Explanation: With multitenancy, where different cloud customers all share the same physical systems and networks, data classification becomes even more important to ensure that the appropriate security controls are applied immediately to prevent any potential leakage or exposure to other customers. Portability refers to the ability to move easily from one cloud provider to another. Interoperability refers to the ability to reuse components and services for different uses. Reversibility refers to the ability of the cloud customer to quickly and completely remove all data and services from a cloud provider and to verify the removal.

Explanation: Object storage runs on its own independent systems, which have their own redundancy and distribution. To ensure data consistency, sufficient time is needed for objects to fully replicate to all potential locations before being accessed. Object storage is optimized for high availability and will not be any less reliable than any other virtual machine within a cloud environment. It is hosted on a separate system that does not have dependencies in local host servers for access control, and it is optimized for files of all different sizes and uses.

Explanation: Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) solutions largely sit idle until they are actually needed. This traditionally has led to increased costs for an organization because physical hardware must be purchased and operational but is not used. By using a cloud system, an organization will only pay for systems when they are being used and only for the duration of use, thus eliminating the need for extra hardware and costs. Portability is the ability to easily move services among different cloud providers. Broad network access allows access to users and staff from anywhere and from different clients, and although this would be important for a BCDR situation, it is not the best answer in this case. On-demand self-service allows users to provision services automatically and when needed, and although this too would be important for BCDR situations, it is not the best answer because it does not address costs or the biggest benefits to an organization.

Explanation: The jurisdictions where data is being stored, processed, or consumed are the ones that dictate the regulatory frameworks and compliance requirements, regardless of who the data owner or custodian might be. The other concepts for protecting data would all play a prominent role in regulatory compliance with a move to the cloud environment. Each concept needs to be evaluated based on the new configurations as well as any potential changes in jurisdiction or requirements introduced with the move to a cloud.

Explanation: Incident response is the process through which security or operational issues are handled, including and coordination with and communication to the appropriate stakeholders. None of the other terms provided is the correct response.

Explanation: Billing for an audit, or other cost-related items, would not be part of an audit scope statement and would instead be handled prior to the actual audit as part of the contract between the organization and auditors. Reports, exclusions to the scope of the audit, and required certifications on behalf of the systems or auditors are all crucial elements of an audit scope statement.

Explanation: The gap analysis determines if there are any differences between the actual configurations in use on systems and the policies that govern what the configurations are expected or mandated to be. The other terms provided are all similar to the correct answer (“findings” in particular is often used to articulate deviations in configurations), but gap analysis is the official term used.

Explanation: FIPS 140-2 is a United States certification standard for cryptographic modules, and it provides guidance and requirements for their use based on the requirements of the data classification. However, these are not actual regulatory requirements. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) are all major regulatory frameworks either by law or specific to an industry.

Explanation: Virtual private networks (VPNs) are used to provide administrative personnel with secure communication channels through security systems and into trust zones. They allow staff who perform system administration tasks to have access to ports and systems that are not allowed from the public Internet. IPSec is an encryption protocol for point-to-point communications at the network level, and may be used within a trust zone but not to give access into a trust zone. TLS enables encryption of communications between systems and services and would likely be used to secure the VPN communications, but it does not represent the overall concept being asked for in the question. SSH allows for secure shell access to systems, but not for general access into trust zones.

Explanation: The network utilized is not one of the key components of an encryption system architecture. In fact, a network is not even required for encryption systems or the processing and protection of data. The data, software used for the encryption engine itself, and the keys used to implement the encryption are all core components of an encryption system architecture.