To ensure that Vertex AI Workbench Instances are automatically kept up-to-date and that users cannot alter operating system settings, implementing specific organization policies is essential.​

Option A: Enabling VM Manager and adding Compute Engine instances assists in managing and monitoring VM instances but does not enforce automatic updates or restrict user modifications to the operating system.​

Option B: Enforcing the disableRootAccess organization policy prevents users from gaining root access, thereby restricting unauthorized changes to the operating system. Additionally, the requireAutoUpgradeSchedule policy ensures that instances are automatically updated according to a defined schedule. Together, these policies maintain system integrity and compliance with update requirements.​

Option C: Assigning AI Notebooks Runner and AI Notebooks Viewer roles controls user permissions related to running and viewing notebooks but does not directly influence operating system settings or update mechanisms.​

Option D: Implementing firewall rules to prevent SSH access limits direct access to instances but does not ensure automatic updates or prevent alterations through other means.​

Therefore, Option B is the most appropriate action, as it directly addresses both the enforcement of automatic updates and the prevention of unauthorized operating system modifications.​

References:

Organization Policy Constraints

VM Manager Overview

Generate Supply Chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA) level 3 assurance by using Cloud Build: SLSA is a framework for ensuring the integrity of software artifacts. By using Cloud Build, you can automate the build process and generate SLSA level 3 compliance, which includes verifiable build steps and provenance.

View the build provenance in the Security insights side panel within the Google Cloud console: The build provenance provides a detailed history of how the software was built, including the source code, build process, and any dependencies. This information is accessible through the Security insights side panel in the Google Cloud console, allowing you to verify the integrity and authenticity of your software artifacts.

References

Supply Chain Levels for Software Artifacts (SLSA) documentation

Cloud Build documentation

Security insights in Google Cloud console

Objective: Ensure that the analytics workload on Compute Engine instances accessing Cloud Storage does not interact with the public internet.

Solution:

Private Google Access: This allows Compute Engine instances that only have internal IP addresses to reach Google APIs and services through a private connection without the need for a public IP address.

No Public IP Addresses: By avoiding public IP addresses for the instances, you ensure that they are not accessible from the internet and do not initiate internet connections.

Steps:

Step 1: Open the Google Cloud Console.

Step 2: Navigate to the VPC Network page and select the subnet where the Compute Engine instances are located.

Step 3: Enable Private Google Access for the subnet.

Step 4: Ensure that when launching the Compute Engine instances, no public IP addresses are assigned to them.

References:

Configuring Private Google Access

Preventing External IP Address Assignment

To allow a large number of users to access the GCP Console while keeping the existing Active Directory or LDAP server for identity management, use Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS).

Install GCDS:

Download and install Google Cloud Directory Sync from here.

Configure GCDS:

Set up the synchronization by specifying the LDAP server details and the Google domain.

Map the LDAP attributes to Google attributes to ensure user data is synchronized correctly.

Run Synchronization:

Perform an initial synchronization to populate the Google domain with existing users from the LDAP server.

Schedule regular synchronizations to keep the data up-to-date.

Benefits:

Automated Sync: Ensures that user data is consistently updated without manual intervention.

Secure Access: Users can log in to the GCP Console using their existing credentials, enhancing security and user experience.

References:

Google Cloud Directory Sync Documentation

GCDS Administration Guide

Managing IAM permissions at the KeyRing level is more efficient and scalable compared to managing them at the individual Key level. By creating a single KeyRing and placing all encryption keys within it, you can apply uniform IAM permissions to the entire KeyRing, simplifying the management of permissions.

Steps:

Create a KeyRing: Set up a single KeyRing in Cloud KMS for all the encryption keys required for the persistent disks.

Create Encryption Keys: Generate the necessary encryption keys within this KeyRing.

Set IAM Permissions: Assign IAM roles and permissions to the KeyRing to manage access control at this level, ensuring that all keys within the KeyRing inherit these permissions.

References:

Google Cloud: Cloud Key Management Service (KMS)

Managing access to resources

To ensure that data is encrypted while in use by the virtual machines (VMs) and enforce this policy across your organization, you should use Confidential VM instances. Here are the steps:

Enable Confidential VM:

Ensure that Confidential VMs are available in your selected regions and enabled for your project.

Set Organization Policy:

Implement an organization policy to enforce the use of Confidential VM instances for all VMs across your organization.

Use the Google Cloud Console or the gcloud command-line tool to set this policy. Example command:

gcloud resource-manager org-policies set-policy my_policy.yaml

Example my_policy.yaml:

name: organizations/1234567890/policies/compute.requireConfidentialCompute spec: rules: - enforce: true

Verify and Monitor:

Ensure that all newly created VMs across your organization are Confidential VMs.

Regularly monitor compliance through the Google Cloud Console and set up alerts if non-compliant VMs are created.

Benefits:

Data Encryption in Use: Confidential VMs ensure that data is encrypted not just at rest and in transit but also while in use.

Policy Enforcement: Organization policies provide a way to enforce security configurations across all projects under your organization.

References

Confidential Computing Documentation

Creating and Managing Organization Policies

To enforce access control policies for applications and resources in Google Cloud, the recommended service is Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP).

Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP):

IAP allows you to control access to your applications and resources based on the identity of the user and the context of the request. It integrates with IAM to provide fine-grained access control, ensuring that only authorized users can access specific resources.

IAP helps enforce security policies at the application layer, providing an additional layer of protection beyond traditional network-based security measures.

References

Identity-Aware Proxy documentation

Use Pub/Sub and Cloud Functions to trigger a Cloud Data Loss Prevention scan every time a file is uploaded to the administrator's bucket. If the scan does not detect PII, have the function move the objects into the shared Cloud Storage bucket:

Configure a Pub/Sub topic to publish notifications when new files are uploaded to the administrator's bucket.

Create a Cloud Function that is triggered by the Pub/Sub topic. This function uses the Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP) API to scan the uploaded files for PII.

If the scan does not detect PII, the function moves the file to the shared Cloud Storage bucket. This ensures that only non-sensitive data is accessible to analysts, while PII remains secure in the administrator's bucket.

