Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET)

A framework of policies and technologies that controls who can access what resources under which circumstances in a cloud environment.

• Manages users, groups, and roles
• Defines granular permissions to cloud resources
• Crucial for enforcing the principle of least privilege

Shadow IT refers to the use of IT systems, devices, software, applications, and services without explicit organizational approval. Mitigating it involves gaining visibility and control over all cloud services used by employees.

• CASBs are primary tools for discovering and managing shadow IT.
• Shadow IT poses risks like data leakage, compliance violations, and security vulnerabilities.
• Visibility and policy enforcement are key to mitigation.

A security solution that monitors, filters, and blocks HTTP traffic to and from a web application, protecting against common web-based attacks like SQL injection and XSS.

• Operates at the application layer (Layer 7)
• Protects against specific web exploits
• Deployed at the edge of the network

A security solution that provides comprehensive protection for server workloads (virtual machines, containers, and serverless functions) across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, covering vulnerability management, runtime protection, and network segmentation.

• Secures workloads throughout their lifecycle.
• Includes vulnerability scanning, malware detection, behavioral monitoring.
• Supports various workload types like containers and VMs.

The use of IT systems, devices, software, applications, and services without explicit organizational approval or oversight from the IT department.

• Introduces unmanaged security risks
• Can lead to compliance violations
• Often driven by ease of access and user convenience

A cloud computing environment dedicated exclusively to a single organization, offering enhanced control, security, and isolation.

• Single-tenant architecture
• High level of control and customization
• Can be on-premises or hosted externally

A security principle requiring that a user or system be given only the minimum levels of access or permissions needed to perform its job function.

• Reduces the attack surface
• Limits damage from compromised accounts
• Essential for strong access control

The security principle of granting users, roles, or services only the minimum permissions necessary to perform their intended tasks in AWS. This minimizes the potential blast radius of a security incident.

• Achieved through carefully crafted IAM policies.
• Reduces risk by limiting unauthorized access.
• Essential for secure cloud operations, especially with serverless functions.

A cloud security technology that continuously monitors cloud environments for misconfigurations, compliance violations, and security risks, providing visibility and automated remediation.

• Identifies security gaps in cloud infrastructure.
• Ensures compliance with regulatory standards.
• Automates remediation of misconfigurations.

A cloud deployment model where computing services are delivered over the internet by a third-party provider, offering shared infrastructure and global availability.

• Owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider.
• Resources are shared among multiple organizations.
• Offers high scalability, elasticity, and global reach.

A stateless packet filtering firewall that controls traffic in and out of one or more subnets within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). It operates at the subnet level.

• Stateless: must explicitly allow both inbound and outbound traffic.
• Operates at the subnet level.
• Rules are evaluated in order, from lowest to highest.

The cryptographic protection of data that is stored on any persistent storage media, ensuring its confidentiality even if the storage medium or underlying infrastructure is compromised.

• Applies to data on hard drives, SSDs, object storage, databases.
• Renders data unreadable without the decryption key.
• Crucial for compliance and data breach prevention.

A cloud computing service model where consumers are provided with virtualized computing resources (VMs, storage, networks) over the internet. The customer manages the operating systems and applications.

• Provides fundamental computing resources.
• Customer has control over OS, applications, and data.
• Cloud provider manages virtualization, servers, storage, and networking hardware.

The practice of establishing secure and reliable network connections between on-premises infrastructure and cloud environments, typically using VPNs or dedicated links.

• Ensures data privacy and integrity during transit
• Extends on-premises security controls to the cloud
• Facilitates consistent policy enforcement

A fundamental security best practice for Amazon S3 (and similar object storage services) is to block all public access to buckets, especially those containing sensitive data, unless explicitly required and carefully controlled.

• Default S3 buckets are private
• Public access can be granted via bucket policies or ACLs
• Tools like S3 Block Public Access can enforce this organization-wide

A security policy enforcement point placed between cloud service consumers and cloud service providers to combine and interject enterprise security policies as cloud resources are accessed.

• Addresses shadow IT, data security, threat protection, and compliance
• Can enforce policies on sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud apps
• Operates as a proxy, API integration, or log-based

Integrating security practices and considerations into every phase of the software development lifecycle, from requirements gathering to deployment and maintenance.

• Includes threat modeling, secure coding, security testing.
• Aims to minimize vulnerabilities from the start.
• Prevents common security flaws like hardcoded credentials.

The process of encrypting data as it moves across networks, such as between a client application and a cloud service, to protect its confidentiality and integrity from eavesdropping or tampering.

• Typically achieved using HTTPS/TLS.
• Protects data during communication.
• Complements data at rest encryption for comprehensive security.

A system that allows users to use a single set of login credentials to access multiple applications and services across different security domains, often involving an on-premises identity provider and cloud services through a trusted relationship.

• Enables Single Sign-On (SSO).
• Relies on trusted relationships between identity providers.
• Commonly uses protocols like SAML or OIDC.

A cloud service model that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure.

• Focus on application development and deployment
• Provider manages OS, runtime, middleware
• Scalable and flexible development environment

The ability of a cloud system to withstand failures, adapt to changing conditions, and recover quickly from disruptions while maintaining acceptable levels of service.

• Achieved through redundancy, fault tolerance, and disaster recovery
• Often involves multi-region deployments
• Ensures business continuity

Applying the principle of least privilege to serverless functions by granting only the essential permissions required for each function to perform its specific task.

• Minimizes potential damage from compromised functions
• Reduces the attack surface
• Requires careful design of IAM policies

The process of encoding data while it is stored on a persistent storage medium, protecting it from unauthorized access even if the storage infrastructure is compromised.

• Protects data confidentiality on disk or in storage.
• Uses cryptographic algorithms to scramble data.
• Requires a key for decryption and access.

A dedicated, private network connection established between an organization's on-premises infrastructure and a cloud provider's network, bypassing the public internet.

• Examples: AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Cloud Interconnect.
• Offers higher bandwidth, lower latency, and enhanced security compared to VPN over internet.
• Used for hybrid cloud architectures and large data transfers.