Free WGU Managing-Cloud-Security Practice Exam with Questions & Answers | Set: 6

In a cloud environment, responsibility for hardware management shifts primarily to the cloud provider. Customers no longer manage servers, storage devices, or physical networks directly. As a result, hardware management policies are less critical for customer audits compared to data classification, procurement, or acceptable use.

Data classification remains essential to secure sensitive information. Software procurement policies are important to control licensing and compliance. Acceptable use policies govern employee behavior in cloud environments.

While organizations may still need high-level oversight of hardware through contracts and SLAs, detailed hardware policies have a reduced role. Instead, emphasis shifts to managing the shared responsibility model, ensuring cloud provider controls complement customer governance.

Offsite backups are an effective countermeasure against vendor lock-in and lock-out risks. Managing Cloud principles explain that maintaining copies of data outside a single cloud provider reduces dependency and ensures continued access if services become unavailable.

Offsite backups enable organizations to migrate data, recover from provider outages, or exit a provider relationship without losing critical information. This control supports business continuity, portability, and resilience.

Video surveillance addresses physical security, disk redundancy improves availability within the same provider, and training programs improve awareness but do not reduce dependency. Therefore, offsite backups are the correct security control.

A pipeline refers to the structured process of moving code from development to production, encompassing implementation, review, automated testing, and deployment. In DevOps, this is known as a CI/CD pipeline (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment).

An iteration refers to a development cycle, a baseline represents a stable reference configuration, and a framework provides structure but not a deployment sequence. Only pipeline accurately captures the sequential, automated flow of code into production.

Pipelines enhance efficiency, consistency, and quality assurance by automating repetitive tasks, reducing human error, and ensuring that code changes are validated before reaching production. They are essential for modern cloud-native applications where rapid deployment is expected.

The Private cloud model provides the greatest retention of governance controls for large organizations with legacy systems. Managing Cloud guidance explains that private clouds are dedicated environments operated solely for one organization, either on-premises or hosted by a third party.

This model allows companies to maintain strict control over security policies, compliance requirements, data governance, and system configurations. Legacy systems that require specific architectures, custom integrations, or regulatory oversight can be more easily accommodated in a private cloud environment.

Public clouds offer limited control, community clouds share governance across organizations, and hybrid clouds introduce additional complexity. Therefore, private cloud is the most appropriate model for retaining governance controls with legacy systems.

Data seizure is the risk associated with legal authorities removing or accessing a person’s information stored in a public cloud. Managing Cloud guidance explains that cloud data is subject to the laws and legal processes of the jurisdiction in which it resides.

In some cases, government agencies may compel cloud service providers to disclose or seize data as part of legal investigations. This can occur without the data owner’s direct involvement and may affect confidentiality, privacy, and business operations. Public cloud environments increase this risk because infrastructure is shared and often spans multiple jurisdictions.

Remote wiping is a data destruction technique, vendor lock-in relates to dependency on providers, and data masking protects sensitive data. Therefore, data seizure is the correct risk.

Content-based discovery involves searching within the actual text or binary content of documents to find matches for keywords, phrases, or patterns. In e-discovery, when the requirement is to locate documents containing a specific phrase, searching based on content is the most direct and reliable method.

Other approaches, such as metadata-based discovery, only examine properties like creation date or author, which do not reveal the presence of specific text. Label-based discovery relies on pre-applied classification labels, which may not always be accurate. Location-based discovery limits searches to folders or storage locations but does not guarantee relevance.

Content-based discovery provides completeness in legal and regulatory investigations. It ensures that no relevant documents are overlooked simply because of inconsistent labeling or metadata, thus supporting compliance and defensibility in court proceedings.

A key benefit of federated identity and access management (IAM) is the ability to use an organization’s existing identities to access cloud services. Managing Cloud documentation explains that federation allows authentication to occur through a trusted identity provider rather than the cloud service provider.

This enables centralized identity management, reduces credential sprawl, and improves security by enforcing consistent authentication policies such as multi-factor authentication. Federation also simplifies user experience by enabling single sign-on across cloud and on-premises systems.

The other options do not represent core benefits of federated IAM. Therefore, using an organization’s identities is the correct answer.

The correct answer is electronic discovery (e-discovery). This process involves identifying, collecting, and producing electronically stored information (ESI) that may serve as evidence in legal proceedings. E-discovery ensures that relevant data such as emails, logs, or documents is preserved and made available in a legally defensible manner.

Chain of custody refers to documenting the handling of evidence once collected, while forensic imaging creates exact copies of digital media. Gap analysis identifies weaknesses in processes but is unrelated to evidence collection.

E-discovery is essential in both corporate and cloud contexts, as data is often distributed across multiple environments. Cloud providers may assist customers with e-discovery by providing tools for searching, tagging, and exporting relevant data. A sound e-discovery process ensures compliance with legal obligations and prevents spoliation of evidence.

The STRIDE threat model identifies six categories: Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information disclosure, Denial of service, and Elevation of privilege. In this scenario, the accountant modified data they were not authorized to change. This is an act of Tampering, which refers to unauthorized alteration of data or systems.

Spoofing would involve impersonating another identity, denial of service would block availability, and elevation of privilege would involve gaining higher access rights. The accountant already had legitimate access but misused it to alter data outside their scope of responsibility.

Tampering compromises data integrity, one of the pillars of the CIA triad. In cloud and enterprise systems, safeguards against tampering include role-based access control, least privilege, and auditing to detect unauthorized changes. Recognizing this as tampering helps in identifying insider misuse and implementing compensating controls.

Once a vendor has been chosen, the onboarding phase requires confirming contractual details and arranging technical agreements. This includes specifying encryption standards, data transfer methods, SLAs, and compliance responsibilities. These discussions establish a clear foundation for the partnership.

Auditing and monitoring occur later, during ongoing vendor management. Evaluating requirements and policies occurs earlier, during vendor selection. Terminating a relationship is an offboarding activity, not onboarding.

Clarifying technical and contractual details at onboarding ensures a secure, compliant, and efficient partnership. It reduces risks of miscommunication and enforces accountability from the beginning.