References:

Using Pub/Sub with Cloud Functions

Cloud Data Loss Prevention API

Cloud NAT (Network Address Translation) enables instances in a private network to connect to external services while not exposing their internal IP addresses to the public internet. This solution helps in situations where VMs need to initiate outbound connections without having a public IP address:

Cloud NAT Setup: Configure Cloud NAT for the subnet where your VMs are located. This allows these VMs to use the NAT gateway to communicate with external services securely.

Network Security: By using Cloud NAT, the internal IP addresses of VMs remain private, reducing the attack surface and enhancing security.

Operational Continuity: VMs can continue to communicate with external sites as needed for operations without requiring public IP addresses, meeting both security and functional requirements.

References

Cloud NAT Documentation

To ensure that only trusted container images are deployed on Cloud Run, you can implement Binary Authorization, which is a deploy-time security control that ensures only trusted images are used.

Set Up Binary Authorization:

Navigate to the Google Cloud Console.

Go to Security > Binary Authorization.

Configure the policy to include attestors that verify your trusted images.

Enable Binary Authorization on Cloud Run:

Go to the Cloud Run service.

Enable Binary Authorization on your existing Cloud Run services by selecting the appropriate Binary Authorization policy.

Set Organization Policy:

Go to the Organization Policies page in the Google Cloud Console.

Add a constraint for constraints/run.allowedBinaryAuthorizationPolicies.

Specify the list of allowed Binary Authorization policy names to enforce across your organization.

These steps ensure that any container image deployed on Cloud Run is validated against the specified Binary Authorization policies, preventing untrusted images from being deployed.

References:

Binary Authorization Documentation

Enabling Binary Authorization on Cloud Run

Objective: Identify the layers of the stack the customer shares responsibility for in a shared security responsibility model for IaaS.

Solution: Understand the shared responsibility model.

Explanation:

Network Security: Customers are responsible for configuring network security, such as setting up firewalls, managing VPCs, and ensuring secure network traffic.

Access Policies: Customers are responsible for managing access policies, including IAM roles and permissions, to ensure only authorized users can access resources.

In IaaS, the cloud provider is typically responsible for the underlying infrastructure, while the customer is responsible for securing their applications and data on the cloud.

References:

Shared Responsibility Model

Google Cloud Security Overview

Objective: You want to limit the images that can be used as the source for boot disks to a set of images stored in a dedicated project.

Solution: Use the Organization Policy Service.

Steps:

Step 1: Open the Google Cloud Console.

Step 2: Navigate to the Organization Policies page.

Step 3: Create a new policy by clicking on "Create Policy".

Step 4: Select the constraint compute.trustedimageProjects.

Step 5: Set the policy to ALLOW and specify the project ID where the trusted images are stored in the whitelist.

Step 6: Save and apply the policy.

By creating a compute.trustedimageProjects constraint at the organization level and specifying the trusted project in the allow list, you ensure that only images from this project can be used for boot disks across the organization.

References:

GCP Organization Policy Service Documentation

Compute Trusted Image Projects Constraint

VM Manager is a suite of tools that can be used to manage operating systems for large virtual machine (VM) fleets running Windows and Linux on Compute Engine. It helps drive efficiency through automation and reduces the operational burden of maintaining these VM fleets. VM Manager includes several services such as OS patch management, OS inventory management, and OS configuration management. By using VM Manager, you can apply patches, collect operating system information, and install, remove, or auto-update software packages. The suite provides a high level of control and automation for managing large VM fleets on Google Cloud.

https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/vm-manager

To handle significant traffic spikes and potentially malicious IPs, you can use Google Cloud Armor to configure rate-based bans. This approach allows you to automatically ban clients that exceed a predefined request rate, protecting your application from potential denial-of-service attacks.

Access Google Cloud Console: Log in to your Google Cloud Console.

Navigate to Google Cloud Armor: Go to the "Security" section and select "Google Cloud Armor".

Create Security Policy: Create a new security policy or edit an existing one. Add a new rule to the policy.

Configure Rate-Based Ban: Set the action to rate_based_ban. Define the rate limit (e.g., requests per second) and set the ban_duration_sec parameter to the desired time interval.

Apply the Policy: Apply the security policy to your backend service or load balancer.

Monitor and Adjust: Monitor the traffic patterns and adjust the rate limits and ban durations as necessary to balance security and availability.

References:

Google Cloud Armor Documentation

Rate Limiting with Cloud Armor

To minimize the usage of service account keys and implement Workload Identity Federation (WIF) with your on-premises identity provider, you can use a workload identity pool integrated with your corporate Active Directory Federation Service (ADFS). This setup allows your on-premises Windows-based applications to authenticate to Google Cloud APIs without using long-lived service account keys.

Set Up a Workload Identity Pool:

In the Google Cloud Console, go to IAM & Admin > Workload Identity Federation.

Create a new workload identity pool.

Configure the pool to trust your corporate ADFS by specifying the federation provider details.

Create a Workload Identity Provider:

Within the created pool, set up a new provider for ADFS.

Configure the provider with the necessary details such as the issuer URL and credentials.

Configure Impersonation Rules:

Set up rules to allow principals in the workload identity pool to impersonate specific Google Cloud service accounts.

This is done by specifying the identity provider and the conditions under which the service accounts can be impersonated.

Update Applications:

Modify your on-premises applications to use the configured ADFS authentication to obtain tokens.

These tokens can then be exchanged for Google Cloud access tokens to interact with Google Cloud APIs securely.

By setting up the workload identity pool and configuring impersonation rules, you achieve secure authentication without needing to distribute and manage service account keys.

References:

Workload Identity Federation Documentation

Federating On-Premises Identities to Workload Identity Federation

https://gsuite.google.com/learn-more/security/security-whitepaper/page-1.html

Shared responsibility “Security of the Cloud” - GCP is responsible for protecting the infrastructure that runs all of the services offered in the GCP Cloud. This infrastructure is composed of the hardware, software, networking, and facilities that run GCP Cloud services.

https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/organization-policy/org-policy-constraints - constraints/compute.trustedImageProjects

This list constraint defines the set of projects that can be used for image storage and disk instantiation for Compute Engine. If this constraint is active, only images from trusted projects will be allowed as the source for boot disks for new instances.

Objective: Prevent users from creating projects while allowing only the DevOps team to create projects.

Solution: Modify IAM roles and permissions.

