Google Cloud gains federal certification, adds a suite of new security features

Google can now compete for Amazon and Microsoft's biggest cloud customer: The U.S. government.

Google Cloud, the fastest growing cloud business in an booming industry, announced a long list of new security features on Wednesday including denial-of-service protection, data transparency and a “Cloud Security Command Center” designed to give customers visibility into where sensitive data is located, firewall rules and resource deployment.

The command center is only in alpha right now, but it’s designed expressly to let teams know which data is open to the internet, which personally identifiable information and even which are vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities.

“Administrators can identify threats like botnets, cryptocurrency mining, and suspicious network traffic with built-in anomaly detection developed by the Google Security team, as well as integrate insights from vendors such as Cloudflare, CrowdStrike, RedLock, Palo Alto Networks, and Qualys to help detect DDoS attacks, compromised endpoints, compliance policy violations, network intrusions, and instance vulnerabilities and threats,” Google announced in a Wednesday blog post. “With ongoing security analytics and threat intelligence, enterprises can better assess their overall security health in a central dashboard or through APIs, and immediately act on risks.”

Google Cloud also gained the a Provisional Authorization to Operate (P-ATO) at the Moderate Impact level from GSA’s FedRAMP Joint Authorization Board (JAB). That’s big news as Google tries to cut into Amazon Web Services’s and Microsoft’s hold on the federal cloud market.

If Google Cloud is ever going to compete on that level — which is exactly where Google wants to be — government is a necessary target that’s now closer within reach.

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Technology

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure