Which Google Cloud product allows for exploration of network flows and their payload to aid investigations?

The product that facilitates the exploration of network flows and their payload to assist in investigations is Packet Mirroring. This tool captures and analyzes the network traffic flowing to and from virtual machine instances in your Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) network. By using Packet Mirroring, security engineers can gain valuable insights into network behavior and anomalies, which can be critical for troubleshooting, monitoring, and investigation purposes.

Packet Mirroring is particularly useful for security analysis as it provides visibility into the data packets being transmitted, including their headers and payloads. This level of detail allows you to perform thorough investigations into traffic patterns, identify potential security threats, and understand the interactions between your resources in the cloud environment more effectively.

Other products mentioned serve different, albeit important, functions. Google Cloud Armor focuses on protecting applications from DDoS attacks and web application firewall features, while Cloud Data Loss Prevention is geared towards identifying and managing sensitive data to prevent data breaches. VPC Service Controls are used to enhance security by creating perimeters around GCP resources. However, none of these provide the capability to specifically analyze network flows and their payloads like Packet Mirroring does.