Steps:

Step 1: Open the Google Cloud Console.

Step 2: Navigate to the IAM & Admin page.

Step 3: At the organizational level, find and remove all users from the Project Creator role.

Step 4: Create or identify a group for the DevOps team.

Step 5: Assign the Project Creator role to the DevOps team group at the organizational level.

By removing all users from the Project Creator role and granting it only to the DevOps team, you ensure that only the designated team can create projects.

References:

GCP IAM Documentation

Project Creator Role

Challenge:

Prevent common misconfigurations that expose services (e.g., MYSQL) to the public internet.

Hierarchical Firewall Policies:

These policies can be applied at the organization level to enforce consistent network security rules across all projects.

Solution:

Create a hierarchical firewall policy that allows connections only from internal IP ranges.

This policy ensures that services like MySQL are not exposed to 0.0.0.0/0 (the entire internet).

Steps:

Step 1: Define the hierarchical firewall policy at the organization level.

Step 2: Set the rule to allow traffic only from internal IP ranges.

Step 3: Apply the policy to all projects under the organization.

Benefits:

Centralized management of network security.

Prevents accidental exposure of services to the public internet, enhancing security.

References:

Hierarchical Firewall Policies

Securing MySQL on GCP

https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/private-service-connect

An API bundle:

All APIs (all-apis): most Google APIs

(same as private.googleapis.com).

VPC-SC (vpc-sc): APIs that VPC Service Controls supports

(same as restricted.googleapis.com).

VMs in the same VPC network as the endpoint (all regions)

On-premises systems that are connected to the VPC network that contains the endpoint

Define Trusted Image Projects:

Identify the project or projects where your trusted operating system images are stored.

Ensure these images meet your organization’s security requirements and are regularly updated to mitigate vulnerabilities.

Create an Organization Policy:

Navigate to the Organization Policies page in the Google Cloud Console.

Create a policy constraint that restricts the creation of boot disks to only those images stored in your trusted image project(s).

The policy constraint to use is constraints/compute.trustedImageProjects.

Apply the Policy:

Apply this organization policy at the appropriate level (organization, folder, or project) to enforce that all new VM instances use images from the trusted repository.

This ensures consistency in the security posture across all projects within the organization.

Monitor Compliance:

Regularly monitor the compliance with this policy using audit logs and other monitoring tools.

Update the trusted images as necessary to ensure they remain secure and compliant with your security standards.

References:

Organization Policy Service

Trusted Image Projects Constraint

Organization Policy: Use the constraints/compute.skipDefaultNetworkCreation organization policy constraint to disable the creation of default networks in new projects.

Policy Application: Apply this constraint at the organization level to ensure it affects all projects within your organization, preventing the creation of default networks.

Best Practices Compliance: Following this best practice helps maintain a clean and secure network configuration by avoiding the use of default networks, which may not be properly segmented or secured.

Verification: Verify the policy application by creating new projects and ensuring that default networks are not created. References:

Google Cloud - Organization Policy Constraints

Google Cloud - Best Practices for Enterprise Organizations

Configure Binary Authorization:

Binary Authorization is a deploy-time security control that ensures only trusted container images are deployed on GKE. It uses attestations to verify the authenticity and integrity of the images.

Enable Binary Authorization in your project through the Google Cloud Console or using the gcloud command-line tool.

Define attestation policies that specify which attestors (trusted entities) must sign off on container images before deployment.

Set Up Attestors:

Create and configure attestors that will sign the container images. This involves generating cryptographic keys and setting up trusted authorities.

Attestors can be configured to sign images based on criteria such as vulnerability scanning results, compliance checks, and other security policies.

Create a Custom Organization Policy Constraint:

Define an organization policy constraint that enforces Binary Authorization across your GKE clusters.

This custom constraint ensures that all clusters in the organization must adhere to the Binary Authorization policy, preventing the deployment of unsigned or unauthorized container images.

Implement and Enforce the Policies:

Apply the Binary Authorization policy and the organization policy constraint to your GKE clusters.

Regularly review and update the policies and attestation rules to align with your security and compliance requirements.

References:

Binary Authorization Documentation

Creating Attestors

Organization Policy Constraints

The Standard Tier network only provides regional load balancing, while the Premium Tier supports global load balancing with a single anycast IP address. To distribute requests across multiple regions, you need to use the Premium Tier and update the load balancer configuration accordingly.

Steps:

Upgrade to Premium Tier: Update the load balancer to use the Premium Tier network in the Google Cloud Console.

Add New Instance Group: Add the instance group in the new region (us-east-2) to the backend configuration of the existing load balancer.

Verify Configuration: Ensure that the frontend configuration of the load balancer uses a single external IP address for global distribution.

References:

Google Cloud: Global load balancing

Multiple network interfaces. The simplest way to connect multiple VPC networks through a virtual appliance is by using multiple network interfaces, with each interface connecting to one of the VPC networks. Internet and on-premises connectivity is provided over one or two separate network interfaces. With many NGFW products, internet connectivity is connected through an interface marked as untrusted in the NGFW software.

https://cloud.google.com/architecture/best-practices-vpc-design#l7

This architecture has multiple VPC networks that are bridged by an L7 next-generation firewall (NGFW) appliance, which functions as a multi-NIC bridge between VPC networks. An untrusted, outside VPC network is introduced to terminate hybrid interconnects and internet-based connections that terminate on the outside leg of the L7 NGFW for inspection. There are many variations on this design, but the key principle is to filter traffic through the firewall before the traffic reaches trusted VPC networks.

nodeSelector is the simplest recommended form of node selection constraint. You can add the nodeSelector field to your Pod specification and specify the node labels you want the target node to have. Kubernetes only schedules the Pod onto nodes that have each of the labels you specify. => https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/assign-pod-node/#nodeselector Tolerations are applied to pods. Tolerations allow the scheduler to schedule pods with matching taints. Tolerations allow scheduling but don 't guarantee scheduling: the scheduler also evaluates other parameters as part of its function. => https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/scheduling-eviction/taint-and-toleration/

Provision a Cloud NAT Instance:

Cloud NAT (Network Address Translation) allows instances without external IP addresses to access the internet securely.

In the Google Cloud Console, navigate to the VPC Network section and select Cloud NAT.

