Google Cloud Professional Cloud Security Engineer — Question 320

Your organization relies heavily on virtual machines (VMs) in Compute Engine. Due to team growth and resource demands, VM sprawl is becoming problematic. Maintaining consistent security hardening and timely package updates poses an increasing challenge. You need to centralize VM image management and automate the enforcement of security baselines throughout the virtual machine lifecycle. What should you do?

Answer options

• A. Use VM Manager to automatically distribute and apply patches to YMs across your projects. Integrate VM Manager with hardened, organization-standard VM images stored in a central repository.
• B. Configure the sole-tenancy feature in Compute Engine for all projects. Set up custom organization policies in Policy Controller to restrict the operating systems and image sources that teams are allowed to use.
• C. Create a Cloud Build trigger to build a pipeline that generates hardened VM images. Run vulnerability scans in the pipeline, and store images with passing scans in a registry. Use instance templates pointing to this registry.
• D. Activate Security Command Center Enterprise. Use VM discovery and posture management features to monitor hardening state and trigger automatic responses upon detection of issues.

Correct answer: A

Explanation

The correct answer is A because VM Manager allows for the centralized management of VM images and automates the application of patches, ensuring consistent security hardening across all VMs. Option B focuses on restricting OS and image sources which doesn't address the centralization and automation needed. Option C discusses building images and scanning them, but lacks the centralized management aspect. Option D, while useful for monitoring, does not provide a solution for enforcing security hardening throughout the VM lifecycle.