INTRODUCTION
Throughout your career in cloud security administration and engineering, you will be asked to develop and improve cloud resources to support a company’s security posture. You will need to configure the security settings for a cloud service model to be in alignment with an organization’s business requirements.
In this task, you will be given a scenario that includes business requirements from a company’s IT department. Using the provided lab environment, you will update the cloud security configurations of the company. You will submit a report to executives outlining your security plan and the updated configurations. You will need to read the attached “Company Overview and Requirements” prior to starting your work.
Please note that the live lab environment has a 4-hour time limit. At the end of the 4-hour time limit, 15-minute extensions will be offered (up to an additional 2 hours). See the “D485 Skillable Lab FAQ” attachment for more information.
SCENARIO
As organizations embrace cloud computing, cybersecurity practices continue to evolve. A robust cloud security posture protects assets from bad actors and helps organizations realize the benefits of cloud computing. In this task, you will assume the role of cloud security engineer for SWBTL LLC. You have been hired following the departure of a disgruntled employee who left behind no documentation and created cybersecurity concerns.
You will analyze the current environment, using the lab environment web link and the “Company Overview and Requirements” attachment, making recommendations and implementing configuration changes in alignment with regulatory and business requirements. The analysis should also include shared responsibilities, risks, threats, and countermeasures. The chief information officer has requested a walk-through of the environment with demonstrations of security misalignments, updated configurations, and how the updates meet compliance requirements.
In your lab instance, you will be provided accounts on the right-hand side that correspond to the specific job roles. Use only those accounts to complete your task. You may see other accounts or groups in the lab, but those should not be used.
REQUIREMENTS
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The similarity report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.
You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.
Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs, Google Slides, OneDrive, etc., unless specified in the task requirements. All other submissions must be file types that are uploaded and submitted as attachments (e.g., .docx, .pdf, .ppt).
A. Provide an executive summary of the company’s current security environment based on the business requirements given in the “Company Overview and Requirements” document.
B. Describe a proposed course of action for a secure Azure cloud solution for the company, based on the given scenario, and include the following in your description:
• identification of the service model
• applicable regulatory compliance directives
• security benefits and challenges of transitioning to this service model
C. Analyze the current state of role-based access controls in the cloud lab environment for the marketing, accounting, and IT resource groups.
1. Discuss three recommendations for role-based access controls that can be configured in alignment with the principle of least privilege based on the business requirements in the given scenario.
2. Configure the role-based access controls in alignment with your given recommendations in part C1 and provide a screenshot for each of the updated configurations. The screenshots must be clear and show the full view of your screen, including the date and time.
D. Analyze the existing Azure Key Vaults in the cloud lab environment focusing on encrypting data in transit and data at rest for the marketing, accounting, and IT resource groups.
1. Implement two best practices for Azure Key Vaults applicable to the resource groups listed and in alignment with the given scenario, providing screenshots of your updated access policies for each group. The screenshots must be clear and show the full view of your screen, including the date and time.
2. Explain two recommendations for how the key vaults can be used to encrypt both data at rest and data in transit.
E. Analyze the current state of file backups in the cloud lab environment for the company.
1. Configure two settings for file backups that are in alignment with the given scenario, providing screenshots of your updated configurations. The screenshots must be clear and show the full view of your screen, including the date and time.
2. Explain how the updated configurations from part E1 support the business requirements.
F. Describe the division of security responsibilities between the company and the cloud service provider (Azure), including shared responsibilities if any, for the cloud service model you selected in part B.
1. Discuss three risks assumed by the company for the cloud service model based on the shared responsibilities identified in part F, and include in your discussion the level of impact each risk may have on the company’s use of cloud computing resources.
2. Explain three recommendations to ensure compliance with the company’s cloud security posture, and include a justification based on industry best practices for each recommendation.
G. Explain three threats that have the potential to impact the company’s updated cloud solution, and include in the explanation the threat mitigation countermeasures that could be used to minimize the impact of each threat.
H. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
I. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.
