Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer Exam Dumps and Practice Test Questions Set6 Q101-120

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Question 101:

Your organization requires that all sensitive BigQuery datasets can only be accessed from trusted corporate devices. Which GCP feature enforces this?

A) Access Context Manager with context-aware access
B) IAM roles alone
C) VPC firewall rules
D) Cloud Armor WAF

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Access Context Manager (ACM) with context-aware access provides a granular, zero-trust security model by enforcing policies based on device posture, user identity, geographic location, and IP ranges. When applied to BigQuery, ACM ensures that sensitive datasets can only be accessed from managed, compliant, and trusted devices. This prevents unauthorized access even if an attacker acquires valid credentials, because access is gated by environmental and device-level checks. ACM integrates seamlessly with IAM, extending traditional role-based permissions with contextual restrictions. This ensures strong governance, reduces data exfiltration risks, and supports regulatory frameworks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001. Audit logs generated from ACM policies help security teams identify access attempts, detect anomalies, and meet compliance requirements for detailed reporting.

B) IAM roles alone cannot enforce device compliance or verify contextual information. IAM grants permissions solely based on identity, which means that if credentials are compromised, unauthorized access to BigQuery datasets may still occur. Without device or location controls, IAM cannot support full zero-trust requirements.

C) VPC firewall rules restrict network access but do not validate whether a device is managed, secure, or compliant. They cannot prevent unauthorized users with valid credentials from accessing BigQuery through allowed paths.

D) Cloud Armor WAF protects HTTP(S) applications against attacks but is not designed to manage identity, device context, or BigQuery access policies.

By combining ACM and IAM, organizations strengthen data protection, reduce insider threats, enforce regulatory compliance, and maintain centralized visibility into access behavior.

Question 102:

You need to prevent accidental public exposure of all Cloud Storage buckets across multiple projects. Which approach is most effective?

A) Organization policy with Public Access Prevention enabled
B) IAM role restrictions alone
C) Manual ACL reviews
D) VPC firewall rules

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Organization policy with Public Access Prevention (PAP) enabled is the strongest and most centralized method for preventing any Cloud Storage bucket from being exposed publicly across an entire Google Cloud environment. PAP forces a global restriction that blocks all forms of public access, including anonymous access and legacy ACL-based permissions, regardless of project-level or bucket-level settings. This ensures that even if a developer accidentally misconfigures IAM permissions or reintroduces outdated ACLs, the bucket still cannot become publicly accessible. Enabling PAP at the organization level enforces uniform data governance, supports GDPR and HIPAA compliance, and aligns with zero-trust principles by ensuring that only authenticated and authorized identities within the organization can access sensitive datA) PAP also integrates with Security Command Center, providing real-time visibility into exposure attempts, automated alerting for violations, and insights into misconfigurations that require remediation. This combination significantly reduces the risk of accidental data leaks and improves the organization’s overall security posture.

B) IAM role restrictions alone control who can access buckets but do not prevent public exposure if a misconfigured role or permission allows anonymous access. IAM cannot override legacy ACLs, making it insufficient as the sole protection mechanism.

C) Manual ACL reviews are time-consuming, unscalable, and prone to human error. They cannot guarantee continuous protection or prevent future misconfigurations.

D) VPC firewall rules control network traffic but do not enforce or influence Cloud Storage access. They cannot stop a bucket from being publicly accessible.

By implementing PAP centrally, organizations ensure consistent enforcement, reduced risk, and provable compliance for all storage resources.

Question 103:

A security engineer wants to detect and remediate misconfigured Cloud Storage buckets automatically. Which solution should be implemented?

A) Security Command Center with automated remediation playbooks
B) Manual auditing of buckets
C) Cloud Armor WAF rules
D) IAM role restrictions

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Security Command Center combined with automated remediation playbooks offers the most reliable and proactive protection for misconfigured Cloud Storage buckets. SCC continuously scans for risks such as public exposure, overly permissive ACLs, or policy violations involving sensitive datA) When paired with automation through Pub/Sub, Cloud Functions, or Workflows, it can immediately enforce corrective actions—removing public access, restoring compliant IAM policies, or notifying security teams. This reduces reliance on human review, lowers operational effort, and ensures consistent compliance with standards like SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA) The real-time visibility and automatic enforcement make it a scalable and prevention-focused approach for large cloud environments.

