to interact with various domains such as security (to understand and mitigate threats), legal (to ensure compliance and manage legal risks), product (to understand the impact on services), and digital forensics (to guide the investigation and evidence collection).
Leadership and Coordination: The IC leads the response effort, ensuring that all team members, including Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), Operations Leads, and Communications Leads, are working in sync and that the incident response plan is effectively executed.
Communication: The IC is the primary point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, ensuring clear and consistent communication about the status and actions being taken in response to the incident.
In summary, the Incident Commander is the central figure with the authoritative knowledge and cross-functional involvement necessary to manage a security incident comprehensively.
Reference: NIST SP 800-61 Revision 2: Computer Security Incident Handling Guide Google Cloud Platform Incident Response and Management Guidelines Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Incident Response Framework
Jayson Smith works as a cloud security engineer in CloudWorld SecCo Pvt. Ltd. This is a third-party vendor that provides connectivity and transport services between cloud service providers and cloud consumers. Select the actor that describes CloudWorld SecCo Pvt. Ltd. based on the NIST cloud deployment reference architecture?
- A . Cloud Broker
- B . Cloud Auditor
- C . Cloud Carrier
- D . Cloud Provider
Brentech Services allows its clients to access (read, write, or delete) Google Cloud Storage resources for a limited time without a Google account while it controls access to Cloud Storage.
How does the organization accomplish this?
- A . Using BigQuery column-level security
- B . Using Signed Documents
- C . Using Signed URLs
- D . Using BigQuery row-level-security
Daffod is an American cloud service provider that provides cloud-based services to customers worldwide.
Several customers are adopting the cloud services provided by Daffod because they are secure and cost-effective. Daffod complies with the cloud computing law enacted in the US to realize the importance of information security in the economic and national security interests of the US.
Based on the given information, which law order does Daffod adhere to?
- A . FERPA
- B . CLOUD
- C . FISMA
- D . ECPA
C
Explanation:
Daffod, as an American cloud service provider complying with the cloud computing law that emphasizes the importance of information security for economic and national security interests, adheres to the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).
Here’s why:
FISMA Overview: FISMA is a US law enacted to protect government information, operations, and assets against natural or man-made threats.
Importance of Information Security: FISMA requires that all federal agencies develop, document, and implement an information security and protection program.
Relevance to Daffod: As Daffod complies with this law, it ensures that its cloud services are secure
and adhere to national security standards, making it a trusted provider for secure and cost-effective
cloud services.
Reference: NIST SP 800-53: Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA)
Simon recently joined a multinational company as a cloud security engineer. Due to robust security services and products provided by AWS, his organization has been using AWS cloud-based services. Simon has launched an Amazon EC2 Linux instance to deploy an application. He would like to secure Linux AMI.
Which of the following command should Simon run in the EC2 instance to disable user account passwords?
- A . passwd -D < USERNAME >
- B . passwd -I < USERNAME >
- C . passwd -d < USERNAME >
- D . passwd -L < USERNAME >
B
Explanation:
To disable user account passwords on an Amazon EC2 Linux instance, Simon should use the command passwd -L <USERNAME>. Here’s the detailed explanation:
passwd Command: The passwd command is used to update a user’s authentication tokens (passwords).
-L Option: The -L option is used to lock the password of the specified user account, effectively disabling the password without deleting the user account itself.
Security Measure: Disabling passwords ensures that the user cannot authenticate using a password,
thereby enhancing the security of the instance.
Reference: AWS Documentation: Securing Access to Amazon EC2 Instances
Linux man-pages: passwd(1)
An organization with resources on Google Cloud regularly backs up its service capabilities to ensure high availability and reduce the downtime when a zone or instance becomes unavailable owing to zonal outage or memory shortage in an instance. However, as protocol, the organization must frequently test whether these regular backups are configured.
Which tool’s high availability settings must be checked for this?
- A . MySQL Database
- B . Always on Availability Groups (AGs)
- C . SQL Server Database Mirroring (DBM)
- D . Google Cloud SQL
D
Explanation:
For an organization with resources on Google Cloud that needs to ensure high availability and reduce downtime, the high availability settings of Google Cloud SQL should be checked. Here’s the detailed explanation:
Google Cloud SQL Overview: Cloud SQL is a fully-managed relational database service for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server. It provides high availability configurations and automated backups. High Availability Configuration: Cloud SQL offers high availability through regional instances, which replicate data across multiple zones within a region to ensure redundancy.
Testing Backups: Regularly testing backups and their configurations ensures that the high availability settings are functioning correctly and that data recovery is possible in case of an outage.
Reference: Google Cloud SQL Documentation
High Availability and Disaster Recovery for Cloud SQL
Shannon Elizabeth works as a cloud security engineer in VicPro Soft Pvt. Ltd. Microsoft Azure provides all cloud-based services to her organization. Shannon created a resource group (ProdRes), and then created a virtual machine (myprodvm) in the resource group. On myprodvm virtual machine, she enabled JIT from the Azure Security Center dashboard.
What will happen when Shannon enables JIT VM access?
- A . It locks down the inbound traffic from myprodvm by creating a rule in the network security group
- B . It locks down the inbound traffic to myprodvm by creating a rule in the Azure firewall
- C . It locks down the outbound traffic from myprodvm by creating a rule in the network security group
- D . It locks down the outbound traffic to myprodvm by creating a rule in the Azure firewall
B
Explanation:
When Shannon Elizabeth enables Just-In-Time (JIT) VM access on the myprodvm virtual machine from the Azure Security Center dashboard, the following happens:
Inbound Traffic Control: JIT VM access locks down the inbound traffic to the virtual machine. Azure Firewall Rule: It creates a rule in the Azure firewall to control this inbound traffic, allowing access only when required and for a specified duration.
Enhanced Security: This approach minimizes exposure to potential attacks by reducing the time that
the VM ports are open.
Reference: Azure Security Center Documentation: Just-In-Time VM Access
Microsoft Learn: Configure Just-In-Time VM Access in Azure
William O’Neil works as a cloud security engineer in an IT company located in Tampa, Florida. To create an access key with normal user accounts, he would like to test whether it is possible to escalate privileges to obtain AWS administrator account access.
Which of the following commands should William try to create a new user access key ID and secret key for a user?
- A . aws iam target_user -user-name create-access-key
- B . aws iam create-access-key -user-name target_user
- C . aws iam create-access-key target_user -user-name
- D . aws iam -user-name target_user create-access-key
Colin Farrell works as a senior cloud security engineer in a healthcare company. His organization has migrated all workloads and data in a private cloud environment. An attacker used the cloud environment as a point to disrupt the business of Colin’s organization. Using intrusion detection prevention systems, antivirus software, and log analyzers, Colin successfully detected the incident; however, a group of users were not able to avail the critical services provided by his organization.
Based on the incident impact level classification scales, select the severity of the incident encountered by Colin’s organization?
- A . High
- B . None
- C . Low
- D . Medium
Sam, a cloud admin, works for a technology company that uses Azure resources. Because Azure contains the resources of numerous organizations and several alerts are received timely, it is difficult for the technology company to identify risky resources, determine their owner, know whether they are needed, and know who pays for them.
How can Sam organize resources to determine this information immediately?
- A . By using tags
- B . By setting up Azure Front Door
- C . By configuring workflow automation
- D . By using ASC Data Connector
Georgia Lyman works as a cloud security engineer in a multinational company. Her organization uses cloud-based services. Its virtualized networks and associated virtualized resources encountered certain capacity limitations that affected the data transfer performance and virtual server communication.
How can Georgia eliminate the data transfer capacity thresholds imposed on a virtual server by its virtualized environment?
- A . By allowing the virtual appliance to bypass the hypervisor and access the I/O card of the physical server directly
- B . By restricting the virtual appliance to bypass the hypervisor and access the I/O card of the physical server directly
- C . By restricting the virtual server to bypass the hypervisor and access the I/O card of the physical server directly
- D . By allowing the virtual server to bypass the hypervisor and access the I/O card of the physical server directly
D
Explanation:
Virtual servers can face performance limitations due to the overhead introduced by the hypervisor in a virtualized environment. To improve data transfer performance and communication between virtual servers, Georgia can eliminate the data transfer capacity thresholds by allowing the virtual server to bypass the hypervisor and directly access the I/O card of the physical server. This technique is known as Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), which allows virtual machines to directly access network interfaces, thereby reducing latency and improving throughput.
Understanding SR-IOV: SR-IOV enables a network interface card (NIC) to appear as multiple separate physical devices to the virtual machines, allowing them to bypass the hypervisor.
Performance Benefits: By bypassing the hypervisor, the virtual server can achieve near-native performance for network I/O, eliminating bottlenecks and improving data transfer rates.
Implementation: This requires hardware support for SR-IOV and appropriate configuration in the hypervisor and virtual machines.
Reference
VMware SR-IOV
Intel SR-IOV Overview
A client wants to restrict access to its Google Cloud Platform (GCP) resources to a specified IP range by making a trust-list. Accordingly, the client limits GCP access to users in its organization network or grants company auditors access to a requested GCP resource only.
