Courses and Certificates Managing-Cloud-Security Book

In the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, data security is a shared responsibility between the cloud provider and the enterprise. Managing Cloud principles explain that while the cloud service provider is responsible for securing the infrastructure, platform, and application itself, the customer retains responsibility for how data is used, classified, accessed, and governed.

The provider ensures data is protected through encryption mechanisms, availability controls, and secure storage, while the enterprise is responsible for data ownership, access permissions, identity management, and compliance with regulatory requirements. This shared ownership requires close coordination to ensure confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.

Application, platform, and physical security are primarily the provider’s responsibility in SaaS. Therefore, data is the correct answer.

The correct approach for sanitizing a USB thumb drive while preserving its usability is overwriting. Overwriting involves replacing the existing data on the device with random data or specific patterns to ensure that the original information cannot be recovered. This process leaves the physical device intact, allowing it to be reused securely.

Physical destruction, such as shredding, renders the device unusable. Degaussing only works on magnetic media like hard disks or tapes, not on solid-state or flash-based USB drives. Key revocation applies to cryptographic keys and not to physical devices.

By using overwriting, organizations comply with data sanitization standards while balancing operational efficiency. Many tools exist that perform multi-pass overwrites to meet regulatory requirements such as those from NIST or ISO. This ensures that sensitive data is removed while allowing the device to remain in circulation for continued use.

Database logs provide auditability and traceability required for event investigation and documentation. Managing Cloud principles state that logs capture detailed records of system activities, including access attempts, changes, transactions, and errors.

These logs allow security and operations teams to reconstruct events, identify unauthorized actions, and support forensic analysis. Database logs are essential for compliance, incident response, and continuous monitoring in cloud environments.

The other options do not provide the same level of chronological detail. Block and object storage hold data but do not record activity history, and database rows store current data states rather than event records. Therefore, database logs are the correct source for auditability and traceability.

Tier IV is the highest level in the Uptime Institute’s Data Center Site Infrastructure Tier Standards and is considered the most secure, reliable, and redundant. Managing Cloud documentation explains that Tier IV data centers provide fault tolerance with multiple independent systems.

This tier includes fully redundant components, multiple active power and cooling distribution paths, and continuous operation even during maintenance or failure events. Tier IV environments are designed for mission-critical systems requiring maximum uptime.

Tier I through Tier III offer increasing levels of redundancy but do not provide full fault tolerance. Therefore, Tier IV is the correct answer.