B) Manual auditing of buckets is slow, error-prone, and difficult to scale. Teams must manually inspect bucket permissions, logs, and access policies, which introduces human oversight issues and delays in identifying risks. In rapidly changing cloud environments, a misconfiguration may remain unnoticed for long periods, creating potential data exposure. While useful for periodic checks, it is not sufficient for continuous monitoring or rapid remediation.

C) Cloud Armor helps protect HTTP(S) applications from attacks such as DDoS or SQL injection, but it does not govern internal Cloud Storage configurations. Since WAFs operate at the application layer, they cannot detect or correct misconfigured buckets or ACLs. Therefore, this option does not address the core issue of securing storage resources.

D) IAM restrictions are essential for controlling who can access and modify buckets. However, IAM alone cannot automatically detect or fix risky configurations. It provides preventive access control but lacks real-time remediation capabilities. While important for least-privilege architecture, IAM must be paired with tools like SCC for complete protection.

Question 104:

You need to ensure all Compute Engine disks are encrypted with customer-managed keys and cannot use Google-managed keys. How can this be enforced?

A) Organization policy constraints requiring CMEK
B) Manual configuration per instance
C) IAM role restrictions alone
D) Cloud Armor policies

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Organization policy constraints requiring CMEK that mandate the use of Customer-Managed Encryption Keys (CMEK) provide the strongest and most scalable method for enforcing encryption across all Compute Engine disks. By applying this constraint at the organization or folder level, you ensure that every newly created disk adheres to your encryption standards without relying on manual intervention. CMEK allows enterprises to control their encryption keys through Cloud KMS, enabling secure storage, key rotation, auditing, and fine-grained lifecycle management. This centralized enforcement helps maintain continuous compliance with regulatory frameworks such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR. Paired with Security Command Center, organizations can automatically detect violations or misconfigurations, ensuring proactive governance and defense-in-depth.

B) Manual configuration per instance requires engineers to individually apply CMEK settings to each Compute Engine resource. This approach becomes inconsistent and error-prone as environments scale. Any oversight can lead to disks being created without the required encryption settings, exposing the organization to compliance risks. Manual processes also increase operational workload and lack traceability.

C)IAM restrictions are essential for controlling who can create or modify Compute Engine disks, but they do not enforce encryption. IAM cannot mandate the use of CMEK or prevent users from creating disks with default Google-managed keys. As a result, relying solely on IAM leaves room for misconfigurations and security gaps.

D)Cloud Armor protects applications at the network edge, defending against threats such as DDoS attacks and SQL injection. However, it has no role in Compute Engine disk encryption. Since Cloud Armor operates at the HTTP(S) layer, it cannot enforce or monitor at-rest encryption settings, making it irrelevant to storage security requirements.

Question 105:

You want to ensure temporary elevated privileges for debugging Cloud SQL instances without granting permanent access. Which method is best?

A) IAM Conditions with time-bound Cloud SQL Admin role
B) Permanent Cloud SQL Admin role assignment
C) Cloud Armor policies
D) Sharing service account keys

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) IAM Conditions with time-bound Cloud SQL Admin role provide a controlled, temporary, and fully auditable method for granting elevated access to Cloud SQL. This approach ensures that developers or SREs only receive the Cloud SQL Admin role for a limited duration, after which permissions automatically expire. It prevents privilege creep, maintains least-privilege principles, and reduces the attack surface. Because IAM Conditions support context such as time, device status, or source IP, organizations can enforce zero-trust access and ensure that elevated privileges are used only under approved circumstances. All temporary access events are logged through Cloud Logging, supporting SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and ISO 27001 compliance. Automated workflows can integrate with Identity-Aware Proxy, Cloud Functions, or ticketing systems to streamline approval and revocation processes, reducing operational overhead while maintaining strong governance.

B) Permanent Cloud SQL Admin role assignment significantly increases the risk profile of an organization. Long-term admin privileges grant full control over Cloud SQL instances, including backups, configuration, and data access. Leaving such privileges active long after the task is completed creates opportunities for insider misuse, accidental changes, or exploitation during account compromise. This directly violates least-privilege principles and introduces unnecessary exposure.

