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Question 161
Which method ensures that sensitive GKE workloads cannot pull container images from unauthorized external registries?
A) Public IP nodes with firewall rules
B) Workload Identity + Artifact Registry IAM restrictions
C) NAT Gateway with allowlists
D) DNS filtering
Answer: B
Explanation:
Workload Identity combined with Artifact Registry IAM restrictions ensures that only authorized GKE service accounts can access approved container registries. Without this control, a compromised pod or misconfigured deployment could pull images from untrusted public registries, potentially introducing malware or backdoored images. Public IP nodes (A) introduce unnecessary risk because external registries remain reachable. NAT allowlists (C) are insufficient because they rely on IP-based filtering—public registries can use dynamic addresses, and IP allowlists can be bypasseD) DNS filtering (D) can help but is not a reliable security boundary, as attackers can embed IP literals or use alternate DNS sources.
Workload Identity maps Kubernetes Service Accounts to specific IAM Service Accounts, enabling fine-grained permissions. You can then restrict Artifact Registry repositories so only specific IAM service accounts can pull images. This creates a strong identity boundary: even if a pod attempts to pull from an unauthorized repository, the request is denied at the IAM level. This approach aligns with Zero-Trust principles, ensures strict workload provenance, and prevents image-based supply-chain attacks. By enforcing identity-based access control at the registry level, organizations ensure only verified, scanned, and approved images are deployed inside clusters.
Question 162
Which solution ensures that Compute Engine VMs cannot send outbound traffic to the public Internet while still allowing access to Google APIs?
A) Removing service accounts
B) Blocking all firewall egress
C) Private Google Access
D) Using Public IPs with NAT
Answer: C
Explanation:
Removing service accounts is not an effective or practical method for securing access to Google APIs. Service accounts are essential for workloads, applications, and automation to authenticate when calling Google services. Eliminating them would break functionality and disrupt operations rather than solve the problem of ensuring secure access paths. Blocking all firewall egress is also not a viable solution because it prevents instances from reaching necessary Google APIs altogether. While strict egress rules can be part of a security strategy, completely blocking outbound traffic would disrupt normal operations and prevent workloads from functioning. It does not provide a controlled or secure method for enabling required communication with Google services. Using Public IPs with NAT is contradictory because NAT is designed for private IP-based outbound access. Attaching public IPs to resources increases exposure to the internet, widens the attack surface, and undermines the purpose of private networking. Even if outbound traffic is routed through NAT, the presence of public IPs creates unnecessary risk, and this configuration does not ensure that traffic to Google APIs stays within Google’s internal network paths. Private Google Access, however, is specifically designed to allow virtual machines and workloads that do not have public IP addresses to reach Google APIs and services privately. When enabled on a subnet, resources can use their private IPs to access Google Cloud services without requiring internet routing. This ensures that traffic stays within Google’s internal network, improving security by eliminating external exposure. Private Google Access supports secure, private, and compliant connectivity for services such as Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Secret Manager, Artifact Registry, and more. It enables workloads to remain fully private while still having the ability to interact with the Google APIs they rely on. Because the goal is to allow private IP–only instances to securely access Google APIs without public exposure, Private Google Access is the most appropriate, secure, and effective choice among the available options.
Question 163
Which tool alerts administrators when Cloud SQL instances are publicly reachable or misconfigured?
A) BigQuery Data Viewer
B) Security Health Analytics
C) Cloud Tasks
D) Compute Engine Metadata
Answer: B
Explanation:
BigQuery Data Viewer is an IAM role that grants read-only access to BigQuery datasets and tables. While it is important for users who need to analyze data without modifying it, this role provides no security scanning or misconfiguration detection capabilities. It simply controls who can view data, not whether the environment itself is configured securely. It does not identify public exposures, weak IAM settings, risky network policies, or vulnerable compute configurations. Cloud Tasks is a fully managed asynchronous task execution service designed to offload background processing and reliably deliver tasks to worker services. Although useful for distributed architectures and decoupling systems, Cloud Tasks has no role in evaluating security posture, identifying vulnerabilities, or detecting configuration drift. It cannot analyze resources or generate alerts about risky settings. Compute Engine Metadata provides information about virtual machine instances, such as configuration details, service accounts, project attributes, and environment data accessible from inside the VM. While crucial for runtime environments and automation scripts, the metadata server also does not analyze security posture or identify misconfigurations. Instead, it simply serves information that workloads may need during execution. Security Health Analytics, however, is specifically built to detect misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and compliance risks across a Google Cloud environment. It continuously scans resources such as Cloud Storage buckets, IAM policies, Compute Engine instances, firewall rules, network configurations, BigQuery datasets, and more. It can identify publicly exposed data, overly permissive IAM bindings, unencrypted resources, absent logging configurations, weak firewall rules, and other security gaps that attackers commonly exploit. Findings are generated automatically and surfaced in Security Command Center, providing a centralized view of issues and helping organizations prioritize remediation. Security Health Analytics serves as an automated and proactive method for improving cloud security posture without relying on manual audits or periodic reviews. Because the goal is to identify security weaknesses and configuration risks throughout the environment, Security Health Analytics is by far the most effective and appropriate choice among the available options.
