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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesCloud providers secure parts of their services, but they do not automatically configure every account, workload, data store, or access rule safely for you. What the customer must protect depends on the service model, workload, data, and applicable requirements. Use this checklist to identify your responsibilities and turn provider guidance into controls that fit your environment.
1. Map who is responsible for each cloud service
Start with a service-by-service inventory. A cloud account may combine infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS); the provider-customer boundary differs across them. Microsoft Learn’s shared-responsibility guidance, updated 2026-08-24, describes responsibilities as dependent on the service model. AWS likewise documents customer-specific duties for IAM and AWS STS.
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For each workload, record who owns each control and where it is configured. Verify the division against the provider’s current documentation for that exact service rather than assuming one provider-wide rule applies.
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- Identity and access, including administrator and service identities
- Data classification, protection, and encryption choices
- Network access and public exposure
- Operating systems and application configuration
- Backups, restoration, and recovery testing
- Audit logging, monitoring, and incident response
Keep this responsibility map with the workload’s owner and review it when the service or architecture changes.
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2. Secure identities before other settings
Require multifactor authentication
Enable MFA wherever the identity provider and service support it, starting with administrators, privileged users, and accounts used to manage security or billing. CISA’s guidance says, “Strong passwords help, but they are no longer enough to keep accounts and systems safe when used alone.” Prefer phishing-resistant methods, such as a supported security key, where practical. CISA identifies physical security keys as its strongest listed MFA option in its comparison and says they provide the best phishing protection among those options. Before purchasing a key, confirm its protocol and compatibility with your identity provider and services; a key is one account control, not a substitute for the rest of this checklist.
Apply least privilege to people and workloads
Review both human and service identities. Remove unused accounts and grants, and assign only the permissions a role or workload needs. Check provider-specific defaults rather than treating them as safe by definition: Google Cloud’s enterprise foundation controls flag automatic broad role grants to default service accounts as a configuration to examine.
3. Make audit logs actionable and difficult to alter
Enable audit and activity logging for the cloud services you use, then centralize the records so an attacker or mistaken administrator cannot easily erase the only useful copy. Limit who can view, change, or delete logs. Set retention according to your investigation, operational, and compliance needs; there is no single retention period established for every organization or service.
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Logging is incomplete unless someone acts on it. Name the person or team responsible for reviewing alerts and responding, and alert on high-risk events such as failed logins and privilege changes. CISA’s business-systems logging guidance covers centralization, access restriction, retention, alerting, and incident roles.
4. Protect data and manage secrets deliberately
Classify the information each workload stores or processes, then decide what protection is appropriate in transit and at rest. Document encryption and key-management choices, including who can access or administer keys. Microsoft’s shared-responsibility guidance assigns customers responsibility for data and encryption decisions; AWS security design principles also call for protecting data in transit and at rest.
Do not assume that a provider’s encryption capabilities mean your organization has made every customer-side decision. Include credentials, API tokens, and other secrets in the same governance: identify where they are stored, which identities can retrieve them, and how access is controlled.
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5. Review infrastructure and network exposure
Use the cloud provider’s organization and infrastructure baseline as a starting point, then inspect the actual network rules and resources exposed to the internet. Narrow access to the smallest practical set of users, systems, and services; broad access rules should have a documented workload need. Google Cloud’s secure enterprise foundation controls explicitly cover organization and networking.
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Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.6. Prepare to detect, investigate, and recover
Define incident roles and investigation steps before an alert arrives. Decide who receives notifications, who can contain an affected account or workload, where investigators find logs and metrics, and how business owners are involved in recovery. AWS Well-Architected security design principles include preparing for security events and using collected telemetry to investigate and act; the cited page is dated 2022-03-31.
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Make sure the people responsible can access the required telemetry and know how to preserve it during an incident. Recovery planning should also identify who owns backups and restoration for each service, as established in the responsibility map.
7. Use a provider-specific baseline and revisit it
Translate the checklist into the chosen provider’s current controls and interfaces. AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and SaaS products do not assign every responsibility the same way or expose identical defaults, so avoid applying a universal console path or setting name across them. Compare provider guidance across these dimensions:
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- Identity controls and least-privilege options
- Logging coverage, retention, and tamper protection
- Data protection and key-management responsibility
- Organization, infrastructure, and network controls
- Available baseline tooling and maturity levels
For SaaS environments, CISA lists Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) resources as no-cost assessment and hardening tools, including controls such as MFA, strong passwords, and audit logging. Check the current applicability and coverage for the specific SaaS product before relying on those resources.
Reassess when services, accounts, access grants, or exposed resources change, and when the provider updates its recommendations. Google recommends progressing from basic to intermediate and advanced controls according to the use case; the appropriate baseline is therefore an ongoing operational decision, not a permanent certification.
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