Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer Interview Questions

On the Google Cloud Platform, a Professional Cloud Security Engineer is in charge of designing and implementing a secure architecture. Cloud Security Engineers have the skills to perform best practices as well as industrial security needs. They use Google security tools to design, implement, and manage a secure infrastructure.

Now let us look at some Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer Interview Questions and see the patterns and types.

Advanced Interview Questions

Can you explain the difference between authentication and authorization?

Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user, system, or application. It involves verifying that someone is who they claim to be by using one or more forms of identification, such as a username and password, a security token, or a biometric factor.

Authorization, on the other hand, is the process of granting or denying access to a resource or system based on the authenticated identity. Once a user’s identity has been authenticated, the system then checks to see if that user has the appropriate permissions or roles to access the resource or perform the requested action.

In summary, authentication is about verifying identity, while authorization is about granting access based on that identity.

How do you secure a cloud infrastructure?

Securing a cloud infrastructure involves implementing a combination of technical and organizational controls to protect against unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction of data. Some common steps include:

• Implementing strong authentication and access controls: This includes using multi-factor authentication, role-based access controls, and the least privilege principle for access to cloud resources.
• Encrypting data: This includes encrypting data at rest and in transit, as well as using secure protocols like HTTPS and SSH.
• Regularly monitoring and logging: This includes continuously monitoring cloud resources and activities and maintaining logs of all actions taken in the cloud environment.
• Regularly patching and updating: This includes regularly applying security patches and updates to all cloud infrastructure components, including the operating system, application, and network devices.
• Implementing security best practices: This includes using security best practices like network segmentation, firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and security information and event management (SIEM) systems.
• Implementing incident response plan: This includes having the plan to respond to security incidents, including identifying the incident, containing it, and mitigating the impact.
• Using a multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud approach: This includes spreading your infrastructure across multiple cloud providers or on-premises to decrease the risk of a single point of failure.
• Properly configure and use cloud provider security features: This includes using the security feature provided by the cloud provider such as security groups, network ACLs, and IAM policies
• Conducting regular security assessments: This includes performing regular security assessments to identify vulnerabilities and assess the effectiveness of existing controls.
• Compliance with regulations: This includes ensuring that the cloud infrastructure is compliant with any relevant regulatory requirements such as HIPAA, SOC2, PCI-DSS, etc.

Can you describe a security incident response plan?

A security incident response plan is a set of procedures and guidelines for detecting, responding to, and mitigating the effects of a security incident. These incidents can include things like data breaches, cyber-attacks, or other security-related events.

The plan should outline the roles and responsibilities of different team members, such as incident responders, IT staff, and management. It should also include procedures for communication, both internally and with external stakeholders such as law enforcement and customers.

The incident response plan should be tested and updated regularly to ensure that it is effective and up-to-date. The incident response team should also have a clear understanding of their incident response procedures and be prepared to implement them at a moment’s notice.

In general, the incident response plan includes:

• Preparation: Identifying the key people, processes, and technologies that are critical to incident response, so that they can be protected and quickly restored in the event of an incident.
• Detection and Analysis: Establishing processes and procedures to detect and analyze incidents so that they can be quickly identified and contained.
• Containment, Eradication, and Recovery: Developing procedures for containing, eradicating, and recovering from an incident, including steps for restoring normal operations.
• Post-Incident Activities: Reviewing the incident to identify what went well and what could have been improved, and taking steps to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

How do you secure sensitive data in the cloud?

Securing sensitive data in the cloud involves a combination of technical and organizational measures to protect data from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction. Some of the key strategies for securing sensitive data in the cloud include:

• Encryption: Encrypting sensitive data both in transit and at rest, using strong encryption algorithms and keys.
• Access controls: Implementing strict access controls to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data and that they can only access the data they need to perform their job functions.
• Least privilege: Granting users the least privilege necessary to perform their job functions, and revoking access when it is no longer needed.
• Network security: Implementing firewalls and other network security measures to protect data from unauthorized access and attacks.
• Multifactor authentication: Implementing multifactor authentication to ensure that only authorized users can access sensitive data.
• Cloud-specific security measures: Implementing cloud-specific security measures such as security groups and network security groups, to protect data within the cloud environment.
• Vulnerability management: Regularly scan systems, networks, and applications for vulnerabilities and patch them.
• Regular Backups: Regularly backing up sensitive data to protect against data loss in case of system failure or a security incident.
• Compliance: Ensuring compliance with data protection regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA.

