Google Cloud Certified Professional-Cloud-Security-Engineer Book

The requirements necessitate a private, cross-project service-to-service connection with explicit authorization—a capability perfectly addressed by Private Service Connect (PSC).

Internal Load Balancer: Ensures the service is isolated from the internet (Layer 7 Load Balancer for HTTP/S ML endpoint).

Private Service Connect (PSC): Allows a service (the model endpoint, exposed via the internal load balancer) in one VPC/project (producer) to be securely consumed by other VPCs/projects (consumers) using an internal IP address.

Defined List of Projects: PSC enables Explicit authorization, allowing the producer to define the allowed list of consumers that can establish a connection, directly meeting the granular restriction requirement.

Extracts:

"Private Service Connect provides... Explicit authorization. Private Service Connect provides an authorization model that gives consumers and producers granular control." (Source 2.4)

"Private Service Connect backends let Google Cloud load balancers send traffic through Private Service Connect to reach published services... Placing a load balancer in front of a managed service provides the consumer with more visibility and control..." (Source 2.4)

"Publish services by using Private Service Connect... Select the internal load balancer that hosts the service that you want to publish." (Source 2.3)

Activate Security Command Center (SCC) Premium: Security Command Center (SCC) Premium provides advanced security analytics and best practice recommendations for your Google Cloud environment. It includes functionalities such as asset discovery, vulnerability scanning, and security findings.

Create a Custom Rule to Mute Irrelevant Security Findings:

Navigate to the Security Command Center (SCC) in the Google Cloud Console.

Go to the "Settings" tab and find the "Mute findings" section.

Create a new mute rule by specifying the conditions that match the irrelevant controls you want to disregard. These conditions can be based on attributes such as resource type, finding type, and other metadata.

Apply this mute rule, which will ensure that the specified findings are not evaluated in your security posture assessments.

Ensure Continuous Compliance Monitoring:

The mute rules will automatically filter out the irrelevant findings, ensuring that only relevant controls from the CIS Google Cloud Computing Foundations Benchmark v1.3.0 are evaluated.

Regularly review and update the mute rules to adapt to any changes in your compliance requirements or security posture.

To meet the requirements of rotating the master key every 45 days, achieving FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validation, and ensuring the master key is stored redundantly in multiple US regions, you should use Customer-managed encryption keys with Cloud HSM. Here’s how:

Set Up Cloud HSM:

Deploy Cloud HSM in your Google Cloud environment. Cloud HSM provides a hardware-based key management solution that meets FIPS 140-2 Level 3 compliance.

Create and Manage Keys:

Create your encryption keys in Cloud HSM. These keys can be managed and rotated per your policy requirements.

Key Rotation:

Set up a key rotation schedule to rotate the master key every 45 days. Cloud HSM allows you to automate this process.

Geographic Redundancy:

Ensure that your Cloud HSM configuration spans multiple regions within the US to achieve redundancy. This will ensure that your keys are available even if a particular region experiences an outage.

Compliance:

Cloud HSM’s FIPS 140-2 Level 3 validation ensures that your encryption keys are managed in a secure and compliant manner.

Benefits:

Security and Compliance: Meets stringent compliance requirements.

Automated Management: Simplifies key management and rotation.

Redundancy: Ensures high availability of keys across multiple regions.

References

Cloud HSM Documentation

Key Management with Cloud KMS and Cloud HSM

To enforce private connectivity between on-premises hosts and Google Cloud APIs while optimizing for cost and operational efficiency, using a dedicated or Partner Interconnect is the best solution. This setup ensures a reliable, high-bandwidth connection with private IP addressing.

Choose Interconnect Type: Decide between Dedicated Interconnect and Partner Interconnect based on your bandwidth needs and proximity to Google Cloud locations.

Set Up Interconnect:

For Dedicated Interconnect, order circuits through the Google Cloud Console.

For Partner Interconnect, select a supported service provider and order the connection through them.

Configure VPC and Private Google Access:

In your VPC, enable Private Google Access to allow on-premises hosts to access Google APIs privately.

Go to "VPC network" -> "Private Google Access" and enable it for your subnets.

Establish Connectivity: Work with your network team and (if applicable) your Partner Interconnect provider to set up the physical and logical connections.

Test Connectivity: Verify that on-premises hosts can reach Google Cloud services using private IP addresses.