Chapter 6: Securing the Cloud

Question 1

Four Different Cloud Delivery Options

200

Answer 1

<b>P</b>rivate Cloud
-Usually means it’s owned and operated by the same person.
<b>P</b>ublic Cloud
-Someone owns the cloud infrastructure and leases it out
<b>C</b>ommunity Cloud
-Exclusive use by a specific community, generally one with common goals
<b>H</b>ybrid Cloud
-A combination of the types listed above

Question 2

Type I vs. Type II Hypervisor

201

Answer 2

<b>T</b>ype I Hypervisor, AKA <b>bare metal</b>
-Independent of the Operating System and boots before it
<b>T</b>ype II Hypervisor, AKA <b>hosted</b>
-The VMware is dependent on the OS and cannot be booted up until the OS is ready. This is common in consumer-grade VMware.

Question 3

Snapshots

203

Answer 3

Saving the state of the VM so you can revert it in case of system failure.
-This can also be used for VM cloning.

Question 4

Patch Compatibility

203

Answer 4

You need to make sure before you roll a patch out to all your virtual machines that it’s not gonna break them. Make sure to have a test machine readily available any time you want to make a significant change.

Question 5

Host Availability/Elasticity

204

Answer 5

Not only is it important for Cloud hosts to have their infrastructure up and running 99.999% of the time, but they also need to be very flexible. A consumer needs to be able to scale up their environment as much as they need to. You should make it feel limitless for them.

Question 6

Security Control Testing

204

Answer 6

Essentially penetration testing on the Virtual Machine. Throw everything you have at it so you can find its weaknesses and append/report them.

Question 7

Sandboxing

204

Answer 7

Running the applications in restricted memory store, limiting the possibility of app crash, which could let the client server hop and fuck someone else up.

Question 8

Multitenancy

Answer 8

Cloud computing is so damned cost efficient pretty much only because they run one giant machine that all of their clients use at the same time. If a security flaw can be found, a client could start accessing other peoples’ information.

What you need to do is see if you can segregate your data, encrypt everything you have, keep an eye on the logs, and try to use a VPN if you can. YOU are responsible for your own data, whether someone else is hosting it or not.