Security Command Center | Google Security

Introduction

Security Command Center (SCC) is Google Cloud's comprehensive security and risk management platform. It helps you prevent, detect, and respond to threats across your Google Cloud assets. In this tutorial, we will cover the basics of setting up and using SCC, with detailed explanations and examples.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you have the following:

A Google Cloud project with billing enabled.
Owner or Security Admin IAM role in your project.
Google Cloud SDK installed and configured.

Setting Up Security Command Center

To set up Security Command Center, follow these steps:

Open the Google Cloud Console.
Navigate to Security Command Center in the left-hand menu.
Click Enable to activate SCC for your project.

Once SCC is enabled, you can start configuring it to monitor your assets.

Configuring Asset Discovery

Asset discovery is a core feature of SCC that continuously scans your Google Cloud resources to identify and inventory your assets. To configure asset discovery:

Run the following command in your terminal:

gcloud scc settings update --organization=YOUR_ORG_ID --enable-asset-discovery

Replace YOUR_ORG_ID with your actual organization ID.

Setting Up Security Sources

SCC integrates with various security sources to provide comprehensive threat detection. To set up a security source, such as Google Cloud Security Scanner:

Navigate to Security Sources in the SCC dashboard.
Select the desired source and click Configure.
Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup.

Viewing and Responding to Findings

SCC aggregates findings from various sources and displays them in a unified dashboard. To view findings:

Navigate to the Findings section in the SCC dashboard.
Use filters to narrow down the findings based on severity, category, or source.

To respond to a finding, select it and choose an appropriate action, such as assigning it to a team member or marking it as resolved.

Using SCC API

You can interact with SCC programmatically using the SCC API. Here is an example of listing findings using the API:

curl -X GET \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
"https://securitycenter.googleapis.com/v1/organizations/YOUR_ORG_ID/sources/-/findings"

This command lists all findings for your organization. Replace YOUR_ORG_ID with your actual organization ID.

Best Practices

Here are some best practices for using Security Command Center effectively:

Regularly review and respond to findings to maintain a strong security posture.
Enable asset discovery to keep an up-to-date inventory of your resources.
Integrate SCC with other security tools and workflows for comprehensive threat management.

Conclusion

Security Command Center is a powerful tool for managing security and risks in Google Cloud. By following this tutorial, you should now have a good understanding of how to set up and use SCC to protect your cloud assets. Regularly monitor your SCC dashboard and stay proactive in responding to threats to ensure the security of your cloud environment.

Google Cloud Security Command Center Tutorial