312-40 Reviews Questions

Cloud computing

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The role of a Cloud Service Manager is applicable to an organization like Coral IT Systems that consumes cloud services and is responsible for selecting, monitoring, implementing, reporting, and securing these services.

• Role Responsibilities: A Cloud Service Manager oversees the cloud services portfolio, ensuring that the services meet the organization’s requirements and are aligned with its business objectives.
• Service Selection: They are involved in selecting the appropriate cloud services that fit the company’s needs.
• Monitoring and Implementation: They monitor the performance and security of the cloud services and are responsible for their successful implementation.
• Reporting: The Cloud Service Manager is also responsible for reporting on the performance and compliance of the cloud services.
• Security: Ensuring the security of cloud services is a critical part of their role, which includes managing access controls and data protection measures.

References:In the shared responsibility model of cloud computing, the Cloud Service Manager plays a pivotal role in managing the services provided by the CSP and ensuring that they are effectively integrated and utilized within the organization1. This role is essential for maintaining the governance, risk management, and compliance aspects of cloud services1.

When Ray Nicholson, the senior cloud security engineer, identifies that an attacker has compromised a particular virtual machine (VM) using an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), his priority is to limit the scope of the incident and protect other resources in the cloud environment. Turning off the compromised VM may seem like an immediate protective action, but it has significant implications:

• Shutdown Impact: When a VM is turned off, its current state and all volatile data in the RAM are lost. This includes any data that might be crucial for forensic analysis, such as the attacker's tools and running processes.
• Forensic Data Loss: Critical evidence needed for a thorough investigation, such as memory dumps, active network connections, and ephemeral data, will no longer be accessible.
• Data Persistence: While some data is stored in the Virtual Hard Disk (VHD), not all of the forensic data can be retrieved from the disk image alone. Live analysis often provides insights that cannot be captured from static data.

Thus, by turning off the VM, Ray risks losing essential forensic data that is necessary for a complete investigation into the incident.

References:

• NIST SP 800-86: Guide to Integrating Forensic Techniques into Incident Response
• AWS Cloud Security Best Practices
• Azure Security Documentation

Amazon Route 53 uses geolocation routing to route traffic based on the geographic location of the users, meaning the location from which DNS queries originate1. When a user located in London visits Thomas’s domain, Amazon Route 53 will likely route the user request to the location that provides the best latency or is geographically closest among the available options.

• Geolocation Routing: Route 53 will identify the geographic location of the user in London and route the request to the nearest or most appropriate endpoint.
• Routing Decision: Given the locations mentioned (Florida, Paris, and Singapore), Paris is geographically closest to London compared to Florida and Singapore.
• Latency Consideration: If latency-based routing is also configured, Route 53 will route the request to the region that provides the best latency, which is likely to be Paris for a user in London2.
• Final Routing: Therefore, the user request from London will be routed to the machines in Paris, ensuring a faster and more efficient response.

References:Amazon Route 53’s routing policies are designed to optimize the user experience by directing traffic based on various factors such as geographic location, latency, and health checks12. The geolocation routing policy, in particular, helps in serving traffic from the nearest regional endpoint, which in this case would be Paris for a user located in London1.