Question 164
Which Google Cloud feature enforces service-to-service encryption inside Cloud Run environments?
A) Cloud Armor
B) OIDC identity tokens
C) Cloud NAT
D) Cloud Functions
Answer: B
Explanation:
Cloud Armor is a network security service designed to protect applications from external threats such as distributed denial-of-service attacks, malicious payloads, and unwanted HTTP(S) traffiC) While Cloud Armor is important for safeguarding publicly exposed applications and enforcing security policies at the edge, it does not address the challenge of securely authenticating workloads or services that need to call APIs. Its focus is on filtering and protecting ingress traffic, not on providing identity-based authentication for outbound or service-to-service communication. Cloud NAT enables private virtual machine instances to access the internet without requiring public IP addresses, which improves network security by preventing inbound connections. However, Cloud NAT only assists with routing and outbound connectivity and does not provide authentication mechanisms. It cannot verify the identity of workloads calling APIs nor offer short-lived credentials. Cloud Functions is a serverless compute service that executes code in response to events. Although useful for automation, integration, and event-driven architectures, Cloud Functions does not handle identity issuance for workloads. It cannot securely authenticate services in a way that prevents credential leakage or enforces modern security practices related to workload identity. OIDC identity tokens, however, provide a secure and standards-based mechanism for authenticating workloads, users, or services when calling APIs. These tokens are issued by a trusted identity provider and contain signed claims that verify the identity of the caller. OIDC identity tokens are short-lived, automatically rotated, and reduce reliance on static credentials such as API keys or JSON key files. They allow services to authenticate securely without embedding sensitive credentials in code, making them highly effective for modern cloud environments that emphasize zero-trust principles. Because they support identity-aware access, prevent long-term credential exposure, integrate naturally with IAM policies, and provide strong guarantees of caller authenticity, OIDC identity tokens are the most appropriate and secure choice among the listed options.
Question 165
Which method prevents accidental deletion of Cloud KMS key rings or keys?
A) DisableLogging policy
B) KMS Key Rotation
C) KMS Destroy Protection (prevent_destroy)
D) API Gateway filters
Answer: C
Explanation:
The DisableLogging policy is used to turn off certain categories of logs, which can reduce storage costs or limit the amount of logged information. However, disabling logs can negatively impact security and observability, as it removes valuable forensic and audit data that security teams rely on to detect incidents, investigate suspicious activity, or meet compliance requirements. This policy has no connection to protecting encryption keys from being deleted, nor does it enforce safeguards that prevent accidental or intentional destruction of sensitive cryptographic material. KMS Key Rotation is an important practice that refreshes encryption keys on a defined schedule to enhance cryptographic hygiene and limit the exposure window of old keys. While rotation is essential for security, it does not stop a key from being disabled or destroyeD) Even if a key rotates regularly, it could still be removed if adequate protections are not in place, making it insufficient for ensuring long-term availability of a critical key. API Gateway filters are designed to control and validate incoming API requests, such as filtering headers, enforcing request schemas, or limiting traffic patterns. Although helpful for securing APIs, these filters do not interact with Cloud KMS and cannot prevent key deletion or enforce lifecycle restrictions on cryptographic assets. KMS Destroy Protection, often implemented through prevent_destroy settings within infrastructure-as-code configurations such as Terraform, specifically ensures that encryption keys cannot be destroyed accidentally or maliciously. When destroy protection is enabled, any attempt to remove a key results in an error unless the protection is deliberately disabled first. This safeguard is critical for environments where keys protect highly sensitive data, because deleting a key permanently renders encrypted data unrecoverable. By enforcing this protection at the resource level, organizations prevent data loss resulting from human error, script failures, or incorrect configuration. Since the goal is to stop destructive operations and preserve the integrity and availability of cryptographic keys, KMS Destroy Protection is the most appropriate and effective choice among the listed options.
Question 166
Which solution ensures that Google Cloud Storage buckets containing regulated data remain accessible only from authorized networks?