Which of the following GCP services can help the client?
- A . Cloud IDS
- B . VPC Service Controls
- C . Cloud Router
- D . Identity and Access Management
B
Explanation:
To restrict access to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) resources to a specified IP range, the client can use VPC Service Controls. VPC Service Controls provide additional security for data by allowing the creation of security perimeters around GCP resources to help mitigate data exfiltration risks.
VPC Service Controls: This service allows the creation of secure perimeters to define and enforce security policies for GCP resources, restricting access to specific IP ranges.
Trust-List Implementation: By using VPC Service Controls, the client can configure access policies that only allow access from trusted IP ranges, ensuring that only users within the specified network can access the resources.
Granular Access Control: VPC Service Controls can be used in conjunction with Identity and Access Management (IAM) to provide fine-grained access controls based on IP addresses and other conditions.
Reference
Google Cloud VPC Service Controls Overview
VPC Service Controls enable clients to define a security perimeter around Google Cloud Platform resources to control communication to and from those resources. By using VPC Service Controls, the client can restrict access to GCP resources to a specified IP range.
Create a Service Perimeter: The client can create a service perimeter that includes the GCP resources they want to protect.
Define Access Levels: Within the service perimeter, the client can define access levels based on attributes such as IP address ranges.
Enforce Access Policies: Access policies are enforced, which restrict access to the resources within the service perimeter to only those requests that come from the specified IP range.
Grant Access to Auditors: The client can grant access to company auditors by including their IP addresses in the allowed range.
Reference: VPC Service Controls provide a way to secure sensitive data and enforce a perimeter around GCP resources. It is designed to prevent data exfiltration and manage access to services within the perimeter based on defined criteria, such as source IP address12. This makes it the appropriate service for the client’s requirement to restrict access to a specified IP range.
SecureSoft IT Pvt. Ltd. is an IT company located in Charlotte, North Carolina, that develops software for the healthcare industry. The organization generates a tremendous amount of unorganized data such as video and audio files. Kurt recently joined SecureSoft IT Pvt. Ltd. as a cloud security engineer. He manages the organizational data using NoSQL databases.
Based on the given information, which of the following data are being generated by Kurt’s organization?
- A . Metadata
- B . Structured Data
- C . Unstructured Data
- D . Semi-Structured Data
C
Explanation:
The data generated by SecureSoft IT Pvt. Ltd., which includes video and audio files, is categorized as unstructured data. This is because it does not follow a specific format or structure that can be easily stored in traditional relational databases.
Understanding Unstructured Data: Unstructured data refers to information that either does not have
a pre-defined data model or is not organized in a pre-defined manner. It includes formats like audio, video, and social media postings.
Role of NoSQL Databases: NoSQL databases are designed to store, manage, and retrieve unstructured data efficiently. They can handle a variety of data models, including document, graph, key-value, and wide-column stores.
Management of Data: As a cloud security engineer, Kurt’s role involves managing this unstructured data using NoSQL databases, which provide the flexibility required for such diverse data types. Significance in Healthcare: In the healthcare industry, unstructured data is particularly prevalent due to the vast amounts of patient information, medical records, imaging files, and other forms of data that do not fit neatly into tabular forms.
Reference: Unstructured data is a common challenge in the IT sector, especially in fields like healthcare that generate large volumes of complex data. NoSQL databases offer a solution to manage this data effectively, providing scalability and flexibility. SecureSoft IT Pvt. Ltd.’s use of NoSQL databases aligns with industry practices for handling unstructured data efficiently.
Global InfoSec Solution Pvt. Ltd. is an IT company that develops mobile-based software and applications. For smooth, secure, and cost-effective facilitation of business, the organization uses public cloud services. Now, Global InfoSec Solution Pvt. Ltd. is encountering a vendor lock-in issue.
What is vendor lock-in in cloud computing?
- A . It is a situation in which a cloud consumer cannot switch to another cloud service broker without substantial switching costs
- B . It is a situation in which a cloud consumer cannot switch to a cloud carrier without substantial switching costs
- C . It is a situation in which a cloud service provider cannot switch to another cloud service broker without substantial switching costs
- D . It is a situation in which a cloud consumer cannot switch to another cloud service provider without substantial switching costs
D
Explanation:
Vendor lock-in in cloud computing refers to a scenario where a customer becomes dependent on a single cloud service provider and faces significant challenges and costs if they decide to switch to a different provider.
Dependency: The customer relies heavily on the services, technologies, or platforms provided by one cloud service provider.
Switching Costs: If the customer wants to switch providers, they may encounter substantial costs related to data migration, retraining staff, and reconfiguring applications to work with the new provider’s platform.
Business Disruption: The process of switching can lead to business disruptions, as it may involve downtime or a learning curve for new services.
Strategic Considerations: Vendor lock-in can also limit the customer’s ability to negotiate better terms or take advantage of innovations and price reductions from competing providers.
Reference: Vendor lock-in is a well-known issue in cloud computing, where customers may find it difficult to move databases or services due to high costs or technical incompatibilities. This can result from using proprietary technologies or services that are unique to a particular cloud provider12. It is important for organizations to consider the potential for vendor lock-in when choosing cloud service providers and to plan accordingly to mitigate these risks1.
A web server passes the reservation information to an application server and then the application server queries an Airline service.
Which of the following AWS service allows secure hosted queue server-side encryption (SSE), or uses custom SSE keys managed in AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS)?
- A . Amazon Simple Workflow
- B . Amazon SQS
- C . Amazon SNS
- D . Amazon CloudSearch
B
Explanation:
Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) supports server-side encryption (SSE) to protect the contents of messages in queues using SQS-managed encryption keys or keys managed in the AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS).
Enable SSE on Amazon SQS: When you create a new queue or update an existing queue, you can enable SSE by selecting the option for server-side encryption.
Choose Encryption Keys: You can choose to use the default SQS-managed keys (SSE-SQS) or select a custom customer-managed key in AWS KMS (SSE-KMS).
Secure Data Transmission: With SSE enabled, messages are encrypted as soon as Amazon SQS receives them and are stored in encrypted form.
Decryption for Authorized Consumers: Amazon SQS decrypts messages only when they are sent to an authorized consumer, ensuring the security of the message contents during transit.
Reference: Amazon SQS provides server-side encryption to protect sensitive data in queues, using either SQS-managed encryption keys or customer-managed keys in AWS KMS1. This feature helps in meeting strict encryption compliance and regulatory requirements, making it suitable for scenarios where secure message transmission is critical12.
A security incident has occurred within an organization’s AWS environment. A cloud forensic investigation procedure is initiated for the acquisition of forensic evidence from the compromised EC2 instances. However, it is essential to abide by the data privacy laws while provisioning any forensic instance and sending it for analysis.
What can the organization do initially to avoid the legal implications of moving data between two AWS regions for analysis?
- A . Create evidence volume from the snapshot
- B . Provision and launch a forensic workstation
- C . Mount the evidence volume on the forensic workstation
- D . Attach the evidence volume to the forensic workstation
B
Explanation:
When dealing with a security incident in an AWS environment, it’s crucial to handle forensic evidence in a way that complies with data privacy laws. The initial step to avoid legal implications when moving data between AWS regions for analysis is to create an evidence volume from the snapshot of the compromised EC2 instances.
Snapshot Creation: Take a snapshot of the compromised EC2 instance’s EBS volume. This snapshot captures the state of the volume at a point in time and serves as forensic evidence.
Evidence Volume Creation: Create a new EBS volume from the snapshot within the same AWS region to avoid cross-regional data transfer issues.
Forensic Workstation Provisioning: Provision a forensic workstation within the same region where the evidence volume is located.
Evidence Volume Attachment: Attach the newly created evidence volume to the forensic workstation
for analysis.
Reference: Creating an evidence volume from a snapshot is a recommended practice in AWS forensics. It ensures that the integrity of the data is maintained and that the evidence is handled in compliance with legal requirements12. This approach allows for the preservation, acquisition, and analysis of data without violating data privacy laws that may apply when transferring data across regions12.
The cloud administrator John was assigned a task to create a different subscription for each division of his organization. He has to ensure all the subscriptions are linked to a single Azure AD tenant and each subscription has identical role assignments.
Which Azure service will he make use of?
- A . Azure AD Privileged Identity Management
- B . Azure AD Multi-Factor Authentication
- C . Azure AD Identity Protection
- D . Azure AD Self-Service Password Reset
A
Explanation:
To manage multiple subscriptions under a single Azure AD tenant with identical role assignments, Azure AD Privileged Identity Management (PIM) is the service that provides the necessary capabilities.
Link Subscriptions to Azure AD Tenant: John can link all the different subscriptions to the single Azure AD tenant to centralize identity management across the organization1.
Manage Role Assignments: With Azure AD PIM, John can manage, control, and monitor access within Azure AD, Azure, and other Microsoft Online Services like Office 365 or Microsoft 3652.