C) Cloud Armor policies are designed for network-level protection, such as mitigating DDoS attacks and enforcing WAF rules on HTTP/S traffiC) While critical for securing public-facing applications, they do not control IAM privileges or access to Cloud SQL resources.

D) Sharing service account keys remains one of the most dangerous practices in cloud environments. Keys are easily leaked, cannot be tied to a specific user, and bypass IAM’s centralized revocation and audit features. This practice undermines identity accountability, violates compliance standards, and makes forensic investigation nearly impossible.

Question 106:

Your organization requires centralized monitoring of misconfigurations and vulnerabilities across all projects. Which GCP-native solution is most appropriate?

A) Security Command Center at the organization level
B) Cloud Logging
C) Cloud Monitoring dashboards
D) BigQuery

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Security Command Center at the organization level is the most comprehensive and proactive solution for maintaining a strong security posture across all Google Cloud projects. Deploying SCC at the organization root ensures that every new and existing project inherits uniform security monitoring, eliminating blind spots that often occur when security tools are configured only at the project level. SCC aggregates findings from multiple Google Cloud security services, including Event Threat Detection, Web Security Scanner, Container Analysis, Security Health Analytics, IAM Recommender, and Cloud DLP, giving administrators a single unified dashboard with prioritized risks and actionable recommendations. This centralized approach helps teams quickly identify misconfigurations, exposed resources, vulnerable container images, insecure firewall rules, and potential data leaks. SCC also supports automated alerting through Pub/Sub and can be integrated with Cloud Functions or third-party SOAR platforms, enabling real-time remediation workflows that drastically reduce response times. By maintaining continuous assessment across the organization, SCC supports compliance with frameworks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, and GDPR, providing clear evidence trails for security audits and regulatory reviews.

B) Cloud Logging provides detailed audit and system logs but does not analyze them for threats or misconfigurations. While essential for investigations and compliance, Cloud Logging requires manual querying or external analysis tools to extract insights. It cannot independently detect vulnerabilities or prioritize risks.

C) Cloud Monitoring dashboards track performance metrics, infrastructure health, and availability. They are useful for operational monitoring but do not provide security insights, policy violation detection, or vulnerability analysis. They lack the security intelligence needed to protect cloud environments.

D) BigQuery can store and process logs for custom analysis, but it requires manual queries, rule building, and security expertise. It does not provide automated findings, real-time risk scoring, or security intelligence without significant customization.

Overall, SCC at the organization level is the only option that provides complete, automated, and actionable security posture management across the entire cloud environment.

Question 107:

You need to enforce that only approved corporate domains can access GCP resources regardless of network location. Which feature achieves this?

A) Access Context Manager with identity-based access levels
B) VPC firewall rules
C) Cloud Armor IP allowlists
D) IAM roles alone

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Access Context Manager with identity-based access levels provides the strongest and most granular method for enforcing identity-aware restrictions across Google Cloud resources. By using ACM access levels, organizations can ensure that only users belonging to authorized corporate domains or identity groups can access sensitive applications or datA) This aligns with zero-trust architectures, where access is granted based on identity and context rather than just network location. ACM lets security administrators define policies that evaluate user identity, device compliance, login attributes, and session context before access is approveD) When integrated with IAM, ACM ensures that even permitted roles cannot be used unless identity conditions are met. This adds a critical second layer of protection. Access attempts—approved or denied—are captured in Cloud Logging, providing traceability for internal audits and regulatory compliance such as HIPAA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR.

B) VPC firewall rules only control network traffic at the IP and port level. They do not validate user identity or ensure that the requester belongs to an approved domain. As a result, firewall rules alone cannot enforce identity-based restrictions or prevent misuse of stolen credentials.

C) Cloud Armor IP allowlists restrict access based on IP addresses but cannot enforce identity-based access workflows. IP-based methods are weaker because IPs can be spoofed, shared, or changed frequently, especially in remote work environments or VPN usage. They lack the intelligence needed for zero-trust security.

D) IAM roles alone determine what a user can do but not who the user truly is in a contextual sense. IAM does not verify corporate domain membership or ensure compliant device usage, making it insufficient for identity-based restrictions.

Overall, Access Context Manager combined with IAM roles delivers robust identity-aware, zero-trust access control, preventing unauthorized access and strengthening organizational security posture.

