Overview of Google Infrastructure Security Services and Checklist

Introducing Google Security Services

Private Service Connect will enable easy, secure access to Google’s own Cloud services, 3rd party services, and in-house enterprise applications. Source: Forbes

Google Infrastructure Security Layers 

Secure Low-Level Infrastructure

• Security of Physical Premises: Google uses multiple physical security layers to protect data center floors and use technologies like biometric identification, metal detection, cameras, vehicle barriers, and laser-based intrusion detection systems.
• Hardware Design and Provenance: A data center for Google consists of many server machines connected to a local network. Google custom-designs the server boards and the networking equipment.
• Secure Boot Stack and Machine Identity: Google server machines use various technologies like BIOS, bootloader, kernel, and base operating system image to ensure the correct software stack booting.

Secure Service Deployment

• Service Identity, Integrity, and Isolation: For inter-service communication, google uses cryptography authentication and authorization at the application layer. This provides robust and abstraction-level access control and granularity that administrators and services naturally understand.
• Inter-Service Access Management: The owner of a service can use the infrastructure's access management features to specify precisely which other services can communicate with it.

Secure Data Storage

• Encryption at Rest: Google's infrastructure provides a wide range of storage services, including Bigtable and Spanner, as well as an essential management service.
• Deletion of Data: Deleting Google data most often starts with marking specific data as "deletion scheduled" rather than deleting the data.

Secure Internet Communication

• Google Front End Service: If a service intends to be made available on the Internet, it can register itself with the Google Front End (GFE) infrastructure service.
• Denial of Service (DoS) Protection: Google's overwhelming scale of infrastructure allows Google to handle loads of DoS threats easily. Google has multi-tier, multi-layer DoS safeguards that further reduce the risk of any DoS effect on a GFE operation.
• User Authentication: The next layer of defense after DoS protection comes from google's central identity service. This service usually manifests to end users as the Google login page.

Operational Security

• Safe Software Development: Google has a high emphasis on the secure environment for development; thus, it uses manual security reviews and in-depth design and implementation reviews for the riskiest features.
• Keeping Employee Devices and Credentials Safe: Google makes a considerable investment to protect their employees' equipment and credentials from compromise and monitor activities to identify potential compromises or illicit insider activity.

Application security describes the security measures at the application level that secures the data or the code from being stolen. Source: Application Security – Vulnerabilities Checklist

Securing Google Cloud Platform (GCP) 

1. The Compute Engine control plane exposes its API via the GFE, leveraging infrastructure security features such as Denial of Service (DoS) protection and centrally managed support for SSL / TLS.
2. End-user authentication to the Compute Engine control plane API is performed through Google's centralized identity service, providing security features such as hijacking detection. Authorization is done using the central IAM service in the cloud.
3. The network traffic for the control plane, from the GFEs to the first service behind it and from other control plane networks, is properly authenticated and protected by the system. It passes from one data center to another.
4. Compute Engine persistent disks are encrypted at-rest using keys protected by the central infrastructure's key management system.
5. The isolation provided to the VMs is based on hardware virtualization using the open-source Kernel-based Virtual Machine Stack.
6. Compute Engine's use of customer data obey the GCP use of customer data policy. Google does not access or use customer data, except when required to provide services to customers.

Google Security Checklist

1. Require 2-Step Verification for admin accounts
2. Enforce 2-Step Verification for users
3. Don't use a super admin account for daily activities.
4. Don't remain signed in to an idle super admin account.
5. Set up admin email alerts
6. Review the admin audit log
7. Add recovery options to admin accounts.
8. Enroll a spare security key
9. Save the backup codes.
10. Use unique passwords
11. Prevent password reuse with password alert
12. Regularly review activity reports and alerts.
13. Know and approve which third-party can access GSuite core services
14. Create a Whitelist of trusted apps
15. Limit external calendar sharing
16. Set up underlying Chrome OS and Chrome Browser policy
17. Warn the users when chatting outside their domain
18. Don't automatically share the contact information.
19. Validate email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
20. Disable the "Do not require sender authentication" setting for spam policies.
21. Prevent automatic forwarding the incoming mail
22. Enable comprehensive mail storage
23. Enable additional attachment protection
24. After that, enable enhanced pre-delivery message scanning.
25. Enable additional attachment protection
26. Limit group creation to admins
27. Set up the private access to groups
28. Enforce mobile password requirements (reduce risk if the device is lost)
29. Encrypt data on mobile devices
30. Enable mobile inactivity reports
31. Disable location history
32. Disable access to offline docs
33. Do not permit users to establish add-ons for Docs from the add-on store.

Conclusion

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