Ace Your 312-40 Certified Cloud Security Engineer (CCSE) Exam

Azure Activity Logs provide a record of operations performed on resources within an Azure subscription. They are essential for monitoring and auditing purposes, as they offer detailed information on the operations, including the timestamp, status, and the identity of the user responsible for the operation.

Here’s how Azure Activity Logs can be utilized by Alice:

Recording Operations: Azure Activity Logs record all control-plane activities, such as creating, updating, and deleting resources through Azure Resource Manager.

Evidence Collection: For forensic purposes, these logs are crucial as they provide evidence of the operations performed on specific resources.

Syncing Logs: Azure Activity Logs can be integrated with Azure services for better monitoring and can be synced with other tools for analysis.

Access and Management: Investigators like Alice can access these logs through the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or Azure Monitor REST API.

Security and Compliance: These logs are also used for security and compliance, helping organizations to meet regulatory requirements.

References:

Microsoft Learn documentation on Azure security logging and auditing, which includes details on Azure Activity Logs1.

Azure Monitor documentation, which provides an overview of the monitoring solutions and mentions the use of Azure Activity Logs2.

Chris Noth is looking to manage user identities and automate the provisioning and de-provisioning of users in cloud-based services and applications. The IAM standard that supports this functionality is SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management).

SCIM Overview: SCIM is an open standard designed to manage user identity information across different domains. It simplifies user management in cloud-based applications and services by allowing for automated user provisioning and de-provisioning1.

Automated Provisioning: With SCIM, when new users are added to an organization’s system, their identities can be automatically provisioned across various cloud services without manual intervention1.

Automated De-provisioning: Similarly, when users leave the organization or their roles change, SCIM can ensure that their access is automatically revoked or adjusted across all connected services. This reduces the risk of former employees retaining access to sensitive systems and data1.

Why Not the Others?:

XACML (eXtensible Access Control Markup Language) is used for defining access control policies, not for identity provisioning.

OpenID is an authentication standard that allows users to be authenticated by certain co-operating sites using a third-party service, without the need for passwords.

OAuth is an open standard for access delegation, commonly used as a way for Internet users to grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites but without giving them the passwords.

References:

MajorKey Tech: What is Provisioning and De-provisioning in IAM1.

SailPoint: What is automated provisioning?2.

Nestmeter: Streamlining Security: User Provisioning and Deprovisioning with IAM3.

Azure Application Gateway is a web traffic load balancer that enables Sandra to manage traffic to her web applications. It is designed to distribute traffic to backend virtual machines and services based on various HTTP request attributes.

Here’s how Azure Application Gateway meets the requirements:

Routing Based on HTTP Attributes: Application Gateway can route traffic based on URL path or host headers.

SSL Termination: It provides SSL termination at the gateway, reducing the SSL overhead on the web servers.

Web Application Firewall: Application Gateway includes a Web Application Firewall (WAF) that provides protection to web applications from common web vulnerabilities and exploits.

Session Affinity: It can maintain session affinity, which is useful when user sessions need to be directed to the same server.

Scalability and High Availability: Application Gateway supports autoscaling and zone redundancy, ensuring high availability and scalability.

References:

Azure’s official documentation on Application Gateway, which details its capabilities for routing traffic based on HTTP request attributes1.

The Google Cloud Security Command Center (Cloud SCC) is the tool designed to provide a centralized dashboard for viewing and monitoring sensitive data, scanning storage systems, and reviewing access rights to critical resources.

Centralized Dashboard: Cloud SCC offers a comprehensive view of the security status of your resources in Google Cloud, across all your projects and services1.

Sensitive Data Scanning: It has capabilities for scanning storage systems to identify sensitive data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), and can provide insights into where this data is stored1.

Access Rights Review: Cloud SCC allows you to review who has access to your critical resources and whether any policies or permissions should be adjusted to enhance security1.

Alerts and Incident Response: In the event of a potential breach, Cloud SCC can help identify the affected resources and assist in the investigation and response process1.

References:Google Cloud Security Command Center is a security management and data risk platform for Google Cloud that helps you prevent, detect, and respond to threats from a single pane of glass. It provides security insights and features like asset inventory, discovery, search, and management; vulnerability and threat detection; and compliance monitoring to protect your services and applications on Google Cloud1.