Create a new Cloud NAT configuration, specifying the VPC and region where your Compute Engine VMs are deployed.

Configure Cloud NAT:

Ensure that the Cloud NAT instance is configured to provide outbound internet connectivity for the VMs in your specified subnet.

This setup allows the VMs to access the internet for package updates and external installations without requiring public IP addresses.

Enable Private Google Access:

Private Google Access allows VMs in a subnet to reach Google APIs and services using internal IP addresses.

In the Google Cloud Console, navigate to the VPC Network section and select Subnets.

Edit the subnet used by your Compute Engine VMs and enable Private Google Access.

Update DevOps Scripts:

Ensure that your DevOps scripts are updated to work with the new network configuration.

Test the build process to confirm that the VMs can access necessary resources and complete the build pipeline successfully.

References:

Cloud NAT Documentation

Private Google Access

Understanding Unmanaged Users:

Unmanaged users are those who have created Google Cloud accounts using their company email addresses outside of the organization's management (e.g., through GCDS).

Challenge:

The goal is to bring these unmanaged accounts under your company's control without disrupting their existing accounts and access.

Using the Transfer Tool:

Google provides a transfer tool specifically designed to migrate unmanaged users to a managed state.

This tool allows administrators to invite unmanaged users to join the organization's Google Cloud Identity or Google Workspace account.

Steps to Use the Transfer Tool:

Step 1: Access the transfer tool from the Google Admin console.

Step 2: Identify the unmanaged users using their email addresses.

Step 3: Send invitations to these users to transfer their accounts.

Step 4: Users accept the invitations, allowing their accounts to be managed under the organization's domain.

Benefits:

This method ensures a smooth transition for users without losing access to their existing data and services.

It aligns with best practices for managing user accounts in a corporate environment.

References:

Migrate unmanaged users

Google Cloud Directory Sync

To comply with GDPR requirements and manage encryption keys for workloads across multiple Google Cloud services, customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK) offer a suitable solution.

Customer-managed encryption keys (B):

CMEK allows you to create and manage encryption keys using Google Cloud Key Management Service (KMS). You maintain full control over the key lifecycle, including key rotation and destruction.

CMEK can be used with various Google Cloud services, such as Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Storage, BigQuery, and Pub/Sub, ensuring consistent and compliant encryption across your environment.

Using CMEK, you can implement data protection by design, aligning with GDPR requirements by ensuring that encryption keys are appropriately managed and secured.

References

Customer-Managed Encryption Keys Documentation

Encryption at Rest in Google Cloud

Understand Organization Policies:

Organization policies allow you to enforce restrictions on Google Cloud resources to adhere to your organization’s security and compliance requirements.

Policies can be set at the organization, folder, or project level, with project-level policies able to override higher-level policies unless explicitly prevented.

Identify the Policy Constraint:

The specific constraint in question is likely constraints/compute.vmExternalIpAccess, which controls whether VMs can have external IP addresses.

Check Policy Overwrites:

Navigate to the Organization Policies page in the Google Cloud Console.

Check the policy settings at the project level under the affected folder to see if there is an override in place with an 'allow' value.

This override would permit the creation of VMs with external IP addresses despite the higher-level restriction.

Resolve the Policy Conflict:

If an override is found, remove or modify the project-level policy to align with the organizational policy denying external IP addresses.

Communicate with project administrators to ensure they understand and comply with the overarching security policies.

References:

Organization Policy Best Practices

Managing Policy Constraints

https://cloud.google.com/confidential-computing/confidential-vm/docs/creating-cvm-instance#considerations

Confidential VM does not support live migration. You can only enable Confidential Computing on a VM when you first create the instance. https://cloud.google.com/confidential-computing/confidential-vm/docs/creating-cvm-instance

To ensure that Vertex AI Workbench Instances (formerly AI Platform Notebooks) are automatically updated and that users cannot modify operating system settings, it's crucial to implement organizational policies that enforce these requirements.

disableRootAccess Organization Policy:This policy prevents users from obtaining root access on virtual machines. By enforcing this policy, you ensure that users cannot make unauthorized changes to the operating system settings, maintaining the integrity and security of the instances.

requireAutoUpgradeSchedule Organization Policy:This policy mandates that virtual machines have an auto-upgrade schedule for their operating systems. By enforcing this policy, you ensure that instances are automatically kept up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities.

Given the options:

Option A: Enabling VM Manager helps in managing updates and configurations but does not inherently prevent users from altering OS settings.

Option B: Enforcing the disableRootAccess and requireAutoUpgradeSchedule organization policies directly addresses both requirements: preventing unauthorized OS modifications and ensuring automatic updates.

Option C: Assigning specific roles controls user permissions but does not enforce OS-level restrictions or automatic updates.

Option D: Implementing firewall rules to prevent SSH access adds a layer of security but does not ensure automatic updates or prevent OS modifications through other means.

Therefore, Option B is the most effective approach, as it directly enforces the necessary policies to meet both requirements.

References:

Organization Policy Service

VM Manager Overview

DNSSEC — use a DNS registrar that supports DNSSEC, and enable it. DNSSEC digitally signs DNS communication, making it more difficult (but not impossible) for hackers to intercept and spoof. Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) adds security to the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol by enabling DNS responses to be validated. Having a trustworthy Domain Name System (DNS) that translates a domain name like www.example.com into its associated IP address is an increasingly important building block of today’s web-based applications. Attackers can hijack this process of domain/IP lookup and redirect users to a malicious site through DNS hijacking and man-in-the-middle attacks. DNSSEC helps mitigate the risk of such attacks by cryptographically signing DNS records. As a result, it prevents attackers from issuing fake DNS responses that may misdirect browsers to nefarious websites. https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/dnssec-now-available-in-cloud-dns

Provide granular access to secrets: 2.Enforce access control to secrets using project-level identity and Access Management (IAM) bindings. Give you control over the rotation schedules for the encryption keys that wrap your secrets: 3. Use customer-managed encryption keys to encrypt secrets. Maintain environment separation: 1. Use separate Google Cloud projects to store Production and Non-Production secrets.

Dedicated Interconnect provides a high-bandwidth (up to 80 Gbps per connection) and secure connection between your on-premises network and Google Cloud. It ensures reliable and high-speed data transfer, meeting the requirement of at least 50 Gbps bandwidth.

