PDE - Designing Data Processing Systems - Section 1.1

Design for security and compliance, including IAM, organisation policies, encryption, privacy strategies for PII, regional data sovereignty, and multi-environment configurations.

Apply Cloud IAM roles and organisation policies to enforce least-privilege access across data resources, and choose between Google-managed, customer-managed encryption keys, and Cloud DLP de-identification to protect PII and meet regional data sovereignty requirements.

Cloud IAMOrganisation policiesCustomer-managed encryption keysCloud DLP

Practice question for this objective

Free sampleDesigning Data Processing Systemsmedium

A bank runs a BigQuery dataset of transaction records that must be encrypted with keys the bank controls, rotated on a fixed schedule, and destroyable on request, while a separate security team alone administers those keys and the analytics engineers who query the data must never be able to disable, rotate, or destroy a key. Which TWO controls together enforce both the customer-controlled encryption requirement and the separation of key administration from data access? (Select TWO.)

  • ACreate the BigQuery dataset with a customer-managed encryption key from a Cloud KMS key ring, and configure a key rotation period on that key so new key versions are generated automatically on the required schedule. Correct
  • BRely on Google-managed default encryption for the dataset and document the rotation behaviour in the data protection policy, since all BigQuery data is encrypted at rest regardless of key ownership.
  • CGrant the security team the Cloud KMS Admin role on the key ring and grant the analytics engineers only the Cloud KMS CryptoKey Encrypter/Decrypter role, so engineers can use the key for queries but cannot manage its lifecycle. Correct
  • DGive the analytics engineers the Cloud KMS Admin role on the key ring so their queries can transparently use the key without a separate grant, and audit their usage with Cloud Audit Logs.
  • EApply customer-supplied encryption keys to the BigQuery dataset and store the raw key material in a Secret Manager secret that the analytics engineers read at query time.
Combine a customer-managed encryption key with split Cloud KMS roles to give the customer key control while separating key administration from data access. A customer-managed encryption key gives the customer ownership of rotation and destruction that Google-managed keys cannot, while granting the security team the KMS Admin role and engineers only the Encrypter/Decrypter role enforces separation of duties so data users can never manage key lifecycle. Together these two controls satisfy both the encryption-ownership and least-privilege requirements that neither default keys nor a single broad grant can meet.

Why A is correct: Correct because a customer-managed encryption key places key lifecycle, scheduled rotation, and destruction under the bank's control rather than relying on Google-managed defaults, which directly satisfies the requirement that the bank own and be able to destroy the encryption key.

Why B is wrong: Tempting because BigQuery does encrypt all data at rest by default, but Google-managed keys cannot be rotated on the bank's schedule or destroyed on demand by the customer, so this fails the customer-control and per-request destruction requirements entirely.

Why C is correct: Correct because splitting the administrative role from the encrypt/decrypt role enforces separation of duties: the security team manages rotation and destruction while engineers hold only the permission needed to read and write data, never to disable or destroy a key.

Why D is wrong: Tempting because granting a broad role removes a permissions hurdle for queries, but Cloud KMS Admin allows disabling, rotating, and destroying keys, which violates the explicit requirement that engineers must never be able to manage key lifecycle.

Why E is wrong: Tempting because customer-supplied keys also give the customer control of key material, but BigQuery datasets do not accept customer-supplied encryption keys, and exposing raw key material to engineers would defeat the separation of key administration the scenario demands.

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