It’s important to note that securing sensitive data in the cloud also requires ongoing monitoring and incident response. Regularly review access controls, and audit logs, and use incident response plan when necessary.

How do you ensure compliance with industry regulations in the cloud?

Ensuring compliance with industry regulations in the cloud can be a complex and ongoing process, but there are several steps that organizations can take to help mitigate risks and maintain compliance.

• Understand the relevant regulations: Understand which regulations apply to your organization and the specific requirements they impose.
• Conduct a risk assessment: Identify and assess the risks associated with storing, processing, and transmitting sensitive data in the cloud.
• Choose a compliant cloud provider: Select a cloud provider that has achieved relevant certifications and compliance frameworks, such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS.
• Implement security controls: Implement security controls, such as encryption and access controls, to protect sensitive data in the cloud.
• Continuously monitor and audit: Continuously monitor and audit your cloud environment to ensure compliance and identify and address any potential issues.
• Regularly update policies and procedures: Make sure to regularly update policies and procedures related to cloud security and compliance.
• Train employees: Train employees on cloud security best practices and compliance requirements.
• Have an incident response plan: Have an incident response plan in place to respond to any security incidents or breaches.

It’s important to note that compliance is an ongoing process, and it’s important to continuously assess and update your compliance efforts as new regulations and threats emerge.

Can you explain the shared responsibility model for cloud security?

The shared responsibility model for cloud security is a framework that defines the respective roles and responsibilities of cloud service providers (CSPs) and their customers in protecting data and systems in the cloud.

Under this model, CSPs are responsible for the security of the cloud infrastructure, including the physical security of data centers, network security, and the security of the cloud platform. This includes the underlying hardware, virtualization, and management of the cloud environment.

Customers, on the other hand, are responsible for securing the data and applications that they store and run in the cloud. This includes securing the operating systems, applications, and data, as well as implementing security controls such as access controls and encryption.

The shared responsibility model is designed to help customers understand the security risks associated with using cloud services and to ensure that they take the appropriate steps to protect their data and systems.

It is important to note that the level of responsibility for security may vary depending on the type of cloud service being used (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and the specific service offerings of the CSP. Customers should review their CSP’s terms of service and security documentation to understand their specific responsibilities.

In summary, the shared responsibility model for cloud security defines that CSPs are responsible for the security of the cloud infrastructure, while customers are responsible for securing their data and applications in the cloud.

How do you implement network security in the cloud?

Implementing network security in the cloud typically involves a combination of the following steps:

• Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) configuration: Create a virtual private cloud (VPC) to segment and isolate your cloud resources from the public internet. This will help to protect your network from external threats and unauthorized access.
• Firewall configuration: Configure firewalls to control access to your VPC and limit inbound and outbound traffic. This will help to protect your network from malicious traffic and unauthorized access.
• Network segmentation: Segment your network into different subnets to limit the scope of any potential security breaches.
• Security groups: Use security groups to control access to your cloud resources and limit inbound and outbound traffic.
• Remote access: Implement secure remote access to your cloud resources using technologies such as VPN or Direct Connect.
• Encryption: Use encryption to protect sensitive data in transit and at rest.
• Intrusion detection and prevention: Use intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) to detect and prevent malicious activity on your network.
• Network monitoring: Monitor your network for any unusual activity or suspicious traffic.
• Regular updates: Keep your cloud security resources updated with the latest patches and security updates.
• Have an incident response plan: Have an incident response plan in place to respond to any security incidents or breaches.

It’s important to note that network security in the cloud is an ongoing process, and it’s important to continuously monitor and update your security efforts as new threats and vulnerabilities emerge.

Can you describe the use of encryption in cloud security?

Encryption is a commonly used technique in cloud security to protect data stored in the cloud from unauthorized access. Data encryption is used to protect data in transit, such as when it is being transmitted between a client and a server, as well as data at rest, such as when it is stored on a server. This helps to ensure that even if an attacker gains access to the data, they will not be able to read it without the encryption key. Additionally, many cloud providers offer encryption services, such as server-side encryption, which can be used to encrypt data before it is uploaded to the cloud, and client-side encryption, which allows customers to encrypt their data before it is sent to the cloud provider.

How do you implement identity and access management in the cloud?

Identity and access management (IAM) in the cloud can be implemented using various tools and services provided by the cloud provider, such as AWS IAM for Amazon Web Services or Azure AD for Microsoft Azure.