Steps:

Set Up Dedicated Interconnect: Order a Dedicated Interconnect connection through the Google Cloud Console.

Configure VLAN Attachments: Set up VLAN attachments to segment traffic between your on-premises network and Google Cloud.

Establish BGP Sessions: Configure BGP sessions for dynamic routing and failover.

References:

Dedicated Interconnect documentation

When integrating applications that require access to sensitive data stored in Cloud Storage, managing service account keys securely is crucial to prevent unauthorized access or data loss.​

Option A: Defining a VPC Service Controls perimeter enhances security by restricting access to Google Cloud services. However, configuring ingress rules to allow external access for the service account may introduce complexities and potential security gaps, especially if the partner's infrastructure is outside the defined perimeter.​

Option B: Scanning and masking customer data addresses data sensitivity but does not mitigate risks associated with compromised service account keys. This approach focuses on data content rather than access control mechanisms.​

Option C: Encrypting data at rest using customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK) ensures data confidentiality but does not directly address the security of service account keys or access controls.​

Option D: Implementing a secret management service to handle service account keys is a best practice. By configuring the service to frequently rotate keys, you reduce the window of opportunity for malicious actors to exploit compromised keys. Additionally, enforcing strict access controls ensures that only authorized personnel can create or manage service account keys, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access. This approach directly addresses the security concerns related to service account key management.​

Therefore, Option D is the most appropriate recommendation, as it focuses on securely managing service account keys through rotation and access controls, thereby minimizing the risk of data loss due to compromised keys.​

References:

Best Practices for Managing Service Account Keys

Secret Manager Documentation

For managing and rotating encryption keys in a Compute Engine-based cluster using Managed Instance Groups (MIGs), Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK) with Cloud KMS is the appropriate solution.

Set Up Cloud KMS:

Go to the Cloud Console and navigate to Security > Cryptographic Keys.

Create a keyring and a key.

Create and Use CMEK:

While creating or updating a Compute Engine instance, specify the CMEK key.

Example command:

gcloud compute instances create example-instance \ --image-family=debian-9 \ --image-project=debian-cloud \ --boot-disk-kms-key=projects/[PROJECT_ID]/locations/global/keyRings/[KEY_RING]/cryptoKeys/[KEY]

Rotate Keys:

Rotate keys periodically using Cloud KMS by creating new key versions and updating the instances to use the new key versions.

References:

Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK)

Using Customer-Managed Encryption Keys

To enable Engineering Group A to attach a Compute Engine instance to a specific subnet (10.1.1.0/24) in a Shared VPC, you should grant the Compute Network User Role at the subnet level. This role allows users to use the subnetwork for their instances without giving them broader permissions at the project level.

Step-by-Step:

Identify the Subnet: Locate the subnet (10.1.1.0/24) in the host project.

Grant Role:

Navigate to the GCP Console > VPC network > VPC networks.

Select the Shared VPC host project and locate the specific subnet.

Click on "Edit" and go to the "IAM & Admin" section.

Assign the "Compute Network User" role to Engineering Group A at the subnet level.

Verification: Ensure that Engineering Group A can now attach Compute Engine instances to the specified subnet.

References:

Shared VPC Overview

Compute Network User Role

To retain security event logs for 2 years while minimizing costs, exporting the logs to Cloud Storage buckets is the most cost-effective solution. Cloud Storage provides scalable and durable storage at a lower cost compared to BigQuery, which is more suited for analytics and querying, or Cloud Pub/Sub, which is designed for messaging and stream processing.

Steps:

Create a Cloud Storage Bucket: Set up a new Cloud Storage bucket configured with appropriate retention policies.

Set Up Log Export: Use the Google Cloud Console or gcloud command-line tool to create a sink that exports the selected log entries to the Cloud Storage bucket.

Configure Retention Policy: Set the retention policy on the Cloud Storage bucket to ensure that logs are retained for the required period of 2 years.

References:

Google Cloud: Exporting logs

Google Cloud Storage pricing

Activate Security Command Center (SCC) Premium: Security Command Center (SCC) Premium provides advanced security analytics and best practice recommendations for your Google Cloud environment. It includes functionalities such as asset discovery, vulnerability scanning, and security findings.

Create a Custom Rule to Mute Irrelevant Security Findings:

Navigate to the Security Command Center (SCC) in the Google Cloud Console.

Go to the "Settings" tab and find the "Mute findings" section.

Create a new mute rule by specifying the conditions that match the irrelevant controls you want to disregard. These conditions can be based on attributes such as resource type, finding type, and other metadata.

Apply this mute rule, which will ensure that the specified findings are not evaluated in your security posture assessments.

Ensure Continuous Compliance Monitoring:

The mute rules will automatically filter out the irrelevant findings, ensuring that only relevant controls from the CIS Google Cloud Computing Foundations Benchmark v1.3.0 are evaluated.

Regularly review and update the mute rules to adapt to any changes in your compliance requirements or security posture.

References:

Security Command Center Documentation

Creating and Managing Mute Rules

To keep track of "who did what, where, and when?" within GCP projects, the administrator should focus on Admin Activity logs and Data Access logs. Here’s a detailed explanation of why these two log streams are essential:

Admin Activity Logs:

These logs capture administrative actions performed in your Google Cloud resources. This includes actions like creating, modifying, or deleting resources.

Admin Activity logs provide detailed information about the user who performed the action, the resource that was affected, the action performed, and the timestamp.

Data Access Logs:

These logs capture read and write operations on data within your Google Cloud services. This includes actions like accessing or modifying data stored in databases, storage buckets, etc.

Data Access logs help track the access patterns of users and services to sensitive data, providing insights into who accessed which data and when.

Steps to Enable and Access Logs:

Navigate to the Google Cloud Console.

Go to Logging in the left-hand menu.

Enable Admin Activity and Data Access logs if not already enabled.

Use Logs Explorer to filter and view specific logs based on your requirements.

By monitoring both Admin Activity and Data Access logs, administrators can gain comprehensive visibility into the actions performed on their GCP resources and data, ensuring robust security and compliance tracking.