Identical Role Assignments: Azure AD PIM allows John to configure role assignments that are consistent across all subscriptions. He can assign roles to users, groups, service principals, or managed identities at a particular scope3.
Role Activation and Review: John can require approval to activate privileged roles, enforce just-in-time privileged access, require reason for activating any role, and review access rights2.
Reference: Azure AD PIM is a feature of Azure AD that helps organizations manage, control, and monitor access within their Azure environment. It is particularly useful for scenarios where there are multiple subscriptions and a need to maintain consistent role assignments across them23.
An organization is developing a new AWS multitier web application with complex queries and table joins.
However, because the organization is small with limited staff, it requires high availability.
Which of the following Amazon services is suitable for the requirements of the organization?
- A . Amazon HSM
- B . Amazon Snowball
- C . Amazon Glacier
- D . Amazon DynamoDB
D
Explanation:
For a multitier web application that requires complex queries and table joins, along with the need for high availability, Amazon DynamoDB is the suitable service.
Here’s why:
Support for Complex Queries: DynamoDB supports complex queries and table joins through its flexible data model and secondary indexes.
High Availability: DynamoDB is designed for high availability and durability, with data replicated across multiple AWS Availability Zones1.
Managed Service: As a fully managed service, DynamoDB requires minimal operational overhead, which is ideal for organizations with limited staff.
Scalability: It can handle large amounts of traffic and data, scaling up or down as needed to meet the
demands of the application.
Reference: Amazon DynamoDB is a NoSQL database service that provides fast and predictable performance with seamless scalability. It is suitable for applications that require consistent, single-digit millisecond latency at any scale1. It’s a fully managed, multi-region, durable database with built-in security, backup and restore, and in-memory caching for internet-scale applications1.
Trevor Noah works as a cloud security engineer in an IT company located in Seattle, Washington. Trevor has implemented a disaster recovery approach that runs a scaled-down version of a fully functional environment in the cloud. This method is most suitable for his organization’s core business-critical functions and solutions that require the RTO and RPO to be within minutes.
Based on the given information, which of the following disaster recovery approach is implemented by Trevor?
- A . Backup and Restore
- B . Multi-Cloud Option
- C . Pilot Light approach
- D . Warm Standby
D
Explanation:
The Warm Standby approach in disaster recovery involves running a scaled-down version of a fully functional environment in the cloud. This method is activated quickly in case of a disaster, ensuring that the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) are within minutes.
Scaled-Down Environment: A smaller version of the production environment is always running in the cloud. This includes a minimal number of resources required to keep the application operational12. Quick Activation: In the event of a disaster, the warm standby environment can be quickly scaled up to handle the full production load12.
RTO and RPO: The warm standby approach is designed to achieve an RTO and RPO within minutes, which is essential for business-critical functions12.
Business Continuity: This approach ensures that core business functions continue to operate with minimal disruption during and after a disaster12.
Reference: Warm Standby is a disaster recovery strategy that provides a balance between cost and downtime. It is less expensive than a fully replicated environment but offers a faster recovery time than cold or pilot light approaches12. This makes it suitable for organizations that need to ensure high availability and quick recovery for their critical systems.
You are the manager of a cloud-based security platform that offers critical services to government agencies and private companies. One morning, your team receives an alert from the platform’s intrusion detection system indicating that there has been a potential breach in the system.
As the manager, which tool you will use for viewing and monitoring the sensitive data by scanning storage systems and reviewing the access rights to critical resources via a single centralized dashboard?
- A . Google Cloud Security Command Center
- B . Google Cloud Security Scanner
- C . Cloud Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- D . Google Cloud Armor
A
Explanation:
The Google Cloud Security Command Center (Cloud SCC) is the tool designed to provide a centralized dashboard for viewing and monitoring sensitive data, scanning storage systems, and reviewing access rights to critical resources.
Centralized Dashboard: Cloud SCC offers a comprehensive view of the security status of your resources in Google Cloud, across all your projects and services1.
Sensitive Data Scanning: It has capabilities for scanning storage systems to identify sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), and can provide insights into where this data is stored1.
Access Rights Review: Cloud SCC allows you to review who has access to your critical resources and whether any policies or permissions should be adjusted to enhance security1.
Alerts and Incident Response: In the event of a potential breach, Cloud SCC can help identify the affected resources and assist in the investigation and response process1.
Reference: Google Cloud Security Command Center is a security management and data risk platform for Google Cloud that helps you prevent, detect, and respond to threats from a single pane of glass. It provides security insights and features like asset inventory, discovery, search, and management; vulnerability and threat detection; and compliance monitoring to protect your services and applications on Google Cloud1.
An organization, PARADIGM PlayStation, moved its infrastructure to a cloud as a security practice. It
established an incident response team to monitor the hosted websites for security issues. While examining network access logs using SIEM, the incident response team came across some incidents that suggested that one of their websites was targeted by attackers and they successfully performed an SQL injection attack.
Subsequently, the incident response team made the website and database server offline.
In which of the following steps of the incident response lifecycle, the incident team determined to make that decision?
- A . Analysis
- B . Containment
- C . Coordination and information sharing
- D . Post-mortem
B
Explanation:
The decision to take the website and database server offline falls under the Containment phase of the incident response lifecycle. Here’s how the process typically unfolds:
Detection: The incident response team detects a potential security breach, such as an SQL injection attack, through network access logs using SIEM.
Analysis: The team analyzes the incident to confirm the breach and understand its scope and impact. Containment: Once confirmed, the team moves to contain the incident to prevent further damage. This includes making the affected website and database server offline to stop the attack from spreading or causing more harm1.
Eradication and Recovery: After containment, the team works on eradicating the threat and recovering the systems to normal operation.
Post-Incident Activity: Finally, the team conducts a post-mortem analysis to learn from the incident and improve future response efforts.
Reference: The containment phase is critical in incident response as it aims to limit the damage of the security incident and isolate affected systems to prevent the spread of the attack12. Taking systems offline is a common containment strategy to ensure that attackers can no longer access the compromised systems1.
Global SciTech Pvt. Ltd. is an IT company that develops healthcare-related software. Using an incident detection system (IDS) and antivirus software, the incident response team of the organization has observed that attackers are targeting the organizational network to gain access to the resources in the on-premises environment. Therefore, their team of cloud security engineers met with a cloud service provider to discuss the various security provisions offered by the cloud service provider. While discussing the security of the organization’s virtual machine in the cloud environment, the cloud service provider stated that the Network Security Groups (NSGs) will secure the VM by allowing or denying network traffic to VM instances in a virtual network based on inbound and outbound security rules.
Which of the following cloud service provider filters the VM network traffic in a virtual network using NSGs?
- A . IBM
- B . AWS
- C . Azure
- D . Google
C
Explanation:
Network Security Groups (NSGs) are used in Azure to filter network traffic to and from Azure resources within an Azure Virtual Network (VNet). NSGs contain security rules that allow or deny inbound and outbound network traffic based on several parameters such as protocol, source and destination IP address, port number, and direction (inbound or outbound).
NSG Functionality: NSGs function as a firewall for VM instances, controlling both inbound and outbound traffic at the network interface, VM, and subnet level1.
Security Rules: They consist of security rules that specify source and destination, port, and protocol to filter traffic1.
Traffic Control: By setting appropriate rules, NSGs help secure VMs from unauthorized access and ensure that only allowed traffic can flow to and from the VM1.
Azure Specific: This feature is specific to Azure and is not offered by IBM, AWS, or Google Cloud in the
same manner1.
Reference: NSGs are a key component of Azure’s networking capabilities, providing a way to control access to VMs, services, and subnets, and are an integral part of Azure’s security infrastructure1.
TetraSoft Pvt. Ltd. is an IT company that provides software and application services to numerous customers across the globe. In 2015, the organization migrated its applications and data from on-premises to the AWS cloud environment. The cloud security team of TetraSoft Pvt. Ltd. suspected that the EC2 instance that launched the core application of the organization is compromised. Given below are randomly arranged steps involved in the forensic acquisition of an EC2 instance.
In this scenario, when should the investigators ensure that a forensic instance is in the terminated state?
- A . After creating evidence volume from the snapshot
- B . Before taking a snapshot of the EC2 instance
- C . Before attaching evidence volume to the forensic instance
- D . After attaching evidence volume to the forensic instance
Georgia Lyman is a cloud security engineer; she wants to detect unusual activities in her organizational Azure account. For this, she wants to create alerts for unauthorized activities with their severity level to prioritize the alert that should be investigated first.
Which Azure service can help her in detecting the severity and creating alerts?
- A . Windows Defender
- B . Cloud Operations Suite
- C . Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- D . Cloud DLP
C
Explanation:
Microsoft Defender for Cloud is the service that can assist Georgia Lyman in detecting unusual activities within her organizational Azure account and creating alerts with severity levels. Detection of Unusual Activities: Microsoft Defender for Cloud provides advanced threat protection, which includes the detection of unusual activities based on behavioral analytics and anomaly detection1.