• Create and manage user accounts: You can create and manage user accounts, including assigning permissions and roles to each user.
• Set up multi-factor authentication (MFA): MFA can be used to provide an additional layer of security for user accounts by requiring a second form of authentication, such as a code sent to a phone or a fingerprint scan.
• Use roles and permissions: You can use roles and permissions to control access to resources, such as virtual machines or storage buckets.
• Implement a least privilege model: This model ensures that users have the minimum access necessary to perform their job function.
• Monitor and audit access: You can use the cloud provider’s built-in tools to monitor and audit access to resources, including tracking failed login attempts, and identifying suspicious activity.
• Control access to external applications: Use cloud-based identity providers such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, to authenticate users and grant them access to your application.
• Use security groups: Security groups can be used to control network traffic to and from resources in the cloud.

In summary, Identity and access management in the cloud are implemented by creating and managing user accounts, implementing multi-factor authentication, using roles and permissions, implementing a least privilege model, monitoring and auditing access, controlling access to external applications, and using security groups.

Can you explain the differences between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS and how they impact security?

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service) are all different models for delivering and consuming technology services.

IaaS providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, offer customers the ability to rent virtualized computing resources, such as servers, storage, and networking. This allows customers to run their own software and manage their own operating systems, but they are still responsible for securing the underlying infrastructure.

PaaS providers, such as Heroku and Google App Engine, offer a platform for customers to develop, run, and manage their applications. PaaS providers typically handle the underlying infrastructure, but customers are still responsible for securing their applications and data.

SaaS providers, such as Salesforce and Office 365, offer customers access to fully-managed software applications. SaaS providers handle both the underlying infrastructure and the application, and customers are typically not responsible for securing either.

In terms of security, the more responsibility that is shifted to the provider, the less the customer is responsible for securing. However, customers should be aware that they may still be responsible for securing their own data and access to the services. It is important to carefully review the provider’s security measures and ensure that they meet the customer’s needs.

Basic Interview Questions

1. What is computing in the cloud?

Cloud computing is a new age of Internet-based information technology. It’s the next level of cloud architecture, delivering resources to customers whenever and wherever they want them. It allows you to connect to many servers all around the world.

2. What is Cloud Privacy?

Private clouds keep strategic activities and other objectives secure. It’s a fully functional network that can own, operate, and restrict to a single organization or industry. Most firms have now shifted to private clouds for a day due to security concerns. A hosting company’s digital private clouds are included.

3. What is public cloud?

The definition of cloud types is determined by how the services are offered as well as the underlying ownership. The nature of the specialized services supplied is described by the cloud deployment types.

The most prevalent and popular cloud option used by consumers is the public cloud. In a public cloud environment, IT infrastructure resources such as computing, network, and storage are available in a secure and cost-effective manner. Because these IT infrastructures are shared by several clients, they are less expensive to utilise. A web browser can access and manage all of the resources over the internet. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service are some of the public cloud services available (SaaS). Office 365, Salesforce, and other public cloud services are examples.

4. What are the advantages of Public Cloud?

Advantage of Public Cloud:

• Economics of scale as per unit cost reduces with increase in consumption volume
• It reduces time to market and brings agility in business
• Users can increase and reduce consumption of resource dynamically depending on business requirement.

5. What are the disadvantages of Public Cloud?

Disadvantages Of Public Cloud:

• Fewer options for customization
• Less secure compare to private cloud or on premises Data center
• Fixed architecture cannot (at times) grow with the needs of the business

6. What is service account in Google cloud?

A service account is a special type of Google account that represents a non-human user that needs to authenticate and authorization to access data in Google APIs. Typically, service accounts are used in scenarios such as Running workloads on virtual machines.

7. Explain Project Number and Project ID.

Project Number automatically develops when a new project creates. However, the project ID is manually created by the user. Furthermore, the project number is mandatory whereas the project id is optional for few services.

Advance Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer Interview Questions

8. Describe Hybrid clouds

The term “hybrid cloud” refers to a system that combines both private and public clouds. Hybrid clouds show the performance and characteristics of both private and public clouds. This is the one with a sensible approach to cloud architecture implementation.

9. To make a private cloud, what are the key features?

Service level policy management, Virtualization and Cloud Operating System are the three (3) key features to make a private cloud.