A) Bucket labels
B) VPC Service Controls
C) IAM roles only
D) Cloud Functions triggers
Answer: B
Explanation:
Bucket labels provide a way to categorize Cloud Storage buckets using key-value metadata that helps with organization, billing attribution, automation, or searchability. Although labels are useful for grouping resources or applying governance rules indirectly through automation, they do not enforce security boundaries, restrict data movement, or prevent unauthorized access. Labels alone cannot stop data exfiltration or control which networks or services may interact with sensitive resources. IAM roles define what identities are permitted to do within Google Cloud by granting actions such as reading objects, writing data, or managing resources. While IAM is essential for controlling access at the identity and permission level, it cannot restrict how data moves across service boundaries. IAM alone does not address risks related to data leakage, because once an identity is granted access, it can often move or copy data to external or unauthorized locations if additional controls are not in place. Cloud Functions triggers simply execute serverless functions in response to events such as bucket changes, Pub/Sub messages, or HTTP requests. Triggers play an important role in automation but do not protect data or restrict perimeter boundaries. They cannot prevent data from being accessed by external networks or services, nor can they enforce rules about where data can flow after it is accesseD) VPC Service Controls, however, create a virtual security perimeter around sensitive services such as Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Secret Manager, and more. This perimeter prevents data from being accessed from outside authorized networks, preventing data exfiltration even if IAM permissions are misconfigured or compromiseD) By restricting access based on network context, service perimeters ensure that only approved environments, such as specific VPCs, on-premises networks, or trusted hybrid connections, can interact with protected services. This dramatically reduces the risk of accidental exposure, malicious activity, or unauthorized transfer of sensitive datA) Because the goal is to provide strong defense-in-depth protection by controlling data movement beyond identity permissions, VPC Service Controls are the most appropriate and effective option among the choices provideD)
Question 167
Which feature ensures VM disks remain encrypted even if snapshots are exported outside the project?
A) SSD persistent disks
B) Google-managed keys
C) CMEK-encrypted disks
D) Local disks
Answer: C
Explanation:
SSD persistent disks provide high-performance block storage that is durable, reliable, and suitable for workloads requiring fast read and write operations. While SSD persistent disks improve storage performance, they do not inherently strengthen the security of the data stored on them beyond the default encryption that Google Cloud applies. Their purpose is performance optimization, not compliance, encryption governance, or customer-controlled security requirements. Local disks, on the other hand, offer very fast ephemeral storage directly attached to the host machine. Although they can be useful for temporary data processing and caching, local disks are not designed for long-term storage and do not persist after a virtual machine is stopped or recreateD) Because they are tied to the lifecycle of the VM instance, local disks cannot reliably serve workloads requiring durable, encrypted, and compliance-aligned storage. Google-managed keys provide automatic encryption for data at rest without requiring customer involvement in key management. This default encryption is convenient and secure for many use cases, but it does not satisfy regulatory or organizational mandates requiring customers to control, rotate, or audit encryption keys directly. Since Google manages both the storage and the keys, customers cannot enforce strict governance policies or provide proof of independent key control. CMEK-encrypted disks, however, give organizations direct control over the encryption keys used to protect their persistent disks. By using Customer-Managed Encryption Keys stored in Cloud KMS, organizations can enforce key rotation schedules, control key access through IAM, audit key usage, and revoke access when necessary. This approach supports strict compliance frameworks that require customer ownership and control of keys while still benefiting from the reliability and performance of persistent disks. CMEK allows organizations to fully manage the cryptographic lifecycle, ensuring that even Google administrators cannot access the data without authorized key access. Because the goal is to provide enhanced security, compliance alignment, and customer-controlled encryption, CMEK-encrypted disks are the most appropriate and effective choice among the options provideD)
Question 168
Which method ensures APIs invoked by applications running on GKE are authenticated without embedding long-lived credentials?
A) JSON keys stored in ConfigMaps
B) Hard-coded passwords
C) Workload Identity
D) SSH certificates
Answer: C
Explanation:
JSON keys stored in ConfigMaps represent an insecure practice where long-lived service account keys are placed into Kubernetes objects that were never designed to store sensitive credentials. ConfigMaps are not encrypted by default, can be accessed by any pod or user with sufficient permissions, and can easily be leaked through logs, misconfigurations, or cluster compromises. Storing static JSON keys in ConfigMaps increases the attack surface and introduces operational burden, because these keys must be manually rotated, monitored, and protecteD) Hard-coded passwords are even more problematic, as embedding plaintext credentials directly into application code, images, or manifests provides attackers with an easy entry point if these artifacts are ever exposeD) Hard-coded secrets cannot be rotated automatically, tend to be forgotten over time, and violate fundamental security best practices. They also make compliance difficult, since auditors expect systems to adhere to strong secret-management principles. SSH certificates are used to grant secure temporary access to virtual machines, but they are designed for administrative login rather than application authentication. They offer no scalable or automated way to authenticate workloads calling Google Cloud APIs, nor do they integrate with identity-based access control for services running inside Kubernetes or Compute Engine. Workload Identity, however, provides a secure, scalable, and modern way for workloads to authenticate to Google Cloud without relying on long-lived credentials. By mapping Kubernetes service accounts to Google service accounts, Workload Identity allows applications to obtain short-lived tokens directly from the metadata server instead of storing keys. This eliminates the need for static secrets, reduces the risk of credential exposure, and simplifies operational management. Workload Identity also integrates tightly with IAM, ensuring least-privilege access and enabling granular control over what workloads can access. Because it removes the need for vulnerable static credentials, supports automated token rotation, enhances security, and aligns with zero-trust principles, Workload Identity is the most effective and appropriate choice among the listed options.