Alert Creation: It allows the creation of custom alerts for unauthorized activities, which can be configured with specific severity levels to prioritize the investigation process1.
Severity Level Prioritization: The service enables setting severity levels for alerts, ensuring that high-priority issues are analyzed first and appropriate actions are taken in a timely manner2.
Monitoring and Management: With Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Georgia can view and manage the security posture of her Azure resources from a single centralized dashboard, making it easier to monitor and respond to potential threats1.
Reference: Microsoft Defender for Cloud is an integrated tool for Azure security management, providing threat protection, alerting, and security posture management across Azure services1. It is designed to help cloud security engineers like Georgia Lyman detect and respond to security threats effectively.
QuickServ Solutions is an organization that wants to migrate to the cloud. It is in the phase of signing an agreement with a cloud vendor. For that, QuickServ Solutions must assess the current vendor procurement process to determine how the company can mitigate cloud-related risks.
How can the company accomplish that?
- A . Using Cloud Computing Contracts
- B . Using Gap Analysis
- C . Using Vendor Transitioning
- D . Using Internal Audit
D
Explanation:
To mitigate cloud-related risks during the vendor procurement process, QuickServ Solutions can use Gap Analysis. This approach will help the company assess and identify the differences between its current state and the desired future state, including any shortcomings or gaps that need to be addressed.
Current State Assessment: Evaluate the existing vendor procurement processes and identify all the associated risks.
Desired State Definition: Define what an ideal, risk-mitigated cloud vendor relationship would look like for the organization.
Gap Identification: Identify the gaps between the current state and the desired state, particularly focusing on areas that could introduce cloud-related risks.
Risk Mitigation Strategies: Develop strategies to bridge these gaps, which may include enhancing security measures, improving contract terms, or adopting new cloud governance practices. Implementation and Monitoring: Implement the necessary changes and continuously monitor the procurement process to ensure that the cloud-related risks are effectively mitigated.
Reference: Gap Analysis is a strategic tool used to compare the actual performance of a business with potential or desired performance. In the context of cloud migration, it helps in identifying the risks associated with vendor procurement and developing strategies to mitigate those risks123.
Thomas Gibson is a cloud security engineer working in a multinational company. Thomas has created a Route 53 record set from his domain to a system in Florida, and a similar record to machines in Paris and Singapore.
Assume that network conditions remain unchanged and Thomas has hosted the application on Amazon EC2 instance; moreover, multiple instances of the application are deployed on different EC2 regions. When a user located in London visits Thomas’s domain, to which location does Amazon Route 53 route the user request?
- A . Singapore
- B . London
- C . Florida
- D . Paris
B
Explanation:
Amazon Route 53 uses geolocation routing to route traffic based on the geographic location of the users, meaning the location from which DNS queries originate1. When a user located in London visits Thomas’s domain, Amazon Route 53 will likely route the user request to the location that provides the best latency or is geographically closest among the available options.
Geolocation Routing: Route 53 will identify the geographic location of the user in London and route the request to the nearest or most appropriate endpoint.
Routing Decision: Given the locations mentioned (Florida, Paris, and Singapore), Paris is geographically closest to London compared to Florida and Singapore.
Latency Consideration: If latency-based routing is also configured, Route 53 will route the request to the region that provides the best latency, which is likely to be Paris for a user in London2.
Final Routing: Therefore, the user request from London will be routed to the machines in Paris, ensuring a faster and more efficient response.
Reference: Amazon Route 53’s routing policies are designed to optimize the user experience by directing traffic based on various factors such as geographic location, latency, and health checks12. The geolocation routing policy, in particular, helps in serving traffic from the nearest regional endpoint, which in this case would be Paris for a user located in London1.
Assume you work for an IT company that collects user behavior data from an e-commerce web application. This data includes the user interactions with the applications, such as purchases, searches, saved items, etc. Capture this data, transform it into zip files, and load these massive volumes of zip files received from an application into Amazon S3.
Which AWS service would you use to do this?
- A . AWS Migration Hub
- B . AWS Database Migration Service
- C . AWS Kinesis Data Firehose
- D . AWS Snowmobile
C
Explanation:
To handle the collection, transformation, and loading of user behavior data into Amazon S3, AWS Kinesis Data Firehose is the suitable service.
Here’s how it works:
Data Collection: Kinesis Data Firehose collects streaming data in real-time from various sources, including web applications that track user interactions.
Data Transformation: It can transform incoming streaming data using AWS Lambda, which can include converting data into zip files if necessary1.
Loading to Amazon S3: After transformation, Kinesis Data Firehose automatically loads the data into Amazon S3, handling massive volumes efficiently and reliably1.
Real-time Processing: The service allows for the real-time processing of data, which is essential for capturing dynamic user behavior data.
Reference: AWS Kinesis Data Firehose is designed to capture, transform, and load streaming data into AWS data stores for near real-time analytics with existing business intelligence tools and dashboards1. It’s a fully managed service that scales automatically to match the throughput of your data and requires no ongoing administration. It can also batch, compress, and encrypt the data before loading, reducing the amount of storage used at the destination and increasing security1.
Kevin Ryan has been working as a cloud security engineer over the past 2 years in a multinational company, which uses AWS-based cloud services. He launched an EC2 instance with Amazon Linux AMI. By disabling password-based remote logins, Kevin wants to eliminate all possible loopholes through which an attacker can exploit a user account remotely. To disable password-based remote logins, using the text editor, Kevin opened the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and found the #PermitRootLogin yes line.
Which of the following command lines should Kevin use to change the #PermitRootLogin yes line to disable password-based remote logins?
- A . PermitRootLogin without-password
- B . PermitRootLogin without./password/disable
- C . PermitRootLogin without./password
- D . PermitRootLogin without-password/disable
A
Explanation:
To disable password-based remote logins for the root account on an EC2 instance running Amazon Linux AMI, Kevin should modify the SSH configuration as follows:
Open SSH Configuration: Using a text editor, open the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file.
Find PermitRootLogin Directive: Locate the line #PermitRootLogin yes. The # indicates that the line is commented out.
Modify the Directive: Change the line to PermitRootLogin without-password. This setting allows root login using authentication methods other than passwords, such as SSH keys, while disabling password-based root logins.
Save and Close: Save the changes to the sshd_config file and exit the text editor.
Restart SSH Service: To apply the changes, restart the SSH service by running sudo service sshd restart or sudo systemctl restart sshd, depending on the system’s init system.
Reference: The PermitRootLogin without-password directive in the SSH configuration file is used to enhance security by preventing password-based authentication for the root user, which is a common target for brute force attacks. Instead, it requires more secure methods like SSH key pairs for authentication. This change is part of best practices for securing SSH access to Linux servers.
Tom Holland works as a cloud security engineer in an IT company located in Lansing, Michigan. His organization has adopted cloud-based services wherein user access, application, and data security are the responsibilities of the organization, and the OS, hypervisor, physical, infrastructure, and network security are the responsibilities of the cloud service provider.
Based on the aforementioned cloud security shared responsibilities, which of the following cloud computing service models is enforced in Tom’s organization?
- A . Infrastructure-as-a-Service
- B . Platform-as-a-Service
- C . On-Premises
- D . Software-as-a-Service
B
Explanation:
In the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud computing service model, the cloud service provider is responsible for managing the infrastructure, which includes the operating system, hypervisor, physical infrastructure, and network security. At the same time, the customer is responsible for managing user access, applications, and data security.
Cloud Service Provider Responsibilities: In IaaS, the provider is responsible for the physical hardware, storage, and networking capabilities. They also ensure the virtualization layer or hypervisor is secure. Customer Responsibilities: The customer, on the other hand, manages the operating system, middleware, runtime, applications, and data. This includes securing user access and application-level security measures.
Flexibility and Control: IaaS offers customers a high degree of flexibility and control over their environments, allowing them to install any required platforms or applications.
Examples of IaaS: Services such as Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine, and Microsoft Azure Virtual
Machines are examples of IaaS offerings.
Reference: The shared responsibility model is a fundamental principle in cloud computing that outlines the security obligations of the cloud service provider and the customer to ensure accountability and security in the cloud. In the IaaS model, while the cloud provider ensures the infrastructure is secure, the customer must secure the components they manage.
Elaine Grey has been working as a senior cloud security engineer in an IT company that develops software and applications related to the financial sector. Her organization would like to extend its storage capacity and automate disaster recovery workflows using a VMware private cloud.
Which of the following storage options can be used by Elaine in the VMware virtualization environment to connect a VM directly to a LUN and access it from SAN?
- A . File Storage
- B . Object Storage
- C . Raw Storage
- D . Ephemeral Storage
C
Explanation:
In a VMware virtualization environment, to connect a virtual machine (VM) directly to a Logical Unit Number (LUN) and access it from a Storage Area Network (SAN), the appropriate storage option is Raw Device Mapping (RDM), which is also referred to as Raw Storage.
Raw Device Mapping (RDM): RDM is a feature in VMware that allows a VM to directly access and manage a storage device. It provides a mechanism for a VM to have direct access to a LUN on the SAN1.