References:

Google Cloud Logging Documentation

Audit Logs Overview

https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/firewalls#service-accounts-vs-tags

https://cloud.google.com/vpc/docs/firewalls#service-accounts-vs-tags

A service account represents an identity associated with an instance. Only one service account can be associated with an instance. You control access to the service account by controlling the grant of the Service Account User role for other IAM principals. For an IAM principal to start an instance by using a service account, that principal must have the Service Account User role to at least use that service account and appropriate permissions to create instances (for example, having the Compute Engine Instance Admin role to the project).

To connect Compute Engine instances within a Google Cloud Platform project to workloads running in a dedicated server room that can only be accessed from within the private company network, you can use the following approaches:

Cloud VPN: Cloud VPN securely connects your on-premises network to your Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network through an IPsec VPN connection. This enables secure communication between your GCP instances and your on-premises workloads over the internet.

Cloud Interconnect: Cloud Interconnect provides direct physical connections between your on-premises network and Google's network. It offers higher bandwidth and lower latency compared to Cloud VPN, making it suitable for workloads that require fast and reliable connectivity.

Both Cloud VPN and Cloud Interconnect allow you to securely connect your on-premises environments to Google Cloud, ensuring that the workloads remain within the private company network.

References

Cloud VPN Overview

Cloud Interconnect Overview

Google Cloud Armor provides protection against DDoS attacks and allows you to define security policies to control access to your application. It enables you to block traffic from specific IP addresses or ranges, making it suitable for denying traffic from a list of malicious IP addresses while protecting your application from being directly exposed to the internet.

Steps:

Set Up Cloud Armor: Enable Cloud Armor in your Google Cloud Console.

Create Security Policies: Define security policies that specify the rules for allowing or denying traffic based on IP addresses.

Attach Policies to Backend Services: Apply these security policies to the backend services of your web application.

References:

Google Cloud Armor documentation

Creating and managing security policies

There is mention about simulating in Web Security Scanner. "Web Security Scanner cross-site scripting (XSS) injection testing *simulates* an injection attack by inserting a benign test string into user-editable fields and then performing various user actions." https://cloud.google.com/security-command-center/docs/how-to-remediate-web-security-scanner-findings#xss

Objective: Ensure that a Cloud Storage bucket in Project A can only be readable from Project B and prevent data access or copying to Cloud Storage buckets outside the network, even with correct credentials.

Solution: Use VPC Service Controls to create a security perimeter.

Steps:

Step 1: Open the Google Cloud Console.

Step 2: Navigate to the VPC Service Controls page.

Step 3: Create a new service perimeter.

Step 4: Add Project A and Project B to the service perimeter.

Step 5: Include Cloud Storage service in the perimeter configuration.

Step 6: Define access levels to ensure that only resources within the perimeter can access the Cloud Storage bucket.

By setting up a VPC Service Controls perimeter, you can enforce security boundaries that restrict data access and movement to within defined projects, providing an extra layer of protection beyond IAM permissions.

References:

VPC Service Controls Overview

Configuring VPC Service Controls

This option directly addresses the needs of the business user who must access curated reports. By creating curated tables in a separate dataset, you can control access to specific data. Assigning the roles/bigquery.dataViewer role allows the business user to view the data in BigQuery.

Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK):

CMEK allows you to manage encryption keys using Cloud Key Management Service (KMS). This gives you control over the lifecycle of the keys, including rotation, destruction, and auditing.

Set up a Cloud KMS key ring and create encryption keys that will be used to protect your data in BigQuery, Cloud SQL, and Cloud Storage.

Configure the services to use CMEK for encrypting data at rest, ensuring compliance with your organization's security policies.

Cloud External Key Manager (EKM):

Cloud EKM allows you to use keys managed by an external key management provider to encrypt data in Google Cloud services.

Integrate your external key management system with Google Cloud using supported protocols and APIs.

Configure your data warehouse services to use the external keys for encryption, ensuring that key management is handled outside of the Google Cloud environment.

Key Access Justifications:

Enable Key Access Justifications to provide visibility into why encryption keys are being accessed. This helps in monitoring and auditing key usage to ensure compliance and security.

Set up policies and logging to capture and review key access requests, providing insights into how and why keys are used.

Access Transparency and Approval:

Implement Access Transparency to gain visibility into Google’s access to your data and encryption keys.

Configure Access Approval to require explicit approval for Google support or engineering access to your data, adding an additional layer of security and control.

References:

Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK)

Cloud External Key Manager (EKM)

Key Access Justifications

Access Transparency

Access Approval

To address inconsistencies in your project's Identity and Access Management (IAM) configuration and gain comprehensive visibility into IAM policy changes, user activity, service account behavior, and access to sensitive projects, leveraging Google Cloud's auditing capabilities is essential.​

Option A: While Cloud Monitoring's metrics explorer can track certain metrics, it is not designed to provide detailed logs of IAM policy changes or user activities.​

Option B: Cloud Audit Logs offer detailed records of administrative activities, including IAM policy changes and authentications. By creating log export sinks, you can forward these logs to a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution, enabling correlation with other event sources and comprehensive analysis. This approach provides the necessary visibility into IAM configurations and user activities.​

Option C: Triggering Cloud Functions based on IAM policy changes and analyzing them with a policy simulator is a proactive approach. However, it may not provide the depth of historical data and comprehensive analysis capabilities that a SIEM solution offers.​

Option D: Deploying the OS Config Management agent focuses on VM configuration and patch management, which does not directly address IAM policy monitoring or user activity tracking.​

Therefore, Option B is the most effective solution to gain detailed visibility into IAM-related activities and address the identified inconsistencies.​

References:

Cloud Audit Logs Overview

Exporting Logs to a SIEM

Admin activity logs are always created to log entries for API calls or other actions that modify the configuration or metadata of resources. For example, these logs record when users create VM instances or change Identity and Access Management permissions.

https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/export/aggregated_sinks#supported-destinations

You can use aggregated sinks to route logs within or between the same organizations and folders to the following destinations: - Another Cloud Logging bucket: Log entries held in Cloud Logging log buckets.