Question 169
Which Cloud SQL security measure enhances protection against SQL injection attacks?
A) CMEK
B) IAM database authentication
C) Shielded VM
D) Cloud Armor
Answer: B
Explanation:
CMEK, or Customer Managed Encryption Keys, allows organizations to control the encryption keys used to secure their data at rest within Google Cloud services. While this is essential for compliance, regulatory requirements, and strict security governance, CMEK focuses on encryption rather than authentication. It ensures that data stored on persistent disks, databases, or storage buckets is encrypted with keys the customer controls, but it does not determine how users or applications log in to a database or how authentication is manageD) Shielded VM provides protections aimed at securing virtual machine integrity by preventing tampering and ensuring that the boot process is verified and trusteD) Shielded VM helps protect against boot-level and firmware threats, ensuring that workloads run on images that have not been altereD) However, it does not provide mechanisms for authenticating access to databases, nor does it integrate with user identity systems to manage who can log in or issue queries. Cloud Armor serves as a security layer for applications exposed on the internet by defending against distributed denial-of-service attacks, malicious traffic, and unauthorized access attempts through policy-based filtering. While Cloud Armor protects web applications and network edges, it does not affect database login methods or validate user identities attempting to connect to a database. IAM database authentication, however, directly addresses the challenge of securely managing access to a database by allowing users and applications to authenticate using IAM credentials rather than static passwords. This eliminates the need for hard-coded database passwords, reduces the risk of credential leakage, and ensures that access is tied to IAM policies and identity lifecycle management. IAM-based authentication provides centralized access control, automatic credential rotation through short-lived tokens, and seamless integration with organizational identity management practices. Because it strengthens authentication, removes reliance on long-lived secrets, and streamlines access governance, IAM database authentication is the most effective and appropriate choice among the options provideD)
Question 170
Which tool helps detect anomalous IAM activity such as sudden privilege escalation or unusual administrative behavior?
A) Cloud Scheduler
B) IAM Recommender
C) Event Threat Detection
D) Cloud Storage lifecycle
Answer: C
Explanation:
Cloud Scheduler is a managed cron service that allows users to trigger jobs, workflows, and HTTP endpoints on a recurring schedule. While it is extremely useful for automation, batch processing, and time-based orchestration tasks, Cloud Scheduler does not analyze logs, detect security threats, or identify malicious activity within a cloud environment. Its purpose is purely operational and not related to security monitoring or incident detection. IAM Recommender helps organizations optimize their IAM roles by analyzing actual permission usage and suggesting removals of unnecessary privileges. Although this improves security by enforcing the principle of least privilege, IAM Recommender does not examine runtime behaviors, system logs, or security events. It is not intended for detecting active threats, malware, or suspicious account activity. Cloud Storage lifecycle rules are designed to manage storage costs and data retention by automatically transitioning objects between storage classes or deleting them after specific periods. Lifecycle policies are a cost-optimization and data-management feature and do not provide any threat detection capabilities. They cannot identify attacks, analyze patterns, or surface anomalies within logs. Event Threat Detection, however, is specifically built to detect suspicious activity by analyzing Cloud Logging data in real time. It examines audit logs, VPC flow logs, DNS logs, and other telemetry to identify brute-force attempts, cryptocurrency mining behavior, compromised service accounts, risky network patterns, and other threats. Event Threat Detection uses curated rule sets and continuously updated threat intelligence to identify indicators of compromise without requiring organizations to manually write detection rules. Alerts generated by Event Threat Detection can be routed to Security Command Center, SIEMs, or incident response workflows, allowing teams to respond quickly to malicious activities. Because the goal is to detect active threats and suspicious events at scale, Event Threat Detection is the most effective and appropriate option among the choices provideD)
Question 171
Which mechanism ensures GKE workloads cannot communicate with pods outside their namespace unless explicitly allowed?