LUN Accessibility: By using RDM, Elaine can map a SAN LUN directly to a VM. This allows the VM to access the LUN at a lower level than the file system, which is necessary for certain data-intensive operations2.
Disaster Recovery Automation: RDM can be particularly useful in disaster recovery scenarios where direct access to the storage device is required for replication or other automation workflows1. VMware Compatibility: RDM is compatible with VMware vSphere and is commonly used in environments where control over the storage is managed at the VM level1.
Reference: Connecting a VM directly to a LUN using RDM is a common practice in VMware environments, especially when there is a need for storage operations that require more control than what is provided by file-level storage. It is a suitable option for organizations looking to extend their storage capacity and automate disaster recovery workflows12.
Securelnfo Pvt. Ltd. has deployed all applications and data in the AWS cloud. The security team of this organization would like to examine the health of the organization’s website regularly and switch (or failover) to a backup site if the primary website becomes unresponsive.
Which of the following AWS services can provide DNS failover capabilities and health checks to ensure the availability of the organization’s website?
- A . Amazon CloudFront Security
- B . Amazon CloudTrail Security
- C . Amazon Route 53 Security
- D . Amazon CloudWatch Security
C
Explanation:
Step by Step Comprehensive Detailed Explanation
Amazon Route 53 can provide DNS failover capabilities and health checks to ensure the availability of SecureInfo Pvt. Ltd.’s website. Here’s how it works:
Health Checks: Route 53 performs health checks on the website to monitor its health and performance1.
DNS Failover: If the primary site becomes unresponsive, Route 53 can automatically route traffic to a healthy backup site1.
Regular Examination: The health checks can be configured to run at regular intervals, ensuring continuous monitoring of the website’s availability1.
Traffic Routing: Route 53 uses DNS failover records to manage traffic failover for the application,
directing users to the best available endpoint1.
Reference: Amazon Route 53 is a scalable and highly available Domain Name System (DNS) web service. It is designed to give developers and businesses an extremely reliable and cost-effective way to route end users to Internet applications by translating human-readable names like www.example.com into the numeric IP addresses like 192.0.2.1 that computers use to connect to each other1. Route 53 is fully compliant with IPv6 as well1.
Coral IT Systems is a multinational company that consumes cloud services. As a cloud service consumer (CSC), the organization should perform activities such as selecting, monitoring, implementing, reporting, and securing the cloud services. The CSC and cloud service provider (CSP) have a business relationship in which the CSP delivers cloud services to the CSC.
Which cloud governance role is applicable to the organization?
- A . Cloud auditor
- B . Cloud service manager
- C . Cloud service administrator
- D . Cloud service deployment manager
B
Explanation:
Explore
The role of a Cloud Service Manager is applicable to an organization like Coral IT Systems that consumes cloud services and is responsible for selecting, monitoring, implementing, reporting, and securing these services.
Role Responsibilities: A Cloud Service Manager oversees the cloud services portfolio, ensuring that the services meet the organization’s requirements and are aligned with its business objectives. Service Selection: They are involved in selecting the appropriate cloud services that fit the company’s needs.
Monitoring and Implementation: They monitor the performance and security of the cloud services and are responsible for their successful implementation.
Reporting: The Cloud Service Manager is also responsible for reporting on the performance and compliance of the cloud services.
Security: Ensuring the security of cloud services is a critical part of their role, which includes managing access controls and data protection measures.
Reference: In the shared responsibility model of cloud computing, the Cloud Service Manager plays a pivotal role in managing the services provided by the CSP and ensuring that they are effectively integrated and utilized within the organization1. This role is essential for maintaining the governance, risk management, and compliance aspects of cloud services1.
Terry Diab has an experience of 6 years as a cloud security engineer. She recently joined a multinational company as a senior cloud security engineer. Terry learned that there is a high probability that her organizational applications could be hacked and user data such as passwords, usernames, and account information can be exploited by an attacker. The organizational applications have not yet been hacked, but this issue requires urgent action. Therefore, Terry, along with her team, released a software update that is designed to resolve this problem instantly with a quick-release procedure. Terry successfully fixed the problem (bug) in the software product immediately without following the normal quality assurance procedures. Terry’s team resolved the problem immediately on the live system with zero downtime for users. Based on the given information, which of the following type of update was implemented by Terry?
- A . Patch
- B . Rollback
- C . Hotfix
- D . Version update
A
Explanation:
A hotfix is a type of update that is used to address a specific issue or bug in a software product. It is typically released quickly and outside of the normal release schedule to resolve problems that are deemed too urgent to wait for the next regular update.
Urgent Release: Terry’s team released a software update urgently, which is characteristic of a hotfix.
Immediate Fix: The update was designed to resolve the problem instantly, which aligns with the purpose of a hotfix.
Bypassing Normal Procedures: Hotfixes are often released without following the normal quality assurance procedures due to the urgency of the fix.
Zero Downtime: The problem was resolved on the live system with zero downtime, which is a critical aspect of hotfix deployment.
Reference: Hotfixes are used in the software industry to quickly patch issues that could potentially lead to security vulnerabilities or significant disruptions in service. They are applied to live systems, often without requiring a restart, to ensure continuous operation while the issue is being addressed.
An organization wants to detect its hidden cloud infrastructure by auditing its cloud environment and resources such that it shuts down unused/unwanted workloads, saves money, minimizes security risks, and optimizes its cloud inventory. In this scenario, which standard is applicable for cloud security auditing that enables the management of customer data?
- A . Cloud Security Alliance
- B . ISO 27001 & 27002
- C . SOC2
- D . NIST SP800-53 rev 4
B
Explanation:
ISO 27001 & 27002 standards are applicable for cloud security auditing that enables the management of customer data. These standards provide a framework for information security management practices and controls within the context of the organization’s information risk management processes.
ISO 27001: This is an international standard on how to manage information security. It provides requirements for an information security management system (ISMS) and is designed to ensure the selection of adequate and proportionate security controls.
ISO 27002: This standard supplements ISO 27001 by providing a reference set of generic information security controls including best practices in information security.
Auditing and Management: Both standards include guidelines and principles for initiating, implementing, maintaining, and improving information security management within an organization, which is essential for auditing and managing customer data.
Risk Assessment: They emphasize the importance of assessing IT risks as part of the audit process, ensuring that any hidden infrastructure or unused workloads are identified and managed appropriately.
Reference: ISO 27001 & 27002 standards are recognized globally and are often used as a benchmark for assessing and auditing information security management systems, making them suitable for organizations looking to optimize their cloud inventory and manage customer data securely12.
Shell Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is an IT company that develops software products and services for BPO companies. The organization became a victim of a cybersecurity attack. Therefore, it migrated its applications and workloads from on-premises to a cloud environment. Immediately, the organization established an incident response team to prevent such incidents in the future. Using intrusion detection system and antimalware software, the incident response team detected a security incident and mitigated the attack. The team recovered the resources from the incident and identified various vulnerabilities and flaws in their cloud environment.
Which step of the incident response lifecycle includes the lessons learned from previous attacks and analyzes and documents the incident to understand what should be improved?
- A . Analysis
- B . Post-mortem
- C . Coordination and Information Sharing
- D . Preparation
B
Explanation:
The post-mortem step of the incident response lifecycle is where the incident response team reviews and documents the incident to understand what happened, what was done to intervene, and what can be improved for the future.
Incident Review: The team conducts a thorough review of the incident, including how the attack occurred, what vulnerabilities were exploited, and how the team responded.
Lessons Learned: The team identifies lessons learned from the incident, which includes analyzing the effectiveness of the response and identifying areas for improvement.
Documentation: All findings and lessons learned are documented. This documentation serves as a historical record and a learning tool for improving future incident response efforts.
Improvement Plans: Based on the post-mortem analysis, the team develops plans to improve security measures, response protocols, and recovery strategies to better prepare for future incidents.
Reference: The post-mortem phase is a critical component of the incident response lifecycle. It ensures that each security incident is used as an opportunity to strengthen the organization’s defenses and response capabilities. This phase often leads to updates in policies, procedures, and technologies to mitigate the risk of similar incidents occurring in the future.
Rufus Sewell, a cloud security engineer with 5 years of experience, recently joined an MNC as a senior cloud security engineer. Owing to the cost-effective security features and storage services provided by AWS, his organization has been using AWS cloud-based services since 2014. To create a RAID, Rufus created an Amazon EBS volume for the array and attached the EBS volume to the instance where he wants to host the array. Using the command line, Rufus successfully created a RAID. The array exhibits noteworthy performance both in read and write operations with no overhead by parity control and the entire storage capacity of the array is used.
The storage capacity of the RAID created by Rufus is equal to the sum of disk capacity in the set, but the array is not fault tolerant. It is ideal for non-critical cloud data storage that must be read/written at a high speed.
Based on the given information, which of the following RAID is created by Rufus?