10. What are the Clouds of Hybrids?

Hybrid clouds are a combination of public and private clouds. It is preferred over all other clouds because it employs the most stringent cloud infrastructure deployment methodology. It combines the best of both worlds’ characteristics and features. This encourages businesses to create their own cloud and makes it easier for them to offer access to others.

11. What is the differential between elasticity and scalability?

Scalability is a cloud storage feature that allows you to handle a growing workload by proportionally increasing resource resources. If the requirement is by traffic, the design provides on-demand services through the utilisation of scalability. Elasticity, on the other hand, is a dynamic function that allows for the commissioning and decommissioning of massive amounts of resource power. It is governed by the speed with which on-demand services come and the resource usage.

12. List the multiple layers that characterize cloud architecture?

The multiple layers that cloud infrastructure uses are

• Cloud Controller, CLC or
• Walrus Walrus
• Controller Cluster
• SC or Controller of Storage
• NC or Controller Node

13. Explain what the cloud computing use of ‘EUCALYPTUS’ is?

‘Eucalyptus’ is an open-source distributed computing software infrastructure that is used to install clusters on a cloud computing network. It create clouds that are public, hybrid, and private. It has the potential to create a private cloud for your own data centre and enables several other organizations to use its features.

14. What are the security rules that are enforced to protect cloud data?

The security regulations in the cloud to protect data are:

• Processing: Monitoring of the data that is correctly and fully processed in an application
• File: Handles and manages the corrupted data in any of the directories
• Output reconciliation: It governs the information that must reconcile from input to output
• Input Validation: Input Data Management
• Security and Backup: It offers security and backup as well as monitors logs for security violations

15. What are the services that are offered by the infrastructure as a service?

Digital and physical services that create a cloud have the support of IAAS (Infrastructure As A Service). The dynamics of the implementation and management of the resources offered by this layer are dealt with. Here, servers, computing, and other hardware systems are the networks.

16. What are the aspects of cloud architecture that distinguish it from standard architecture?

The features that make cloud architecture superior to conventional architecture are

• The hardware requirement is according to the request cloud architecture.
• The cloud infrastructure is capable of scaling on-demand services.
• The cloud design is capable of processing and controlling complex workloads without loss.

17. What is VPC in the Google cloud platform?

GCP’s Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a virtual network that connects compute engine VM instances, GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine) clusters, and other resources. The VPC gives you a lot of power over how your workloads connect regionally or internationally. A single VPC may communicate across numerous areas without using the public internet.

18. What is Load Balancing in cloud computing?

In a cloud computing context, load balancing is the act of allocating computer resources and applications to control demand. It aids in achieving high performance at reduced costs by effectively managing workload demands through resource allocation. It makes use of the concepts of scalability and agility to increase resource availability in response to demand. In addition, it can do health checks on the cloud application. All of the main cloud companies, such as AWS, GCP, Azure, and others, provide this capability.

19. What is the usage of utility computing?

Utility computing is a plug-in that an organization manages. It decides what type of services to deploy from the cloud. It facilitates users to pay only for what they use.

20. What is Cloud Identity?

Cloud Identity is an Identity as a Service (IDaaS) system that manages users and groups from a single location. Cloud Identity can set up to federate IDs between Google and other identity providers like Active Directory and Azure Active Directory.

21. What is ACL in Google cloud?

You may use an access control list (ACL) to determine who has access to your buckets and objects, as well as what degree of access they have. ACLs applies to specific buckets and objects in Cloud Storage. There are one or more entries in each ACL.

22. What is load balancing in cloud computing?

The practice of dispersing workloads over numerous computer resources is cloud load balancing. Cloud load balancing lowers the cost of document management systems while increasing resource availability. It’s a sort of load balancing that’s not to be mistaken with load balancing for the Domain Name System (DNS).

23. What is enclave computing?

Enclave computing is based on the idea of defense-in-depth where organizations apply various levels of network, data and infrastructure segregation.

24. Why is cloud compliance important?

Cloud compliance is about complying with the laws and regulations that apply to using the cloud. When moving to the cloud it is important to know in which countries your data will process, what laws will apply, what impact they will have, and then follow a risk-based approach to comply with them.

25. What are the four components of Security Assertion Markup Language SAML?

The standard specifies four main components: profiles, assertions, protocol, and binding.

26. To implement load balancing, which computer code is used?

To implement load balancing, we can use the “Apache mod_proxy_balancer” computer code. Load balancing is helpful in increasing the utilization, reducing the response time, lesser latency, and evading system overload.