A) Firewall rules
B) GKE Network Policies
C) DNSSEC
D) NAT routing
Answer: B
Explanation:
Firewall rules operate at the VPC network level and allow administrators to control traffic entering or leaving virtual machine instances based on IP ranges, ports, and protocols. While firewall rules are essential for defining high-level network boundaries, they lack the fine-grained control needed within a Kubernetes cluster where workloads may be dynamically scheduled, scaled, or recreated across nodes. Firewall rules cannot restrict pod-to-pod communication inside the cluster, nor can they enforce isolation between namespaces or microservices, because they function outside the Kubernetes networking model. DNSSEC is a security extension to DNS that protects domain name lookups by preventing DNS spoofing, cache poisoning, and other forms of DNS tampering. Although DNSSEC enhances the integrity of DNS responses, it does not control traffic between workloads, nor does it impose any restrictions on how containers communicate within a GKE environment. NAT routing allows private instances without public IPs to access the internet for updates or external services but prevents inbound unsolicited connections. NAT does not manage internal traffic patterns or influence security boundaries inside a Kubernetes cluster. It focuses only on egress routing and has no role in workload isolation or microsegmenting application components. GKE Network Policies, however, are specifically designed to provide granular, pod-level control over ingress and egress traffic within a Kubernetes cluster. They allow administrators to define which pods are permitted to communicate with one another and which connections should be blocked entirely. This level of isolation is crucial for securing modern microservices architectures where different components may run side by side on shared nodes. By using labels and selectors, Network Policies can enforce strict segmentation between application tiers, prevent lateral movement by compromised workloads, and reduce the blast radius of attacks. They also support compliance frameworks that require layered network controls beyond perimeter firewalls. Because the goal is to enforce internal, service-to-service communication restrictions within a GKE environment, GKE Network Policies are the most appropriate and effective choice among the options provideD)
Question 172
Which security feature identifies when a Compute Engine VM starts communicating with known malicious IP addresses?
A) Cloud Build
B) Event Threat Detection
C) VPC Peering
D) BigQuery logs
Answer: B
Explanation:
Cloud Build is a fully managed continuous integration and continuous delivery service designed to automate the building, testing, and deployment of applications. While it provides strong security features such as isolated build environments and support for provenance metadata, its purpose is not to detect malicious behavior or analyze security logs. Cloud Build focuses on software delivery pipelines and does not examine runtime activity or identify suspicious trends across cloud resources. VPC Peering enables private communication between two VPC networks without requiring traffic to traverse the public internet. This is beneficial for creating shared internal environments, connecting applications across projects, or consolidating network architectures. However, VPC Peering does not analyze logs, detect threats, or identify compromised behavior. It is solely a networking construct and offers no threat detection capabilities. BigQuery logs provide visibility into query activity, usage patterns, and administrative operations within the BigQuery environment. These logs support auditing, troubleshooting, and performance tuning, but by themselves they do not generate security insights or automatically identify malicious actions unless additional tools analyze them. They are raw data sources rather than a threat detection mechanism. Event Threat Detection, however, is specifically designed to analyze Cloud Logging data in real time to identify indicators of compromise, unusual access patterns, and malicious activity across the entire cloud environment. It uses continuously updated threat intelligence and built-in detection rules to identify issues such as unauthorized IAM activity, brute-force attacks, suspicious network traffic, cryptocurrency mining behavior, compromised service accounts, and risky API usage. By automating threat analysis and generating actionable findings, Event Threat Detection enables organizations to respond quickly to potential incidents without needing to build or maintain their own detection logiC) It integrates directly with Security Command Center, allowing teams to visualize and prioritize threats in a centralized interface. Because the goal is to detect malicious behavior and identify active threats through automated analysis of security logs, Event Threat Detection is the most effective and appropriate choice among the options provideD)
Question 173
Which method enforces encryption of all new BigQuery tables across an organization using customer-managed keys?
A) Table ACLs
B) Organization Policy: requireCmek
C) Dataset descriptions
D) SQL UDFs
Answer: B
Explanation:
Table ACLs allow administrators to define fine-grained permissions at the individual table level within BigQuery. While this provides useful control over who can read or modify specific tables, it does not enforce any requirements about how the underlying data is encrypteD) Table ACLs operate entirely at the access layer, ensuring that only authorized users can work with particular datasets or tables, but they offer no mechanism to mandate encryption standards or enforce organizational security policies related to key management. Dataset descriptions serve as metadata providing context, documentation, and usage guidance for datasets. Although they help teams understand the purpose and content of a dataset, descriptions are purely informational and do not prevent misconfigurations or enforce security controls. They play no role in requiring encryption, applying compliance standards, or restricting how data is stored or protecteD) SQL UDFs, or user-defined functions written in SQL or JavaScript, are powerful tools for transforming or analyzing data within BigQuery. They allow developers to extend SQL capabilities with reusable logic, but they do not govern data security or enforce encryption choices. UDFs are focused on computation and do not influence how data is encrypted at rest or how encryption keys are manageD) The Organization Policy requireCmek, however, directly enforces that all new BigQuery datasets use Customer-Managed Encryption Keys rather than default Google-managed keys. This policy is crucial for organizations with strict regulatory, compliance, or internal governance requirements that mandate customer control over cryptographic keys. By enforcing CMEK usage automatically across the organization, the policy prevents teams from accidentally creating unencrypted or improperly encrypted datasets. It ensures centralized control, consistent enforcement, and strong data protection guarantees, especially in environments where sensitive or regulated data is storeD) Because it provides mandatory encryption governance and eliminates the risk of misconfigured datasets, the Organization Policy requireCmek is the most appropriate and effective option among the choices provideD)
Question 174
Which solution ensures all outbound traffic from a GKE cluster is inspected by an on-premises firewall?