Here are the permissions available to organizationRoleAdmin

iam.roles.create

iam.roles.delete

iam.roles.undelete

iam.roles.get

iam.roles.list

iam.roles.update

resourcemanager.projects.get

resourcemanager.projects.getIamPolicy

resourcemanager.projects.list

resourcemanager.organizations.get

resourcemanager.organizations.getIamPolicy

There are sufficient as per least privilege policy. You can do user management as well as auditing.

https://cloud.google.com/iam/docs/understanding-custom-roles

https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/export/troubleshoot#errors_exporting_to_cloud_storage

https://cloud.google.com/logging/docs/export/troubleshoot

Unable to grant correct permissions to the destination: Even if the sink was successfully created with the correct service account permissions, this error message displays if the access control model for the Cloud Storage bucket was set to uniform access when the bucket was created. For existing Cloud Storage buckets, you can change the access control model for the first 90 days after bucket creation by using the Permissions tab. For new buckets, select the Fine-grained access control model during bucket creation. For details, see Creating Cloud Storage buckets.

The Resource Location Restriction organization policy constraint ensures that business data is stored in specific geographic locations, which is critical for compliance with regulatory requirements.

Organization Level: Setting the constraint at the organization level ensures that all resources within the organization, including those in different folders or projects, adhere to the location restrictions. This provides a unified policy application across the entire organization, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Policy Application: The policy will propagate down the resource hierarchy, ensuring that all relevant services within the organization comply with the specified data residency requirements.

This approach provides centralized control and simplifies the management of data residency constraints.

References

Organization Policy Service Documentation

External HTTP(S) Load Balancer: Deploy an external HTTP(S) load balancer to manage traffic to your VMs. This load balancer will handle incoming traffic from the internet while the VMs themselves do not have public IP addresses.

Host (VPC) Project Deployment: Deploy the load balancer in the host (VPC) project. This allows for centralized management of network resources and maintains the integrity of your shared VPC configuration.

Backend Configuration: Configure the MIG as the backend for the load balancer. This setup ensures that the VMs can still serve external users while reducing their direct exposure to the internet. This solution provides the required access to external users through the load balancer, enhancing security by not exposing individual VM IP addresses. References:

Google Cloud - External HTTP(S) Load Balancer Overview

Google Cloud - Shared VPC Overview

Enable VPC Service Controls:

VPC Service Controls help mitigate the risk of data exfiltration by allowing you to define a security perimeter around GCP resources.

Set up a service perimeter around your BigQuery project to restrict data access to within the defined perimeter.

Create Access Levels:

In the Google Cloud Console, navigate to the Access Context Manager.

Define access levels based on IP address conditions, specifying the authorized source IP addresses that are allowed to access your BigQuery resources.

These access levels are used to enforce policies that restrict who can access your sensitive data based on their IP addresses.

Apply Service Perimeter with Access Levels:

Apply the created access levels to the service perimeter to ensure that only requests originating from the specified IP addresses are able to access BigQuery tables.

This setup ensures that the sensitive PII data is not accessible from unauthorized IP addresses, reducing the risk of data exfiltration.

References:

VPC Service Controls

Access Context Manager

Defining Access Levels

If the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS is set, ADC uses the service account key or configuration file that the variable points to. If the environment variable GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS isn't set, ADC uses the service account that is attached to the resource that is running your code. https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/production#passing_the_path_to_the_service_account_key_in_code

To allow Compute Engine instances to access public repositories for security updates while an egress firewall rule is in place to deny all internet traffic, you need to create a more specific egress rule that permits traffic to the CIDR range of the repository. The priority of this rule should be lower (i.e., a higher priority number) than the deny rule.

Steps:

Identify the CIDR Range: Determine the CIDR range of the public repository from which the security updates will be fetched.

Create Egress Firewall Rule: Create a new egress firewall rule allowing traffic to the identified CIDR range with a priority less than 1000.

Apply Firewall Rule: Use the Google Cloud Console or gcloud command-line tool to apply the new firewall rule.

References:

Google Cloud: Firewall rules

Creating firewall rules

To ensure least-privilege access and provide necessary permissions to the DevOps team only during a deployment issue, follow these steps:

Create a Service Account:

In your Google Cloud project, create a new service account specifically for the DevOps team.

Assign Limited Permissions:

Grant the service account permissions with only the necessary list/view roles. For instance, you can create a custom IAM role with compute.instances.list and compute.instances.get permissions.

Grant Service Account User Role:

Assign the Service Account User role to the DevOps team members for the created service account. This allows them to act as the service account and use its permissions.

Access Control During Incidents:

During a deployment issue, the DevOps team can temporarily use the service account to access the resources. This ensures they have the least-privilege access required to investigate and resolve the issue.

Automation and Monitoring:

Implement automation to enable and disable the service account access as needed and monitor the usage to ensure compliance with the least-privilege principle.

Benefits:

Security: Limits access to only what is necessary, reducing the risk of unauthorized changes.

Flexibility: Provides necessary access during incidents without granting permanent elevated permissions.

References

Creating and Managing Service Accounts

Service Account User Role

To manage user accounts and ensure they comply with corporate policies, using Google Cloud Directory Sync (GCDS) allows synchronization between your local identity system and Cloud Identity. The Transfer Tool for Unmanaged Users (TTUU) helps identify and manage conflicting accounts by allowing users to transfer their personal accounts to managed accounts.

Steps:

Synchronize Identities: Use GCDS to sync users from your local identity management system to Cloud Identity, ensuring that all corporate user accounts are managed.

Identify Conflicting Accounts: Use TTUU to find users who have personal Google accounts using corporate email addresses.

Manage Conflicting Accounts: Request users to transfer their personal accounts to managed accounts using TTUU, ensuring all accounts are under corporate control.

References:

Google Cloud Directory Sync

Transfer Tool for Unmanaged Users

To remove personally identifiable information (PII) from files older than 12 months and archive the anonymized files for retention purposes, you can use Google Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP).

Create a Cloud DLP Inspection Job:

Go to the Cloud DLP section in the Google Cloud Console.

Create an inspection job that scans files in your Cloud Storage bucket for PII.

Configure the job to only target files that are older than 12 months.

Configure De-identification:

In the inspection job settings, configure de-identification actions to remove or obfuscate PII in the files.

Specify the transformation techniques appropriate for your data, such as masking or tokenization.

Archive Anonymized Files:

Set up the job to move the de-identified files to another Cloud Storage bucket designated for archival.