Question 108:

A developer accidentally committed a secret key to Cloud Source Repositories. What is the immediate remediation step?

A) Revoke the exposed key and rotate credentials using Secret Manager
B) Delete the repository
C) Change IAM roles
D) Enable Cloud Armor

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Revoke the exposed key and rotate credentials using Secret Manager is the most effective way to immediately mitigate the risk of a compromised API key. Revoking the key ensures that any active attempts to use it are blocked, preventing unauthorized access to critical resources. Rotating the credentials through Secret Manager adds an additional layer of security by creating new keys while securely storing them, enabling automated access control, and ensuring auditability.

B) Delete the repository does not address the root issue since the key may have already been copied, cached, or shared elsewhere. Simply removing the repository does not prevent misuse.

C) Change IAM roles might reduce the privileges associated with a compromised key but does not prevent an attacker from exploiting the key before the change propagates, leaving a critical window of vulnerability.

D) Enable Cloud Armor protects web endpoints from network threats but is unrelated to API key management.

Using Secret Manager for revocation and rotation enforces least-privilege access, maintains a full audit trail via Cloud Logging, and supports compliance with regulatory frameworks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. Automated rotation workflows reduce operational risks, prevent potential misuse, and ensure that secrets are managed securely across the organization, minimizing the attack surface and maintaining operational integrity.

Question 109:

You want to monitor all privileged user actions, including Google personnel, for audit purposes. Which solution fulfills this requirement?

A) Access Transparency logs
B) Cloud Audit Logs
C) Security Command Center
D) Cloud Logging application logs

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Access Transparency logs provide a detailed record of actions performed by Google personnel on customer data and configurations, including who accessed what, when, and why. This level of visibility ensures that any access by the provider is fully auditable and transparent.

B) Cloud Audit Logs capture administrative actions initiated by customer identities, such as creating or deleting resources, but they do not include activities performed by Google staff.

C) Security Command Center identifies misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and threats within cloud environments but does not track provider access events.

D) Cloud Logging application logs record application-level events and operational metrics but do not provide visibility into administrative or provider actions.

By combining Access Transparency with Access Approval, organizations gain control over when Google personnel can access sensitive resources, requiring explicit authorization for each action. The logs can be exported to Cloud Logging or SIEM systems for centralized auditing and analysis. This integration ensures accountability, supports detailed forensic investigations, and helps organizations meet compliance requirements under frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27018, HIPAA, and GDPR. Overall, Access Transparency provides an additional layer of governance, mitigating risks associated with provider access while maintaining regulatory compliance.

Question 110:

You need to ensure all administrative logs are immutable for at least seven years for compliance. Which configuration is required?

A) Cloud Logging log buckets with retention lock
B) Cloud Monitoring dashboards
C) Cloud Armor logs
D) IAM conditions

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Cloud Logging log buckets with retention lock provide immutable, WORM-style storage for logs, ensuring that once written, logs cannot be deleted or altered during the retention perioD) This is critical for regulatory compliance, auditability, and forensic investigations.

B) Cloud Monitoring dashboards visualize operational metrics but do not provide immutable storage or guarantee log integrity.

C) Cloud Armor logs capture network traffic data but do not enforce retention or immutability for administrative and system activity.

D) IAM conditions help enforce access control policies but cannot ensure logs are preserved or tamper-proof.

By enabling retention lock on Cloud Logging buckets, organizations create a verifiable and auditable record of administrative actions, supporting compliance with frameworks such as PCI-DSS, SOX, HIPAA, and ISO 27001. These immutable logs can be integrated with Security Command Center or SIEM solutions to monitor anomalies, trigger alerts, and facilitate proactive threat detection. This approach ensures that historical logs remain intact for forensic investigations, regulatory reporting, and accountability, reducing the risk of tampering, unauthorized deletion, or data loss. Overall, retention lock strengthens security posture by combining audit integrity with continuous visibility.

Question 111:

Your organization wants to enforce that all Cloud SQL instances are encrypted with customer-managed keys. Which method enforces this automatically?