A) External load balancer
B) Cloud VPN or Interconnect + route export
C) DNS forwarding
D) NAT gateway
Answer: B
Explanation:
An external load balancer is designed to expose applications to the public internet, enabling inbound traffic from external users. While it is an essential component for serving global clients and managing high availability, it does not create a private, controlled path between on-premises networks and Google ClouD) External load balancers terminate traffic at Google’s edge and distribute it to backend services, but they do not provide routing integration with on-premises environments. They therefore cannot support private workload connectivity or exchange internal routes needed for hybrid architectures. DNS forwarding improves name resolution across different environments by allowing DNS queries from on-premises systems to resolve cloud-hosted records or vice versA) Although DNS forwarding is important for maintaining consistent naming and internal service discovery between networks, it does not provide a network tunnel or private routing path. DNS only resolves hostnames; it does not transport packets between networks or carry private traffiC) A NAT gateway allows virtual machines without public IP addresses to access external services securely by providing egress routing while blocking unsolicited inbound connections. NAT is useful for protecting compute resources and enabling controlled outbound access, but NAT does not establish a connection with on-premises environments, nor does it import or export routes. As such, NAT cannot facilitate hybrid connectivity or private communication between workloads operating in different networks. Cloud VPN or Dedicated Interconnect combined with route export is specifically designed to provide secure and private connectivity between on-premises environments and Google Cloud VPC networks. Cloud VPN offers encrypted IPsec tunnels, while Interconnect provides high-bandwidth, low-latency physical links. Route export enables automatic sharing of network routes so both sides become aware of each other’s IP ranges, ensuring seamless private communication. This allows workloads in Google Cloud to reach on-premises systems without using the public internet, and vice versA) By establishing a unified routing domain, organizations can build hybrid applications, centralize services, and maintain strict security over traffic flows. Because the goal is to enable private, routed connectivity between on-premises environments and Google Cloud, Cloud VPN or Interconnect with route export is the most effective and appropriate option among the choices provideD)
Question 175
Which method blocks Cloud Functions from accessing sensitive Cloud Storage buckets?
A) Firewall deny rules
B) IAM deny policies
C) Logging exclusions
D) NAT restrictions
Answer: B
Explanation:
Firewall deny rules operate at the network layer and are used to block specific traffic based on IP addresses, ports, and protocols. While they are effective for preventing unwanted network connections, they do not govern identity-based permissions or restrict the types of API actions users or service accounts can execute. Firewall rules cannot prevent a user with valid IAM permissions from performing an operation such as deleting a resource, modifying configurations, or accessing sensitive APIs. Their scope is limited to controlling packet flow, not enforcing behavior at the resource or identity level. Logging exclusions, on the other hand, allow administrators to filter out certain logs to reduce storage costs or avoid collecting unnecessary information. Although helpful from a cost-management perspective, logging exclusions do not enforce security posture or restrict actions that users or services may perform. In fact, they can reduce visibility if misused, making them unsuitable for risk mitigation related to unauthorized actions. NAT restrictions affect how private resources access external networks by controlling outbound traffiC) While useful for limiting which destinations virtual machines can reach, NAT restrictions do not affect IAM permissions or prevent users from performing sensitive operations within Google Cloud services. They only control outbound routing and do not provide a mechanism for controlling identity-level actions. IAM deny policies, however, are specifically designed to enforce explicit restrictions on what identities are not allowed to do, regardless of any other IAM permissions they might holD) Deny policies override allow policies, making them a powerful tool for preventing dangerous or sensitive actions even if a user or service account has been inadvertently granted broad permissions. Organizations can use IAM deny policies to block operations such as deleting critical resources, accessing specific APIs, modifying security configurations, or performing sensitive administrative tasks. Because deny policies operate at a higher level and provide deterministic enforcement, they are ideal for preventing misconfigurations, insider threats, privilege misuse, and unintended escalations. For enforcing strong, identity-based restrictions across projects or environments, IAM deny policies are the most appropriate and effective option among the choices provideD)
Question 176
Which service enables centralized monitoring of compliance across all Google Cloud projects?