- A . RAID 0
- B . RAID 5
- C . RAID 1
- D . RAID 6
A
Explanation:
Rufus has created a RAID 0 array, which is characterized by the following features:
Performance: RAID 0 is known for its high performance in both read and write operations because it uses striping, where data is split evenly across two or more disks without parity information.
No Overhead by Parity Control: RAID 0 does not use parity control, which means there is no redundancy in the data. This contributes to its high performance but also means there is no fault tolerance.
Storage Capacity: The total storage capacity of a RAID 0 array is equal to the sum of all the disk capacities in the set, as there is no disk space used for redundancy.
Lack of Fault Tolerance: RAID 0 is not fault-tolerant; if one disk fails, all data in the array is lost.
Therefore, it is not recommended for critical data storage.
Use Case: It is ideal for non-critical data that requires high-speed reading and writing, such as temporary files or cache data.
Reference: RAID 0 is often used to improve the performance of disk I/O (input/output) and is suitable for environments where speed is more critical than data redundancy. However, due to its lack of fault tolerance, it is not recommended for storing critical data that cannot be easily replaced or recovered.
Rachel McAdams works as a cloud security engineer in an MNC. A DRaaS company has provided a disaster recovery site to her organization. The disaster recovery sites have partially redundant equipment with daily or weekly data synchronization provision; failover occurs within hours or days with minimum data loss.
Based on this information, which of the following disaster recovery sites is provided by the DRaaS company to Rachel’s organization?
- A . Warm Site
- B . Cold Site
- C . Remote site
- D . Hot Site
A
Explanation:
The description provided indicates that the disaster recovery site is a Warm Site. Here’s why: Partially Redundant Equipment: Warm sites are equipped with some of the system hardware, software, telecommunications, and power sources.
Data Synchronization: They have provisions for daily or weekly data synchronization, which aligns with the description given.
Failover Time: Failover to a warm site typically occurs within hours or days, as mentioned.
Minimum Data Loss: Due to the regular synchronization, there is minimal data loss in the event of a failover.
Reference: A Warm Site is a type of disaster recovery site that sits between a hot site, which is fully equipped and ready to take over immediately, and a cold site, which is an empty data center that requires setup before use. The warm site’s readiness and partial redundancy make it suitable for organizations that need a balance between cost and downtime.
Scott Herman works as a cloud security engineer in an IT company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His organization uses Office 365 Business Premium that provides Microsoft Teams, secure cloud storage, business email, premium Office applications across devices, advanced cyber threat protection, and device management.
Which of the following cloud computing service models does Microsoft Office 365 represent?
- A . DaaS
- B . laaS
- C . PaaS
- D . SaaS
D
Explanation:
SaaS, or Software as a Service, is a cloud computing model where software applications are delivered over the internet. Users subscribe to the service rather than purchasing and installing software on individual devices. Microsoft Office 365 fits this model as it provides access to various applications such as Microsoft Teams, secure cloud storage, business email, and more through a subscription service. Users can access these services from any device, provided they have an internet connection. Here’s a breakdown of how Office 365 aligns with the SaaS model:
Subscription-Based: Office 365 operates on a subscription model, where users pay a recurring fee to use the service.
Cloud-Hosted Applications: The suite includes cloud-hosted versions of traditional Microsoft applications, as well as new tools like Microsoft Teams.
Managed by Provider: Microsoft manages the infrastructure, security, and updates for these applications, relieving users from these responsibilities.
Accessible from Anywhere: As a cloud service, Office 365 can be accessed from anywhere, on any device with internet connectivity.
Business Services: It includes business services like email and device management, which are typical features of SaaS offerings.
Reference: Microsoft’s description of Office 365 as a cloud-based service1.
Microsoft Azure’s definition of SaaS, mentioning Office 365 as an example2.
Microsoft support page explaining Microsoft 365 as a subscription service3.
An Azure organization wants to enforce its on-premises AD security and password policies to filter brute-force attacks. Instead of using legacy authentication, the users should sign in to on-premises and cloud-based applications using the same passwords in Azure AD.
Which Azure AD feature can enable users to access Azure resources?
- A . Azure Automation
- B . Azure AD Connect
- C . Azure AD Pass Through Authentication
- D . Azure Policy
C
Explanation:
Azure AD Pass-Through Authentication (PTA) allows users to sign in to both on-premises and cloud-based applications using the same passwords. This feature is part of Azure Active Directory (AD) and helps organizations enforce their on-premises AD security and password policies in the cloud, thereby providing a seamless user experience while maintaining security.
Here’s how Azure AD PTA works:
Integration with On-Premises AD: Azure AD PTA integrates with an organization’s on-premises AD to apply the same security and password policies to cloud resources.
Authentication Request Handling: When a user signs in, the authentication request is passed through to the on-premises AD for validation.
Brute-Force Attack Protection: By enforcing the on-premises AD security policies, Azure AD PTA helps to filter out brute-force attacks.
No Passwords Stored in the Cloud: User passwords remain on-premises and are not stored in Azure AD, which enhances security.
Simple Sign-On Experience: Users enjoy a simple sign-on experience with the same set of credentials
across on-premises and cloud services.
Reference: Microsoft’s documentation on deploying on-premises Microsoft Entra Password Protection, which works with Azure AD PTA1.
A step-by-step guide on implementing Azure AD Password Protection on-premises, which complements the PTA feature2.
An overview of Azure AD Password Protection and Smart Lockout features, which are part of the broader Azure AD security framework3.
A document has an organization’s classified information. The organization’s Azure cloud administrator has to send it to different recipients. If the email is not protected, this can be opened and read by any user. So the document should be protected and it will only be opened by authorized users.
In this scenario, which Azure service can enable the admin to share documents securely?
- A . Azure Information Protection
- B . Azure Key Vault
- C . Azure Resource Manager
- D . Azure Content Delivery Network
A
Explanation:
Azure Information Protection (AIP) is a cloud-based solution that helps organizations classify and protect documents and emails by applying labels. AIP can be used to protect both data at rest and in transit, making it suitable for securely sharing classified information.
Here’s how AIP secures document sharing:
Classification and Labeling: AIP allows administrators to classify data based on sensitivity and apply labels that carry protection settings.
Protection: It uses encryption, identity, and authorization policies to protect documents and emails.
Access Control: Only authorized users with the right permissions can access protected documents, even if the document is shared outside the organization.
Tracking and Revocation: Administrators can track activities on shared documents and revoke access if necessary.
Integration: AIP integrates with other Microsoft services and applications, ensuring a seamless protection experience across the organization’s data ecosystem.
Reference: Microsoft’s overview of Azure Information Protection, which details how it helps secure document sharing1.
A guide on how to configure and use Azure Information Protection for protecting sensitive information2.
SecureSoftWorld Pvt. Ltd. is an IT company that develops software solutions catering to the needs of the healthcare industry. Most of its services are hosted in Google cloud. In the cloud environment, to secure the applications and services, the organization uses Google App Engine Firewall that controls the access to the App Engine with a set of rules that denies or allows requests from a specified range of IPs.
How many unique firewall rules can SecureSoftWorld Pvt. Ltd define using App Engine Firewall?
- A . Up to 10000
- B . Up to 1000
- C . Up to 10
- D . Up to 100
B
Explanation:
Google App Engine Firewall allows organizations to create a set of rules that control the access to their App Engine applications. These rules can either allow or deny requests from specified IP ranges, providing a robust mechanism for securing applications and services hosted on the Google Cloud. Here’s how the rule limit applies to SecureSoftWorld Pvt. Ltd:
Rule Creation: SecureSoftWorld Pvt. Ltd can create firewall rules that specify which IP ranges are allowed or denied access to their App Engine services.
Rule Limit: The company can define up to 1000 individual firewall rules1.
Rule Priority: These rules are prioritized, meaning that rules with a lower priority number are evaluated before those with a higher number.
Default Rule: By default, any request that does not match a specific rule is allowed. However, this default action can be changed to deny, effectively blocking all traffic that does not match any of the defined rules.
Rule Management: The rules can be managed via the Google Cloud Console, the gcloud command-
line tool, or the App Engine Admin API.
Reference: Google Cloud documentation explaining the App Engine firewall and the maximum number of rules1.
A new public web application is deployed on AWS that will run behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). An AWS security expert needs to encrypt the newly deployed application at the edge with an SSL/TLS certificate issued by an external certificate authority. In addition, he needs to ensure the rotation of the certificate yearly before it expires.
Which of the following AWS services can be used to accomplish this?
- A . AWS Snowball
- B . AWS Certificate Manager
- C . AWS Cloud HSM
- D . Amazon Elastic Load Balancer
B
Explanation:
AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) is the service that enables an AWS security expert to manage SSL/TLS certificates provided by AWS or an external certificate authority. It allows the deployment of the certificate on AWS services such as an Application Load Balancer (ALB) and also handles the renewal and rotation of certificates.
Here’s how ACM would be used for the web application:
Certificate Provisioning: The security expert can import an SSL/TLS certificate issued by an external certificate authority into ACM.
