Duration

3 days

Overview

This course slices through the hyperbole and provides students with the practical knowledge they need to understand the real cloud security issues and solutions.

The training gives students a comprehensive review of cloud security fundamentals including a detailed description of cloud computing. It covers all major domains in the latest Guidance document from the Cloud Security Alliance, and the recommendations from the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). During the final day of training, students assess, build, and secure a cloud infrastructure through hands-on labs using Amazon Cloud.

This course prepares students for the Cloud Security Alliance CCSK certification exam.

Audience

This class is geared towards security professionals, but is also useful for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of cloud security.

Prerequisites

We recommend attendees have at least a basic understanding of security fundamentals, such as firewalls, secure development, encryption, and identity management
For security foundations training, refer to the Information Security Essentials course at hpe.com/ww/learnsecurity

Course objectives

To provide students with a base of knowledge on cloud computing security theory and practice and assist students in taking the CCSK exam.

Certifications and related examinations

Cloud Security Alliance—CCSK

Detailed Course Outline

Module 1: Introduction and cloud architectures

Define cloud computing and its business benefits.
List the attributes that define cloud computing
Identify pros and cons of cloud computing choices
Discuss the different components of the cloud computing stack
Differentiate service models and deployment models
Describe individual service models and how they operate
Describe individual deployment models and how they operate
Discuss shared responsibility for security across models
Identify cloud impact on related technologies that rely on cloud or are commonly seen in cloud deployments

Module 2: Adapting governance and information risk management

List the key elements of information security governance related to cloud operations
Identify strategies to manage provider governance
Describe the steps in risk management lifecycle specifically for moving to the cloud
List alternatives for risk treatment used by CSA
Differentiate risk treatment implementation responsibility across service models
List key aspects of business continuity and disaster recovery planning for cloud
Describe how incidents change in cloud
Identify challenges in incident response when working with a cloud provider at various service levels
List the steps in responding to a security incident

Module 3: Compliance and audit in the cloud

Identify legal responsibilities based on business compliance, regulations, and geography
Discuss contractual elements that support compliance and verification
Identify jurisdiction and regulation requirements
Describe legal ramifications and procedures for legal accountability
Describe types of audit and how to plan for them
List required artifacts for auditing
Describe how to handle the results of an audit

Module 4: Infrastructure technology

Identify architectural layers in a cloud environment
Provide a high-level description of the operation of hypervisors in creating, updating, and destroying virtual

machines

Discuss operation of the cloud management plane
List elements of virtual networking
Give a general description of the operation of shared storage
List additional infrastructure elements required in the operation of a cloud architecture
Differentiate the infrastructure delivery for different service models

Module 5: Securing cloud infrastructure

Discuss the security advantages and disadvantages of working with virtual infrastructure
List elements to secure the host and hypervisor levels
Discuss how to secure the cloud management plane
Describe how to secure virtual networking
Describe how to secure virtual machines during creation, use, movement, and destruction
List ways to secure API interfaces
Identify the security basics for the difference service models
Assess the security implications of different deployment models

Module 6: Data security for cloud computing

Describe different cloud storage models
Define security issues for data in the cloud
Assess the role and effectiveness of access controls
Describe data security lifecycle
Use functions, actors, and locations to identify cloud security issues, and specific controls to address security and governance
Discuss data encryption and key management
Describe forms of data loss prevention

Module 7: Cloud identity and access management

Define identity, entitlement, and access management terms
Differentiate between identity and access management
List best practices in provisioning identity and entitlement
Describe how to build an entitlement matrix
Differentiate between authentication, authorization, and access control
Describe architectural models for provisioning and how to integrate them
Describe the operation of federated identity management
List key identity management standards and how they facilitate interoperation

Module 8: Developing and securing cloud applications

Define application architecture, design, and operations lifecycle
Discuss impact of cloud operations on SDLC and identify threat-modeling requirements
Differentiate static and dynamic testing methods and give examples of each
Examine application security tools and vulnerability management processes
Discuss the role of compliance in cloud applications
Describe methods of ongoing application monitoring

Module 9: Security as a Service

Define SECaaS
List advantages and concerns for SECaaS
Describe various forms of security offered as services

Module 10: Vendor relationships

List elements of risk management planning and implementation to look for in a cloud service provider
Identify strategies to manage provider governance
Advocate for contractual clarity in all phases of risk management and information security
Describe elements of supplier assessment for cloud provider

Module 11: Create and Secure Root Account

Reinforce your understanding of public IaaS architectures
Define core IaaS components/options
Images
Instances
Volumes
Regions, VPCs, Security Groups, and Availability Zones
Object storage and snapshots
Lock down your root account
Create an initial super-admin user
Start initial monitoring with CloudTrail

Module 12: Identity and Access Management

Implement in-cloud identity management and entitlements
Recognize and use the AWS IAM “primitives”
Create a service account for AWS
Describe and implement IAM roles
Create a custom IAM policy
Distinguish between user and resource based policies
Assess differences between console and API access and credentials
Implement more-comprehensive monitoring and alerting
Recognize cloud logging architectures
Select basic alerting options
Automate event-driven security
Distinguish event from configuration logging

Module 13: Network and Instance Security

Build and secure a network in AWS
These principles will translate to most Software Defined Networks (SDNs) and cloud providers
Learn the AWS network primitives/components
Create a VPC with public and private subnets
Distinguish between security groups work and firewalls
Implement basic security groups
Secure your first instance
Understand the different types of images
Review the different types of instances (e.g. immutable)
Launch, secure, and connect to your first instance

Programme scope, delivery arrangements and suitability are confirmed during enquiry.

Cloud Computing Security Knowledge Plus