A) SCC Security Posture
B) Cloud DNS
C) Pub/Sub
D) Memorystore
Answer: A
Explanation:
SCC Security Posture, which is part of Google Cloud’s Security Command Center, provides organizations with a comprehensive and centralized view of their overall cloud security health. It continuously analyzes configurations, compares them against industry best practices, identifies misconfigurations, highlights vulnerabilities, and provides prescriptive recommendations to improve security posture. Security Posture works across multiple services and integrates findings from tools such as Security Health Analytics, Event Threat Detection, VM Threat Detection, and Web Security Scanner. By giving admins a consolidated dashboard and compliance mapping to standards like CIS, NIST, and other frameworks, it helps ensure that all teams maintain consistent, organization-wide security baselines. Cloud DNS, on the other hand, is designed for scalable, managed domain name resolution. While DNS is critical for service routing and reliability, Cloud DNS does not evaluate security posture or detect misconfigurations. It simply resolves domain names and does not enforce security policies beyond DNS-level configurations. Pub/Sub is a messaging service for event distribution, decoupled microservices, and asynchronous processing. Although essential for building event-driven architectures, Pub/Sub does not assess security risks, review configurations, or detect vulnerabilities in the cloud environment. Its function is communication, not security assessment. Memorystore is an in-memory data store used for caching and low-latency data access. While it improves application performance, it does not provide tools for analyzing threats, identifying weaknesses, or monitoring compliance. It operates at the application data layer, not at the security governance or monitoring layer. SCC Security Posture stands apart because it provides an end-to-end assessment of an organization’s configurations and risks across all Google Cloud resources. It allows organizations to proactively identify weaknesses before they lead to incidents, ensuring that large and distributed teams follow consistent security practices. For organizations seeking comprehensive visibility and actionable insights into their security health, SCC Security Posture is the most effective and appropriate option among the choices provideD)
Question 177
Which method ensures internal APIs exposed on Compute Engine can only be accessed by authenticated identities?
A) Private IP
B) IAP TCP forwarding
C) NAT
D) DNS records
Answer: B
Explanation:
A private IP allows a virtual machine or service to operate without being directly accessible from the public internet. While private IPs are an important security control that reduce exposure to external threats, they do not, by themselves, provide a secure method for administrators or developers to remotely connect to those internal resources. Private IPs simply limit network reachability; they do not authenticate users, enforce identity-based access, or provide encrypted pathways for administrative access. NAT, or Network Address Translation, enables outbound internet connectivity for private resources without assigning them public IP addresses, preventing unsolicited inbound traffiC) However, NAT is limited to egress traffic and provides no capabilities for administrators who need to connect into internal systems. It does not offer any identity verification or secure ingress pathways, leaving teams reliant on separate tools if remote access is requireD) DNS records, while essential for mapping domain names to IP addresses and enabling reliable service discovery, do not contribute to secure access for remote administration. DNS can help locate services but does not authenticate users or restrict access based on identity. It is purely a naming and resolution mechanism and provides no direct security benefits for connecting to internal machines. IAP TCP forwarding, however, is designed specifically to provide secure, identity-aware access to private resources without requiring public IP addresses or complex VPN setups. With IAP TCP forwarding, administrators authenticate using Google Identity and Access Management, ensuring that only approved users with the correct IAM roles can initiate TCP connections to internal virtual machines or services. Traffic is tunneled through Google’s secure infrastructure, and authentication takes place before any connection is established, greatly reducing the risk of unauthorized access. Because access is tied to user identity and IAM policy enforcement, there is no dependency on static IP lists, SSH key distribution, or firewall-based trust models. This supports granular control, zero-trust principles, and simplified operations. Given the need for secure, identity-aware, private access to internal resources without exposing them to the public internet, IAP TCP forwarding is the most appropriate and effective choice among the options provideD)
Question 178
Which solution stops service accounts from being granted Owner at the project level?
A) VPC firewall rules
B) IAM Deny policies
C) KMS key rotation
D) Cloud Audit without sinks
Answer: B
Explanation:
VPC firewall rules provide control over network-level access by allowing or blocking traffic based on IP addresses, ports, and protocols. They are essential for defining boundaries between workloads and preventing unauthorized network communication. However, firewall rules cannot restrict which API calls a user or service account can make within Google ClouD) Even if a firewall blocks network traffic, a user with broad IAM permissions could still delete resources, modify configurations, or access sensitive data through the control plane. Firewall rules are therefore not suited for restricting identity-based actions or preventing misuse of high-risk permissions. KMS key rotation is an important best practice for maintaining strong encryption hygiene. Rotating keys limits the exposure window of cryptographic material and supports compliance requirements. But key rotation does not influence who can perform actions in Google Cloud nor does it prevent risky operations such as deleting storage buckets, changing IAM bindings, or disabling logs. It enhances encryption security but provides no mechanism for blocking specific IAM actions. Cloud Audit Logs without sinks only record activity but do not enforce restrictions. While logs are essential for observability, forensics, and compliance, they do not stop harmful activity from occurring. Logging without routing sinks for storage or analysis provides limited long-term value, and even with comprehensive audit logs in place, users with excessive permissions can still perform destructive operations as long as no preventive controls exist. IAM Deny policies, however, are designed specifically to block certain actions regardless of any other IAM permissions granted elsewhere. Deny policies override allow policies, making them a powerful safeguard against privilege misuse, accidental deletion, insider threats, or risky API operations. They allow organizations to enforce strong guardrails such as preventing anyone from deleting critical resources, modifying IAM roles, or disabling security tooling. Unlike firewall rules or logs, IAM Deny policies operate directly at the identity and API level, ensuring that restricted actions cannot be performed by any user or service account. Because the goal is to enforce identity-based restrictions that cannot be bypassed, IAM Deny policies are the most appropriate and effective choice among the options provideD)
Question 179
Which mechanism ensures that Google Cloud APIs can only be accessed when requests originate from a managed corporate device?