A) Organization policy requiring CMEK
B) Manual instance configuration
C) IAM role restrictions alone
D) Cloud Armor policies

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Organization policy requiring CMEK is the strongest and most scalable method for enforcing encryption across Cloud SQL environments. By applying an organization-level policy, every Cloud SQL instance—current or future—must use Customer-Managed Encryption Keys. This ensures that encryption keys remain fully under the organization’s control, allowing secure rotation, revocation, auditability, and lifecycle management through Cloud KMS. It also eliminates configuration drift, guaranteeing consistent protection for all sensitive data workloads.

B) Manual instance configuration introduces significant operational risk. Teams may forget to enable CMEK, apply it incorrectly, or bypass encryption requirements during rapid deployments. This approach does not scale across multiple developers, projects, or environments.

C) IAM role restrictions alone can define who can access or modify Cloud SQL, but they cannot enforce mandatory encryption settings. Even with strict IAM, instances could still be created without CMEK, leaving data unprotected or noncompliant.

D) Cloud Armor policies protect HTTP/S traffic and mitigate attacks like SQL injection or DDoS, but they have no control over data encryption or Cloud SQL configuration.

Enforcing CMEK with an organization policy ensures consistent encryption, supports regulatory compliance with HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR, and provides strong audit trails through Cloud KMS and Security Command Center. This centralized, automated approach strengthens security posture, reduces misconfiguration risk, and guarantees that all Cloud SQL data remains encrypted with keys controlled exclusively by the organization.

Question 112:

A developer requires temporary elevated access to debug a production workloaD) Which solution is most secure?

A) IAM Conditions with time-bound roles
B) Permanent elevated IAM roles
C) Sharing service account keys
D) Cloud Armor policies

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) IAM Conditions with time-bound roles provide the most secure and controlled way to grant temporary elevated access for debugging production workloads. By defining an expiration timestamp or a specific request context, access is automatically revoked once the task is completeD) This approach prevents privilege creep and ensures that no long-term elevated permissions remain active unintentionally. All access events are logged in Cloud Logging, enabling full auditability and alignment with compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001.

B) Permanent elevated IAM roles create a large and persistent attack surface. Users retain privileges even when they no longer need them, increasing the risk of misuse, credential compromise, and configuration errors. This directly violates least-privilege principles.

C) Sharing service account keys is highly insecure, non-auditable, and prohibited under Google Cloud best practices. Keys can be copied, leaked, or reused without attribution, removing accountability and increasing the likelihood of breaches.

D) Cloud Armor policies protect applications against external threats such as DDoS attacks or malicious HTTP traffic but do not control IAM permissions or manage privileged access.

Time-bound IAM Conditions therefore provide a balanced approach: they enable developers to work efficiently when elevated access is required while ensuring strict security controls, automated revocation, detailed audit trails, and reduced operational risk across production environments.

Question 113:

Your organization wants centralized visibility into vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance across multiple projects. Which service is appropriate?

A) Security Command Center at the organization level
B) Cloud Logging
C) Cloud Monitoring dashboards
D) BigQuery

Correct Answer: A

Explanation

A) Security Command Center at the organization level is the most comprehensive solution because it centralizes security visibility across every project and resource in the organization. By enabling SCC at the organization level, security teams can detect misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, exposed services, and compliance violations in a single unified dashboarD) SCC integrates with tools such as Web Security Scanner, Container Analysis, Event Threat Detection, and Cloud DLP to deliver actionable insights without requiring manual correlation. This allows teams to identify threats early, automate alerting, and trigger remediation workflows through Pub/Sub and Cloud Functions, significantly reducing incident response time.

B) Cloud Logging only stores logs and does not automatically analyze or correlate them for vulnerabilities or threats. It requires additional tools or custom analytics to extract security insights.

C) Cloud Monitoring dashboards provide metrics and alerting but are not designed to identify misconfigurations or compliance issues. They offer operational visibility, not security intelligence.

D) BigQuery can analyze datasets, including logs, but it requires custom query logic and manual configuration. It does not provide built-in threat detection or automated security findings.

Overall, SCC offers the strongest security posture by combining centralized visibility, automated detection, compliance reporting, and integration with remediation tools, enabling organizations to maintain consistent governance and reduce operational risk across all environments.

Question 114:

You need to enforce that all Compute Engine instances are launched only in approved geographic regions. Which solution achieves this at scale?

