CCSK Exam Dumps - Cloud Security Alliance Cloud Security Knowledge Questions and Answers

Kubernetes provides automated deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, which enhances operational efficiency and scalability. Reference: [CCSK v5 Curriculum, Domain 8 - Cloud Workload Security]

Privilege escalation is a major cloud security risk because attackers can:

Gain administrative access to cloud environments.

Modify security configurations, disable logs, and exfiltrate sensitive data.

Expand the attack blast radius, compromising multiple cloud resources.

To mitigate identity escalation threats, security teams must:

Implement strong IAM policies with least privilege access.

Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and Just-in-Time (JIT) access.

Monitor IAM logs for unusual privilege escalations and lateral movements.

This is detailed in:

CCSK v5 - Security Guidance v4.0, Domain 12 (Identity, Entitlement, and Access Management)

Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) - IAM Controls and Privilege Escalation Prevention​.

According to the CIS AWS (Center for Internet Security AWS) benchmarks, unauthorized API calls should be closely monitored because they indicate potential security threats or malicious activity within the AWS environment. Monitoring unauthorized API calls helps detect unauthorized access, misconfigurations, or attempts to exploit cloud resources. It's a key part of maintaining a secure AWS environment and helps ensure compliance with security best practices.

Regular file backups are important but not specifically a focus of the CIS AWS benchmarks. Data encryption at rest is a security best practice but monitoring unauthorized API calls directly addresses access control and security within the environment. Successful login attempts are important but monitoring failed login attempts (as opposed to successful ones) is generally a better practice for identifying suspicious activity.

In multi-tenant technologies, the fundamental security requirement is segmented and segregated customer environments. Multi-tenancy means that multiple customers (tenants) share the same physical or virtual infrastructure while maintaining logical separation to prevent data leakage and unauthorized access between tenants.

To ensure security and compliance in multi-tenant environments, providers implement:

Network segmentation (VLANs, Virtual Private Clouds)

Isolation mechanisms (such as virtual firewalls and access control lists)

Data isolation through encryption and access controls

Hypervisor-based isolation in virtualized environments

The goal is to create strong logical isolation between tenants to mitigate risks like data leakage, guest-hopping attacks, and unauthorized access.

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

B. Limited resource allocation: While resource limits may help performance management, they do not inherently ensure security in multi-tenant settings.

C. Resource pooling: Though fundamental to cloud computing, it does not address the isolation needed for secure multi-tenancy.

D. Abstraction and automation: These are key elements in cloud computing but do not directly address multi-tenant security.

Cloud security control objectives are designed to provide outcome-focused guidelines that help organizations achieve specific security goals in the cloud. These objectives are typically high-level and focused on the desired security outcomes, rather than dictating the exact technical implementation methods. This allows the security measures to be adaptable and applicable across different cloud environments and service models, while also being measurable to ensure effectiveness.

During the Detection and Analysis phase of incident response, the primary objective is to validate alerts to determine whether they represent a genuine security incident, and to estimate the scope of the incident to understand the potential impact on the organization. This phase involves analyzing evidence, confirming the nature of the incident, and gathering the necessary information to move forward with containment and remediation.

Developing and updating incident response policies is important but occurs more during the preparation phase, not during the detection and analysis of an active incident. Performing detailed forensic investigations typically takes place during later phases, such as Containment, Eradication, & Recovery or Post-Incident Analysis. Implementing network segmentation and isolation may be part of the Containment phase but is not the primary focus during the Detection and Analysis phase.

Including key metrics and periodic reassessment in cybersecurity governance is essential for ensuring the effective and continuous improvement of security measures. Metrics provide a way to assess the current state of security, identify gaps, and measure progress over time. Periodic reassessment allows organizations to adapt to emerging threats and vulnerabilities, ensuring that security controls remain relevant and effective as the threat landscape evolves.

While meeting legal requirements is important, the primary reason for metrics and reassessment is continuous improvement, not just legal compliance. Documenting cybersecurity incidents is important, but the main focus of key metrics and reassessment is improving and adapting security strategies. Zero security incidents is not feasible; the goal is to reduce incidents and manage risk, not to eliminate all incidents entirely.

The correct answer is D. Cloud systems automatically monitor resource usage and provide billing based on actual consumption.

Measured Service is one of the essential characteristics of cloud computing as defined by the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). It implies that cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource usage by leveraging a metering capability. This capability tracks and reports resource consumption (such as CPU, storage, or bandwidth), which is used for billing, monitoring, and planning.

Key Characteristics:

Automatic Monitoring: Cloud platforms continuously track resource usage without manual intervention.

Billing Based on Usage: Customers are billed based on the actual consumption of resources (pay-as-you-go model).

Transparency: Users can view detailed usage reports to understand their resource utilization and associated costs.

Resource Optimization: Providers use these metrics to optimize resource allocation and improve efficiency.

Why Other Options Are Incorrect:

A. Fixed immutable set of measured services: This contradicts the concept of elasticity and resource pooling in cloud computing.

B. Elastic resources: While elasticity is a cloud characteristic, it does not directly define measured service.

C. Manual reporting: Measured service is about automated, real-time monitoring and billing, not manual data gathering.

Real-World Example:

In AWS, services like Amazon CloudWatch automatically collect and provide usage metrics, and the AWS Billing Console shows the cost associated with each resource.

The Shared Responsibility Model in cloud computing establishes that:

Cloud providers are responsible for securing the underlying infrastructure, networking, and hardware.

Customers (organizations) are responsible for securing data, identity and access management (IAM), encryption, and compliance obligations.

Data ownership remains with the customer, even though visibility into cloud infrastructure may be limited.

The major security challenge in cloud computing is that organizations lack full control over cloud infrastructure but must still ensure that security policies align with regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS).

This principle is outlined in:

CCSK v5 - Security Guidance v4.0, Domain 2 (Governance and Enterprise Risk Management)

Cloud Security Alliance’s (CSA) Cloud Controls Matrix (CCM) - Data Security and Governance​.