A) IAM bindings only
B) Access Context Manager Device Policies
C) DNSSEC
D) NAT IP restrictions
Answer: B
Explanation:
IAM bindings only determine which identities, such as users or service accounts, are granted certain permissions within Google ClouD) While IAM is foundational for access management, it focuses solely on who can perform actions and does not evaluate the security posture of the device being used to access cloud resources. IAM alone cannot ensure that access originates from trusted, secure, or compliant devices, nor can it enforce conditions such as requiring updated operating systems, device encryption, corporate ownership, or screen lock policies. DNSSEC protects the integrity of DNS responses by preventing spoofing and tampering, ensuring that clients receive genuine DNS resolutions. Although DNSSEC strengthens the trustworthiness of DNS infrastructure, it does not evaluate device health or influence which devices are permitted to connect to sensitive cloud resources. It plays no role in determining whether access complies with enterprise device security standards. NAT IP restrictions control which internal instances can send outbound traffic to the internet. While NAT can restrict outbound communication paths, it does not authenticate devices, assess device security posture, or restrict access to cloud services based on the condition of the accessing device. These network controls cannot ensure that only secure, corporate-managed devices are allowed to access sensitive applications or datA) Access Context Manager Device Policies, however, offer the ability to enforce device-based access conditions, ensuring that access to Google Cloud resources is allowed only from devices that meet predefined security requirements. These policies can evaluate attributes such as operating system version, device encryption status, corporate management, screen lock enforcement, and whether the device uses endpoint management tools. By integrating device trust into the access decision, organizations can adopt a modern zero-trust approach where both user identity and device security posture influence access permissions. Access Context Manager ensures that even valid user credentials cannot be used from unsecured or non-compliant devices, thereby reducing risks from compromised accounts, lost devices, or unauthorized personal devices. Because the goal is to enforce device-aware access controls that go beyond identity alone, Access Context Manager Device Policies are the most effective and appropriate choice among the listed options.
Question 180
Which technology prevents Cloud Run jobs from making outbound Internet requests except to specific allowed domains?
A) VPC firewall rules
B) Serverless VPC Connector + custom egress proxy
C) API Gateway
D) GKE Ingress
Answer: B
Explanation:
VPC firewall rules allow administrators to control network traffic by specifying which IP ranges, ports, and protocols may reach particular resources. They are essential for building a secure network perimeter, limiting east-west and north-south traffic, and preventing unauthorized access. However, firewall rules alone cannot fully control or route egress traffic from serverless services such as Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, or App Engine Standard, because these services operate on shared infrastructure and do not reside directly inside a VPC by default. Firewall rules cannot enforce which proxy or inspection layer serverless workloads must use, nor can they guarantee that outbound traffic flows through specific security appliances or controls. API Gateway provides secure and managed ingress for API endpoints, offering authentication, rate limiting, and request validation. Although valuable for controlling inbound API traffic, it is not designed to manage outbound connections or enforce egress routing rules for serverless workloads. It applies to request entry points, not to traffic leaving a service toward external destinations. GKE Ingress handles HTTP and HTTPS ingress routing for Kubernetes clusters, enabling load balancing and traffic distribution into containerized applications. It is focused entirely on inbound service routing and does not control serverless egress or enforce outbound traffic inspection. Serverless VPC Connector combined with a custom egress proxy, however, provides a mechanism to channel serverless outbound traffic through a VPC where it can be inspected, logged, filtered, or routed to approved external destinations. By using a VPC connector, serverless services gain access to a private VPC subnet, allowing all egress traffic to flow through controlled network infrastructure rather than leaving Google Cloud directly. When paired with a custom proxy such as a secure web gateway, firewall appliance, or egress filtering system, administrators can enforce strict outbound rules, block unauthorized domains, inspect SSL traffic if required, and maintain compliance with organizational policies. This combination offers granular control over serverless egress patterns, enabling organizations to achieve the same level of traffic governance that exists for VM-based workloads. Because the objective is to control and inspect outbound serverless traffic through a designated path, Serverless VPC Connector with a custom egress proxy is the most appropriate and effective choice among the listed options.