Integration with ALB: ACM integrates with ALB, allowing the certificate to be easily deployed to encrypt the application at the edge.
Automatic Renewal: ACM can be configured to automatically renew certificates provided by AWS. For certificates from external authorities, the expert can manually import a new certificate before the old one expires.
Yearly Rotation: While ACM does not automatically rotate externally provided certificates, it simplifies the process of replacing them by allowing the expert to import new certificates as needed.
Reference: AWS documentation on ACM, which explains how to import certificates and use them with ALB1. AWS blog post discussing the importance of rotating SSL/TLS certificates and how ACM facilitates this process2.
A BPO company would like to expand its business and provide 24 x 7 customer service. Therefore, the organization wants to migrate to a fully functional cloud environment that provides all features with minimum maintenance and administration.
Which cloud service model should it consider?
- A . laaS
- B . PaaS
- C . RaaS
- D . SaaS
D
Explanation:
SaaS, or Software as a Service, is the ideal cloud service model for a BPO company looking to expand its business and provide 24/7 customer service with minimal maintenance and administration. SaaS provides a complete software solution that is managed by the service provider and delivered over the internet, which aligns with the needs of a BPO company for several reasons:
Fully Managed Service: SaaS offers a fully managed service, which means the provider is responsible for the maintenance, updates, and security of the software.
Accessibility: It allows employees to access the software from anywhere at any time, which is essential for 24/7 customer service operations.
Scalability: SaaS solutions are highly scalable, allowing the BPO company to easily adjust its usage based on business demands without worrying about infrastructure limitations.
Cost-Effectiveness: With SaaS, the BPO company can avoid upfront costs associated with purchasing, managing, and upgrading hardware and software.
Integration and Customization: Many SaaS offerings provide options for integration with other services and customization to meet specific business needs.
Reference: An article discussing how cloud computing services are becoming the new BPO style, highlighting the benefits of SaaS for BPO companies1.
A report on the impact of cloud services on BPOs, emphasizing the advantages of SaaS in terms of cost savings and quick response to customers1.
Thomas Gibson is a cloud security engineer who works in a multinational company. His organization wants to host critical elements of its applications; thus, if disaster strikes, applications can be restored quickly and completely. Moreover, his organization wants to achieve lower RTO and RPO values.
Which of the following disaster recovery approach should be adopted by Thomas’ organization?
- A . Warm Standby
- B . Pilot Light approach
- C . Backup and Restore
- D . Multi-Cloud Option
B
Explanation:
The Warm Standby approach in disaster recovery is designed to achieve lower Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) values. This approach involves having a scaled-down version of a fully functional environment running at all times in the cloud. In the event of a disaster, the system can quickly switch over to the warm standby environment, which is already running and up-to-date, thus ensuring a quick and complete restoration of applications. Here’s how the Warm Standby approach works:
Prepared Environment: A duplicate of the production environment is running in the cloud, but at a reduced capacity.
Quick Activation: In case of a disaster, this environment can be quickly scaled up to handle the full production load.
Data Synchronization: Regular data synchronization ensures that the standby environment is always up-to-date, which contributes to a low RPO.
Reduced Downtime: Because the standby system is always running, the time to switch over is minimal, leading to a low RTO.
Cost-Efficiency: While more expensive than a cold standby, it is more cost-effective than a hot
standby, balancing cost with readiness.
Reference: An article discussing the importance of RPO and RTO in disaster recovery and how different strategies, including Warm Standby, impact these metrics1.
A guide explaining various disaster recovery strategies, including Warm Standby, and their relation to achieving lower RTO and RPO values2.
VenturiaCloud is a cloud service provider that offers robust and cost-effective cloud-based services to cloud consumers. The organization became a victim of a cybersecurity attack. An attacker performed a DDoS attack over the cloud that caused failure in the entire cloud environment. VenturiaCloud conducted a forensics investigation.
Who among the following are the first line of defense against cloud security attacks with their primary role being responding against any type of security incident immediately?
- A . Law Advisors
- B . Incident Handlers
- C . Investigators
- D . IT Professionals
D
Explanation:
Incident Handlers are typically the first line of defense against cloud security attacks, with their primary role being to respond immediately to any type of security incident. In the context of a cybersecurity attack such as a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service), incident handlers are responsible for the initial response, which includes identifying, managing, recording, and analyzing security threats or incidents in real-time.
Here’s how Incident Handlers function as the first line of defense:
Immediate Response: They are trained to respond quickly to security incidents to minimize impact and manage the situation.
Incident Analysis: Incident Handlers analyze the nature and scope of the incident, including the type of attack and its origin.
Mitigation Strategies: They implement strategies to mitigate the attack, such as rerouting traffic or isolating affected systems.
Communication: They communicate with relevant stakeholders, including IT professionals, management, and possibly law enforcement.
Forensics and Recovery: After an attack, they work on forensics to understand how the breach occurred and on recovery processes to restore services.
Reference: An ISACA journal article discussing the roles of various functions in information security, highlighting the first line of defense1.
An Australian Cyber Security Magazine article emphasizing the importance of identity and access management (IAM) as the first line of defense in securing the cloud2.
Sandra, who works for SecAppSol Technologies, is on a vacation. Her boss asked her to solve an urgent issue in an application. Sandra had to use applications present on her office laptop to solve this issue, and she successfully rectified it. Despite being in a different location, she could securely use the application.
What type of service did the organization use to ensure that Sandra could access her office laptop from a remote area?
- A . Amazon AppStream 2.0
- B . Amazon Elastic Transcoder Service
- C . Amazon SQS
- D . Amazon Simple Workflow
A
Explanation:
Amazon AppStream 2.0 is a fully managed application streaming service that allows users to access desktop applications from anywhere, making it the service that enabled Sandra to access her office laptop applications remotely.
Here’s how it works:
Application Hosting: AppStream 2.0 hosts desktop applications on AWS and streams them to a web browser or a connected device.
Secure Access: Users can access these applications securely from any location, as the service provides a secure streaming session.
Resource Optimization: It eliminates the need for high-end user hardware since the processing is done on AWS servers.
Central Management: The organization can manage applications centrally, which simplifies software updates and security.
Integration: AppStream 2.0 integrates with existing identity providers and supports standard security
protocols.
Reference: AWS documentation on Amazon AppStream 2.0, detailing how it enables remote access to applications1.
An AWS blog post explaining the benefits of using Amazon AppStream 2.0 for remote application access2.
Alice, a cloud forensic investigator, has located, a relevant evidence during his investigation of a
security breach in an organization’s Azure environment. As an investigator, he needs to sync different types of logs generated by Azure resources with Azure services for better monitoring.
Which Azure logging and auditing feature can enable Alice to record information on the Azure subscription layer and obtain the evidence (information related to the operations performed on a specific resource, timestamp, status of the operation, and the user responsible for it)?
- A . Azure Resource Logs
- B . Azure Storage Analytics Logs
- C . Azure Activity Logs
- D . Azure Active Directory Reports
C
Explanation:
Azure Activity Logs provide a record of operations performed on resources within an Azure subscription. They are essential for monitoring and auditing purposes, as they offer detailed information on the operations, including the timestamp, status, and the identity of the user responsible for the operation.
Here’s how Azure Activity Logs can be utilized by Alice:
Recording Operations: Azure Activity Logs record all control-plane activities, such as creating, updating, and deleting resources through Azure Resource Manager.
Evidence Collection: For forensic purposes, these logs are crucial as they provide evidence of the operations performed on specific resources.
Syncing Logs: Azure Activity Logs can be integrated with Azure services for better monitoring and can be synced with other tools for analysis.
Access and Management: Investigators like Alice can access these logs through the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or Azure Monitor REST API.
Security and Compliance: These logs are also used for security and compliance, helping organizations
to meet regulatory requirements.
Reference: Microsoft Learn documentation on Azure security logging and auditing, which includes details on Azure Activity Logs1.
Azure Monitor documentation, which provides an overview of the monitoring solutions and mentions the use of Azure Activity Logs2.
Rick Warren has been working as a cloud security engineer in an IT company for the past 4 years. Owing to the robust security features and various cost-effective services offered by AWS, in 2010, his organization migrated to the AWS cloud environment. While inspecting the intrusion detection system, Rick detected a security incident.
Which of the following AWS services collects logs from various data sources and stores them on a centralized location as logs files that can be used during forensic investigation in the event of a security incident?
- A . Amazon CloudWatch
- B . AWS CloudFormation
- C . Amazon CloudFront
- D . Amazon CloudTrail
A
Explanation:
Amazon CloudTrail is a service that provides event history of your AWS account activity, including actions taken through the AWS Management Console, AWS SDKs, command line tools, and other AWS services. This event history simplifies security analysis, resource change tracking, and troubleshooting.
In the context of forensic investigation, CloudTrail plays a crucial role:
Event Logging: CloudTrail collects logs from various AWS services and resources, recording every API call and user activity that alters the AWS environment.
Centralized Storage: It aggregates the logs and stores them in a centralized location, which can be an Amazon S3 bucket.