Ensure this bucket has the appropriate retention policies and access controls in place.

Delete Original Files:

After de-identification and archiving, configure the job to delete the original files from the source bucket.

This approach ensures that PII is effectively removed from old files and that the anonymized data is securely archived, maintaining compliance with data retention and privacy policies.

References:

Cloud Data Loss Prevention Documentation

Setting Up DLP Jobs

Cloud Storage Documentation

To ensure compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) at the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) level within Google Cloud, it's essential to have continuous monitoring and assessment tools that can detect deviations from compliance requirements.​

Option A: Creating data profiles and configuring Data Discovery jobs in Google Cloud Sensitive Data Protection focuses on identifying and analyzing sensitive data but does not directly address infrastructure compliance monitoring.​

Option B: Downloading the latest PCI DSS report from the Compliance Reports Manager provides a static compliance report but does not offer real-time detection of deviations within your specific environment.​

Option C: Utilizing Assured Workloads helps in creating environments that meet specific compliance requirements, but migrating existing projects into such folders does not actively detect deviations; it primarily ensures that new workloads comply with predefined policies.​

Option D: Activating Security Command Center (SCC) Premium and leveraging its Compliance Monitoring capabilities allows for continuous assessment of your Google Cloud environment against PCI DSS requirements. SCC can identify misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and compliance violations in real-time, providing actionable insights to address any issues promptly.​

Therefore, Option D is the most effective approach to detect deviations at the IaaS level in preparation for a PCI DSS audit.​

References:

Security Command Center Overview

Security Command Center Compliance Monitoring

Pseudonymization is a de-identification technique that replaces sensitive data values with cryptographically generated tokens. Pseudonymization is widely used in industries like finance and healthcare to help reduce the risk of data in use, narrow compliance scope, and minimize the exposure of sensitive data to systems while preserving data utility and accuracy.

https://cloud.google.com/dlp/docs/pseudonymization

https://cloud.google.com/access-transparency Access approval Explicitly approve access to your data or configurations on Google Cloud. Access Approval requests, when combined with Access Transparency logs, can be used to audit an end-to-end chain from support ticket to access request to approval, to eventual access.

When using Google Cloud's Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings like App Engine, Google manages the infrastructure, including the underlying OS, runtime, and scaling. However, securing the application code itself, such as defending against cross-site scripting (XSS) and SQL injection (SQLi) attacks, remains the responsibility of the user. This involves implementing secure coding practices, validating inputs, and employing appropriate security measures within the application.

References:

Google Cloud: Shared responsibility model

App Engine security

When creating a secure container image, it is essential to follow best practices to minimize vulnerabilities and ensure the container operates as intended. Here are the two key practices:

Package a Single App as a Container: By packaging only a single application within a container, you reduce complexity and potential attack surfaces. This practice aligns with the principle of single responsibility, ensuring each container has a clear and focused purpose.

Remove Any Unnecessary Tools: Any additional tools or software that are not required by the application should be removed from the container image. This minimizes the number of potential vulnerabilities and reduces the attack surface. A minimal container image also leads to smaller image sizes and faster deployment times.

These practices contribute to creating a more secure and efficient container image.

References

Container Security Best Practices

Securing Container Images

https://cloud.google.com/architecture/framework/security/data-residency-sovereignty#manage_your_operational_sovereignty

To ensure compliance with GDPR and implement data residency and operational sovereignty in the EU, the following steps can be taken:

Limit Physical Location of Resources: Use the Organization Policy Service to enforce the resource locations constraint. This ensures that all new resources are created within the specified regions (EU in this case).

Configure Organization Policy: Set up an organization policy that restricts the locations where new resources can be created. This is done through the Google Cloud Console or via the gcloud command-line tool.

Example:

gcloud resource-manager org-policies allow constraints/gcp.resourceLocations [europe-west1,europe-west2] --organization=YOUR_ORG_ID

Key Access Justifications (KAJ): Use Key Access Justifications to limit Google personnel's access to encryption keys based on attributes like their geographic location or citizenship.

Set Up KAJ: Implement KAJ policies to ensure that only authorized personnel within the EU can access encryption keys.

References

Organization Policy Service

Key Access Justifications

To access a user's Google Drive on their behalf without relying on the user's credentials and following Google-recommended practices, you should use a service account with domain-wide delegation.

Create a Service Account:

Go to the Cloud Console, navigate to IAM & Admin > Service Accounts.

Click "Create Service Account" and provide necessary details.

Grant Domain-Wide Delegation:

Edit the service account to enable "G Suite Domain-wide Delegation".

Download the JSON key file.

Configure API Access in G Suite:

Go to the Google Admin Console.

Navigate to Security > API Controls > Domain-wide Delegation.

Add a new API client and use the client ID from the service account.

Authorize the necessary API scopes (e.g., https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive).

Implement in Application:

Use the Google API Client Library for the desired language.

Load the service account credentials and perform user impersonation to access Google Drive.

References:

Domain-wide Delegation of Authority

Using OAuth 2.0 for Server to Server Applications

To securely access Google Cloud APIs from CI/CD pipelines running on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), follow these steps:

Create Service Accounts:

Create individual service accounts for each CI/CD pipeline. This ensures isolation and minimal permissions per pipeline.

Use a naming convention that includes an identifier for each pipeline, such as pipeline-a-sa, pipeline-b-sa, etc.

Configure Kubernetes Service Accounts:

Create Kubernetes service accounts for each CI/CD pipeline pod.

Map Kubernetes Service Accounts to Google Service Accounts:

Use Workload Identity to associate Kubernetes service accounts with the corresponding Google service accounts. This allows the pods to authenticate to Google Cloud APIs securely.

Example command to bind the Kubernetes service account to the Google service account:

gcloud iam service-accounts add-iam-policy-binding \ --role roles/iam.workloadIdentityUser \ --member "serviceAccount:.svc.id.goog[/]" \ @.iam.gserviceaccount.com

Deploy CI/CD Pipelines:

Ensure each pipeline runs in dedicated pods that use the specific Kubernetes service accounts configured earlier.

This setup ensures that each pipeline has the necessary permissions to interact with Google Cloud APIs securely, adhering to the principle of least privilege.

References

Using Workload Identity

Managing Service Accounts