A) Organization policy constraints for resource locations
B) Manual reviews
C) IAM roles alone
D) Cloud Armor policies

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Organization policy constraints for resource locations provide a centralized and automated method to enforce where resources such as Compute Engine instances, Cloud Storage buckets, or BigQuery datasets can be deployeD) By using constraints like constraints/gcp.resourceLocations at the organization or folder level, administrators ensure compliance with strict data-residency requirements, internal governance standards, and regulatory frameworks such as GDPR and HIPAA)

B) Manual reviews lack consistency, are prone to human error, and cannot prevent misconfigurations before deployment.

C) IAM roles alone only control who can perform actions but cannot enforce the geographic placement of resources.

D) Cloud Armor policies focus on network security and request filtering rather than resource-location governance.

Using organization policy constraints ensures proactive control, consistent enforcement across projects, and reduced operational risk. Combined with monitoring tools like Security Command Center, administrators can detect violations quickly and maintain strong governance across the entire GCP environment.

Question 115:

A company wants automated detection of exposed secrets in Cloud Source Repositories. Which solution is most effective?

A) Security Command Center with Secret Scanning
B) Cloud Armor
C) IAM Conditions
D) VPC Service Controls

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Security Command Center with Secret Scanning provides automated detection of exposed API keys, credentials, passwords, and other sensitive information within Cloud Source Repositories. This proactive scanning helps organizations prevent accidental leaks before they reach production systems or public repositories. It also integrates with Pub/Sub and Cloud Functions to trigger automated remediation, such as revoking compromised secrets or rotating credentials.

B) Cloud Armor focuses on application-layer protection and traffic filtering but has no capability to inspect source code for embedded secrets.

C) IAM Conditions enforce contextual access policies but cannot detect secrets inside codebases.

D) VPC Service Controls help prevent data exfiltration but do not analyze repository contents.

By using SCC Secret Scanning, organizations strengthen secure coding practices, maintain auditability, and support regulatory requirements like SOC 2, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS.

Question 116:

You need to prevent exfiltration of sensitive data from BigQuery to external networks. Which solution provides proactive enforcement?

A) VPC Service Controls with defined perimeters
B) Cloud Logging alerts
C) IAM role restrictions alone
D) Cloud Armor policies

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) VPC Service Controls with defined perimeters provide strong data-exfiltration protection by creating restricted boundaries around sensitive Google Cloud services such as BigQuery, Cloud Storage, and Pub/SuB) These perimeters ensure that data cannot be accessed from untrusted networks or unauthorized environments, even if IAM permissions are misconfigureD)

B) Cloud Logging alerts are useful for detection but remain reactive, offering no preventive control against data leakage.

C) IAM role restrictions alone handle identity-based permissions but cannot enforce network or context-based limitations.

D) Cloud Armor policies secure web applications but do not control service-to-service or API-level data movement.

By leveraging VPC-SC along with Access Context Manager, organizations apply a zero-trust model that restricts access by network, identity, and device posture. This combination reduces insider threats, prevents cross-project exfiltration, and provides auditability needed for frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOC 2.

Question 117:

Your security team wants automated detection and response to anomalous API activity across multiple projects. Which GCP-native service is best suited?

A) Security Command Center with Event Threat Detection
B) Cloud Armor
C) IAM Conditions
D) Cloud Logging alone

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Security Command Center with Event Threat Detection provides real-time monitoring of API activity, analyzing Cloud Audit Logs and system events to detect anomalies such as unauthorized access attempts, privilege escalation, or suspicious behavior. It automatically generates alerts and integrates with automated response workflows, helping teams react quickly.

B) Cloud Armor secures web applications from external threats like DDoS attacks but cannot detect anomalous API usage within Google Cloud services.

C) IAM Conditions enforce contextual access rules but do not offer threat detection or behavioral analysis.

D) Cloud Logging alone captures events but lacks intelligent detection and automated alerting.

With SCC and ETD, organizations achieve centralized visibility across projects, enabling proactive security operations and accelerated remediation. This approach strengthens cloud defenses, supports SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001 compliance, and reduces the risk of compromised credentials, insider misuse, or unauthorized API activity.

Question 118:

You need to enforce temporary elevated access for developers to production workloads. Which method is secure and auditable?

