Google Security Lessons for IT

Security begins outside the door -- Google makes a rather big deal about the way in which they start taking secuirty seriously before the hardware hits the data center's raised floor. Their servers are built for them, to their own specifications, by carefully vetted manufacturing partners, so there's no chance of malware coming in the door in a 1U box. And they're just as careful with the employees, partners and contractors who have access to those data centers. The IT infrastructure extends to the physical infrastructure and a very broad perimeter.

Encryption is everywhere -- Security professionals frequently debate precisely which information should be encrypted, but Google takes an expansive view of encryption, providing multiple layers of encryption for many customers. In addition to the storage- and application-layer encryption that Google offers its customers, according to the document, "We enable hardware encryption support in our hard drives and SSDs and meticulously track each drive through its lifecycle." So the data is encrypted both at rest and in motion between applications and storage, and between the Internet and applications. Within the infrastructure, RPC traffic is also encrypted to make it more difficult for an attacker to hijack procedure calls and inter-process commands.

People and process are critical -- Yes, everyone gives lip service to the three legs of IT (and IT security); people, process and technology. But in practice, technology often gets the most attention because it's the easiest to tackle. In the document, Google describes a philosophy of constantly reviewing access permissions to make sure that each employee has the least privilege required to do their job. They also aggressively monitor employee activity to check for files, processes and applications accessed. The employee focus is one that begins with hiring and extends throughout the time that the employee has access to any part of the infrastructure.