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
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?
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?
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?
C
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?
C
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?
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?
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?
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?
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, Florid
a. 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
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
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
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?
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?
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?
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.