A) IAM Conditions with time-bound roles
B) Permanent elevated IAM roles
C) Sharing service account keys
D) Cloud Armor policies

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) IAM Conditions with time-bound roles offer a secure and controlled mechanism for granting developers temporary elevated access when needed, such as during critical debugging or troubleshooting events. This approach aligns strongly with the principle of least privilege, ensuring users receive only the minimum required permissions and only for the exact duration needeD) Time-bound roles automatically expire without requiring manual intervention, reducing the operational overhead on administrators. Every access request and usage is captured through Cloud Logging, providing detailed audit trails that help meet regulatory frameworks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001. These logs also support security operations teams in verifying that elevated permissions were used appropriately and only for legitimate operational needs. By limiting access windows, organizations significantly reduce the probability of privilege misuse, credential theft exploitation, or long-term exposure of sensitive systems.

B) Permanent elevated IAM roles, in contrast, create persistent risk because elevated privileges remain active indefinitely. Even if assigned for legitimate reasons, long-term privileged access increases the chances of accidental configuration changes, data exposures, or exploitation by compromised accounts. This becomes especially problematic in large teams or environments with frequent personnel changes, where access revocation may be overlooked and privilege creep becomes common. From a compliance perspective, permanent elevated access often fails periodic access reviews and violates least-privilege requirements.

C) Sharing service account keys introduces a major security vulnerability. These keys are long-lived, hard to track, and impossible to associate with individual users, making them non-auditable. If leaked, they allow unauthorized, untraceable access. Their usage contradicts modern cloud security principles, and most regulatory standards discourage or prohibit their use.

D) Cloud Armor policies are designed primarily to safeguard applications and network endpoints from external threats such as DDoS attacks, SQL injections, and cross-site scripting. By defining IP allowlists, denylists, and custom security rules, Cloud Armor provides a robust layer of perimeter defense that mitigates attacks before they reach backend services. However, its functionality is limited to traffic filtering and does not extend to identity or permission management within cloud resources. Unlike IAM controls or Access Context Manager, Cloud Armor cannot enforce least-privilege access, time-bound roles, or context-aware policies. Therefore, while essential for protecting applications from network-based attacks, Cloud Armor must be combined with IAM, context-aware access, or other security tools to ensure comprehensive security that includes controlled access and authorization management across cloud environments.

Overall, IAM Conditions with time-bound roles provide the safest, most compliant, and operationally efficient solution for granting temporary elevated access while minimizing long-term risk.

Question 119:

Your organization requires immutable logs of administrative activity for compliance with regulatory frameworks. Which GCP configuration ensures this?

A) Cloud Logging log buckets with retention lock
B) Cloud Monitoring dashboards
C) Cloud Armor logs
D) IAM Conditions

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Cloud Logging log buckets with retention lock provide a secure, immutable method to store administrative and audit logs, ensuring that once logs are written, they cannot be modified or deleted for the duration of the retention perioD) This WORM-compliant storage is essential for meeting compliance requirements under frameworks like SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and ISO 27001. Immutable logs serve as a reliable source of truth for forensic investigations, allowing security teams to analyze historical events, detect policy violations, and reconstruct incidents accurately. By integrating these log buckets with Security Command Center and SIEM platforms, organizations can enable continuous monitoring, automated alerting, and streamlined incident response workflows. Retention lock prevents accidental or malicious tampering with log data, providing verifiable audit trails that are crucial for regulatory reporting and organizational accountability. This approach minimizes operational risk, ensures transparency, and reinforces a strong security posture.

B) Cloud Monitoring dashboards provide visualization of metrics related to system performance, resource utilization, latency, and uptime. These dashboards are valuable for observing operational trends and detecting anomalies in real time. However, unlike retention-locked logging, dashboards do not provide immutable storage or verifiable evidence of administrative actions. While they can highlight irregular patterns that may require further investigation, they cannot serve as a compliance-ready record for audits or legal requirements. Dashboards complement log data by offering operational visibility but are insufficient for ensuring regulatory adherence or long-term accountability.

C) Cloud Armor logs capture network-level activity, including requests to web applications and potential attack traffiC) They help security teams analyze threats such as DDoS attacks, suspicious IP activity, and other network anomalies. Despite their usefulness for network security monitoring, these logs are not immutable and do not track administrative actions across cloud services. Therefore, they cannot replace retention-locked Cloud Logging buckets for compliance, forensic investigations, or audit purposes. Cloud Armor logs are best used in combination with other logging and monitoring tools to provide comprehensive security visibility.

