Google Cloud Professional Cloud Security Engineer Practice Exam

To prevent any VM from reaching the public internet while performing batch processing, what should be enabled?

1. Public IP assignment

2. Firewall rules allowing outbound traffic

3. Private Google Access

4. Cloud IAM role management

The correct answer is: Private Google Access

Enabling Private Google Access is the appropriate choice for ensuring that virtual machines (VMs) can interact with Google services without being assigned public IP addresses. This feature allows VMs in a private network to reach Google APIs and services securely, while still restricting their access to the public internet. By utilizing Private Google Access, you can maintain a higher level of security by keeping the VMs isolated from the public internet, which is critical for sensitive operations like batch processing. This approach ensures that the VMs can still perform necessary tasks that involve Google services without exposing them to potential threats and vulnerabilities associated with public internet access. In contrast, public IP assignment would expose the VM to the internet, inherently increasing security risks. Firewall rules allowing outbound traffic would permit access to the public internet, which is contrary to the requirement for isolation. Cloud IAM role management focuses on identity and access management rather than network traffic control, hence it does not directly facilitate the goal of preventing VMs from reaching the public internet.