Forensic Investigation: The logs stored by CloudTrail are detailed and include information about the user, the time of the API call, the source IP address, and the response elements returned by the AWS service. This makes it an invaluable tool for forensic investigations.
Security Monitoring: CloudTrail logs can be continuously monitored and analyzed for suspicious activity, which is essential for detecting security incidents.
Compliance: The service helps with compliance audits by providing a history of changes in the AWS
environment.
Reference: AWS’s official documentation on CloudTrail, which outlines its capabilities and use cases for security and compliance1.
An AWS blog post discussing the importance of CloudTrail logs in security incident investigations2.
A third-party article explaining how CloudTrail is used for forensic analysis in AWS environments3.
Jerry Mulligan is employed by an IT company as a cloud security engineer. In 2014, his organization migrated all applications and data from on-premises to a cloud environment. Jerry would like to perform penetration testing to evaluate the security across virtual machines, installed apps, and OSes in the cloud environment, including conducting various security assessment steps against risks specific to the cloud that could expose them to serious threats.
Which of the following cloud computing service models does not allow cloud penetration testing (CPEN) to Jerry?
- A . DBaaS
- B . laaS
- C . PaaS
- D . SaaS
D
Explanation:
In the cloud computing service models, SaaS (Software as a Service) typically does not allow
customers to perform penetration testing. This is because SaaS applications are managed by the service provider, and the security of the application is the responsibility of the provider, not the customer.
Here’s why SaaS doesn’t allow penetration testing:
Managed Service: SaaS providers manage the security of their applications, including regular updates and patches.
Shared Environment: SaaS applications often run in a shared environment where multiple customers use the same infrastructure, making it impractical for individual customers to conduct penetration testing.
Provider’s Policies: Most SaaS providers have strict policies against unauthorized testing, as it could impact the service’s integrity and availability for other users.
Alternative Assessments: Instead of penetration testing, SaaS providers may offer security assessments or compliance certifications to demonstrate the security of their applications.
Reference: Oracle’s FAQ on cloud security testing, which states that penetration and vulnerability testing are not allowed for Oracle SaaS offerings1.
Cloud Security Alliance’s article on pentesting in the cloud, mentioning that CSPs often have policies describing which tests can be performed and which cannot, especially in SaaS models2.
SecAppSol Pvt. Ltd. is a cloud software and application development company located in Louisville, Kentucky. The security features provided by its previous cloud service provider was not satisfactory, and in 2012, the organization became a victim of eavesdropping. Therefore, SecAppSol Pvt. Ltd.
changed its cloud service provider and adopted AWS cloud-based services owing to its robust and
cost-effective security features.
How does SecAppSol Pvt. Ltd.’s security team encrypt the traffic
between the load balancer and client that initiate
SSL or TLS sessions?
- A . By enabling Amazon GuardDuty
- B . By enabling HTTPS listener
- C . By enabling Cloud Identity Aware Proxy
- D . By enabling RADIUS Authentication
B
Explanation:
To encrypt the traffic between the load balancer and clients that initiate SSL or TLS sessions, SecAppSol Pvt. Ltd.’s security team would enable an HTTPS listener on their load balancer. This is a common method used in AWS to secure communication.
Here’s how it works:
HTTPS Listener Configuration: The security team configures the load balancer with an HTTPS listener, which listens for incoming SSL or TLS connections on a specified port (usually port 443).
SSL/TLS Certificates: They deploy SSL/TLS certificates on the load balancer. These certificates are used to establish a secure connection and encrypt the traffic.
Secure Communication: When a client initiates a session, the HTTPS listener uses the SSL/TLS certificate to perform a handshake, establish a secure connection, and encrypt the data in transit.
Backend Encryption: Optionally, the load balancer can also be configured to encrypt traffic to the backend servers, ensuring end-to-end encryption.
Security Policies: The security team sets security policies on the load balancer to define the ciphers and protocols used for SSL/TLS, further enhancing security.
Reference: AWS documentation on configuring end-to-end encryption in a load-balanced environment, which includes setting up an HTTPS listener1.
AWS documentation on creating an HTTPS listener for your Application Load Balancer, detailing the process and requirements2.
Martin Sheen is a senior cloud security engineer in SecGlob Cloud Pvt. Ltd. Since 2012, his organization has been using AWS cloud-based services. Using an intrusion detection system and antivirus software, Martin noticed that an attacker is trying to breach the security of his organization. Therefore, Martin would like to identify and protect the sensitive data of his organization. He requires a fully managed data security service that supports S3 storage and provides an inventory of publicly shared buckets, unencrypted buckets, and the buckets shared with AWS accounts outside his organization.
Which of the following Amazon services fulfills Martin’s requirement?
- A . Amazon GuardDuty
- B . Amazon Macie
- C . Amazon Inspector
- D . Amazon Security Hub
B
Explanation:
Amazon Macie is a fully managed data security and data privacy service that uses machine learning and pattern matching to discover and protect sensitive data in AWS. It is specifically designed to support Amazon S3 storage and provides an inventory of S3 buckets, helping organizations like SecGlob Cloud Pvt. Ltd. to identify and protect their sensitive data.
Here’s how Amazon Macie fulfills Martin’s requirements:
Sensitive Data Identification: Macie automatically and continuously discovers sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), in S3 buckets.
Inventory and Monitoring: It provides an inventory of S3 buckets, detailing which are publicly accessible, unencrypted, or shared with accounts outside the organization.
Alerts and Reporting: Macie generates detailed alerts and reports when it detects unauthorized access or inadvertent data leaks.
Data Security Posture: It helps improve the data security posture by providing actionable recommendations for securing S3 buckets.
Compliance Support: Macie aids in compliance efforts by monitoring data access patterns and ensuring that sensitive data is handled according to policy.
Reference: AWS documentation on Amazon Macie, which outlines its capabilities for protecting sensitive data in S31.
An AWS blog post discussing how Macie can be used to identify and protect sensitive data in S3 buckets1.
SevocSoft Private Ltd. is an IT company that develops software and applications for the banking sector. The security team of the organization found a security incident caused by misconfiguration in Infrastructure-as-Code (laC) templates. Upon further investigation, the security team found that the server configuration was built using a misconfigured laC template, which resulted in security breach and exploitation of the organizational cloud resources.
Which of the following would have prevented this security breach and exploitation?
- A . Testing of laC Template
- B . Scanning of laC Template
- C . Striping of laC Template
- D . Mapping of laC Template
B
Explanation:
Scanning Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) templates is a preventive measure that can identify misconfigurations and potential security issues before the templates are deployed. This process involves analyzing the code to ensure it adheres to best practices and security standards. Here’s how scanning IaC templates could have prevented the security breach:
Early Detection: Scanning tools can detect misconfigurations in IaC templates early in the development cycle, before deployment.
Automated Scans: Automated scanning tools can be integrated into the CI/CD pipeline to continuously check for issues as code is written and updated.
Security Best Practices: Scanning ensures that IaC templates comply with security best practices and organizational policies.
Vulnerability Identification: It helps identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited if the infrastructure is deployed with those configurations.
Remediation Guidance: Scanning tools often provide guidance on how to fix identified issues, which
can prevent exploitation.
Reference: Microsoft documentation on scanning for misconfigurations in IaC templates1.
Orca Security’s blog on securing IaC templates and the importance of scanning them2.
An article discussing common security risks with IaC and the need for scanning templates3.
Rebecca Gibel has been working as a cloud security engineer in an IT company for the past 5 years. Her organization uses cloud-based services. Rebecca’s organization contains personal information about its clients,which is encrypted and stored in the cloud environment. The CEO of her organization has asked Rebecca to delete the personal information of all clients who utilized their services between 2011 and 2015. Rebecca deleted the encryption keys that are used to encrypt the original data; this made the data unreadable and unrecoverable.
Based on the given information, which deletion method was implemented by Rebecca?
- A . Data Scrubbing
- B . Nulling Out
- C . Data Erasure
- D . Crypto-Shredding
D
Explanation:
Crypto-shredding is the method of ‘deleting’ encrypted data by destroying the encryption keys. This method is particularly useful in cloud environments where physical destruction of storage media is not feasible. By deleting the keys used to encrypt the data, the data itself becomes inaccessible and is effectively considered deleted.
Here’s how crypto-shredding works:
Encryption: Data is encrypted using cryptographic keys, which are essential for decrypting the data to make it readable.
Key Management: The keys are managed separately from the data, often in a secure key management system.
Deletion of Keys: When instructed to delete the data, instead of trying to erase the actual data, the encryption keys are deleted.
Data Inaccessibility: Without the keys, the encrypted data cannot be decrypted, rendering it unreadable and unrecoverable.
Compliance: This method helps organizations comply with data protection regulations that require
secure deletion of personal data.
Reference: A technical paper discussing the concept of crypto-shredding as a method for secure deletion of data in cloud environments.
An industry article explaining how crypto-shredding is used to meet data privacy requirements, especially in cloud storage scenarios.