D) IAM Conditions allow organizations to enforce fine-grained access control based on contextual attributes such as identity, location, device security posture, or request time. They strengthen security by ensuring that only authorized users under specific conditions can perform actions. However, IAM Conditions do not provide immutable log retention or serve as an audit trail for administrative activity. While essential for enforcing least-privilege principles and operational security, they must be paired with immutable logging solutions to satisfy compliance requirements and maintain accountability.

In summary, Cloud Logging log buckets with retention lock are the cornerstone of immutable, auditable log storage, while Cloud Monitoring dashboards, Cloud Armor logs, and IAM Conditions provide complementary operational visibility, network security insights, and access control, respectively. Together, these tools create a robust security and compliance framework, ensuring visibility, accountability, and regulatory adherence across cloud environments.

Question 120:

You need to detect misconfigurations and vulnerabilities across multiple GCP projects and ensure remediation workflow. Which solution is most appropriate?

A) Security Command Center with automated remediation playbooks
B) Cloud Logging alone
C) Manual auditing
D) IAM role restrictions

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A) Security Command Center (SCC) with automated remediation playbooks is a powerful tool that provides centralized visibility into security misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and compliance violations across multiple projects in an organization. By continuously scanning for issues such as publicly exposed Cloud Storage buckets, overly permissive IAM roles, or unpatched virtual machines, SCC enables security teams to proactively detect risks before they escalate into incidents. The integration of automated remediation playbooks enhances this capability by allowing the system to automatically trigger corrective actions when findings are detecteD) These playbooks leverage Pub/Sub notifications, Cloud Functions, and built-in SCC workflows to enforce organizational security policies, such as revoking public access, updating IAM permissions, or disabling noncompliant resources. This automation reduces the operational burden on security teams, ensures that policy violations are corrected in near real-time, and minimizes the likelihood of human error. Furthermore, SCC findings are logged in Cloud Logging, providing an auditable record of security events, detections, and remediation actions, which is critical for compliance with regulatory frameworks such as SOC 2, HIPAA, and ISO 27001. By using automated playbooks, organizations can maintain a consistent security posture across projects, ensuring that security policies are applied uniformly and effectively.

B)Cloud Logging alone serves as a repository for raw logs generated by Google Cloud services and applications. While it provides valuable historical data and audit trails, it does not automatically analyze logs to detect vulnerabilities or policy violations. Relying solely on Cloud Logging requires security teams to manually review logs or build custom queries and alerts to identify risks. Without integration with SCC or automated workflows, there is no mechanism to enforce corrective actions, making response times slower and increasing the possibility of oversight. Logs by themselves cannot remediate misconfigurations or enforce organizational security policies, which limits their effectiveness in operational security.

C) Manual auditing involves human review of system configurations, IAM roles, resource access, and other security settings to identify potential issues. While it can uncover misconfigurations or policy violations, it is highly labor-intensive, prone to human error, and not scalable in large cloud environments. Manual processes also result in delayed response times, which can allow vulnerabilities to persist longer, increasing exposure to security risks. Additionally, consistent enforcement of policies across multiple projects becomes challenging, and maintaining audit trails for compliance purposes requires additional effort.

D) IAM role restrictions provide control over who can access specific resources and what actions they can perform. While they are essential for enforcing the principle of least privilege and preventing unauthorized access, IAM role restrictions alone cannot automatically detect or remediate misconfigurations. They do not address resource compliance, prevent policy violations from occurring, or trigger corrective workflows. Therefore, relying solely on IAM restrictions leaves gaps in proactive security and remediation capabilities.

In conclusion, combining Security Command Center with automated remediation playbooks provides a comprehensive, proactive approach to cloud security. Cloud Logging offers valuable audit trails but lacks automation, manual auditing is slow and error-prone, and IAM role restrictions only manage access without enforcing corrective actions. SCC with automated playbooks ensures real-time detection and remediation, reduces operational overhead, maintains consistent security policies, and supports regulatory compliance, making it the most effective solution for managing cloud security at scale.