Certified: The GIAC GISF Audio Course

In this episode, we’re going to build a mindset that matters as much as any technical control: shared responsibility. When people first learn about cloud services and connected environments, they often assume security works like it did with a home computer. Either you own it and secure it, or you do not own it and someone else secures it. Cloud and connected systems break that simple picture. A cloud provider might secure the physical data centers and core platform services, while you still control how your accounts are configured, who can access what, and how your data is protected. In connected environments, like SaaS applications and interconnected devices, security is spread across vendors, administrators, and end users. Shared responsibility is the mindset that helps you avoid two dangerous extremes: assuming the provider handles everything or assuming you must handle everything alone. Our goal is to understand how responsibility is divided, why confusion creates risk, and how to think clearly about what you must control.

Before we continue, a quick note: this audio course is a companion to our course companion books. The first book is about the exam and provides detailed information on how to pass it best. The second book is a Kindle-only eBook that contains 1,000 flashcards that can be used on your mobile device or Kindle. Check them both out at Cyber Author dot me, in the Bare Metal Study Guides Series.

Start with a simple definition: shared responsibility means that security is split between parties, and each party is responsible for different layers of the system. The exact split depends on the service model and the environment, but the principle is stable. The provider is typically responsible for securing the underlying infrastructure, like facilities, hardware, and certain platform components. The customer, meaning the organization using the service, is typically responsible for how they configure their environment, manage identities, and protect data. Beginners often think of the cloud as just someone else’s computer, but that phrase can mislead. It is someone else’s computer, but it is still your configuration and your data. If you configure access poorly or mishandle sensitive information, the provider cannot fix that for you. Shared responsibility means you must know where the provider’s responsibility ends and where yours begins.

A practical way to understand this is to think in layers from the ground up. At the bottom are physical facilities and hardware, like buildings, servers, storage devices, and network cables. In a traditional on-premises setup, your organization might be responsible for all of that, even if much of it is outsourced. In a cloud environment, the provider usually takes primary responsibility for those physical layers. Above that are core platform services, such as virtualization layers and managed infrastructure components. Providers often handle the security of these layers, including patching and baseline hardening. Above that are operating systems, applications, identities, and data, and these layers shift more toward customer responsibility. Even when the provider offers managed services, you still need to configure them correctly. Shared responsibility is about knowing which party controls each layer and what controls are required at that layer.

Now connect this mindset to why cloud and connected environments increase risk when misunderstood. Many breaches are not caused by cloud providers failing at physical security. They are caused by customers exposing data or granting overly broad access. For example, if a storage location is configured to allow public access, the provider may have done everything right at the infrastructure level, but the customer’s configuration created the problem. Similarly, if an organization fails to secure identities, such as using weak passwords or not controlling privileged accounts, attackers can access cloud resources using legitimate authentication pathways. The cloud does not eliminate identity risk; it often increases the importance of identity because the network perimeter is less central. Shared responsibility pushes you to focus on what you can and must control, especially access and configuration.

Connected environments also include SaaS applications, which are services you access through a browser and where the provider manages much of the application infrastructure for you. Many beginners assume that because the provider manages the application, security is fully handled. In reality, you still control users, permissions, and data handling inside the application. You decide who can share files externally, who can create integrations, and what data is stored there in the first place. SaaS also introduces risk through misused accounts and malicious insiders. If an attacker steals credentials and logs into a SaaS platform, the provider may not know the access is unauthorized unless there are strong signals or your organization has configured appropriate monitoring and controls. Shared responsibility means you must manage account security, role assignments, and the secure use of the platform, while the provider manages the service availability and underlying infrastructure.

The mindset becomes even more important in hybrid environments, where some systems are on-premises and some are in cloud services, and they are connected. In hybrid setups, responsibility boundaries can get blurry. A database might be on-premises, an application might run in the cloud, and identity might be centralized across both. Data might flow back and forth. Attackers exploit this complexity by moving through connections and trust relationships. Shared responsibility thinking helps you identify who is responsible for each connection and each control point. For example, if data flows from an on-premises system into a cloud storage service, who controls the encryption, access policies, and logging on both sides. If an identity provider is used to log into many services, who is responsible for securing that identity provider configuration and monitoring authentication events. Confusion here creates gaps, and gaps are where attackers thrive.

Another key aspect of shared responsibility is understanding that responsibility includes monitoring and response, not just prevention. Many people think security is only about keeping attackers out, but modern environments require continuous visibility. Providers may offer certain logging capabilities, but customers often must enable them, configure retention, and actually review them. If you do not collect the right logs, you cannot investigate suspicious activity or prove what happened after an incident. Shared responsibility means you need to know which security signals the provider gives you and what you must do to turn those signals into effective detection and response. This connects back to your defensive stack lessons. Logs, telemetry, and alerts still matter in cloud and connected environments. The difference is that the sources and control points may be distributed, and you must intentionally connect them.

A common misconception is that shared responsibility is a static diagram you memorize. In practice, it is a dynamic relationship that changes with the services you use and the features you enable. For example, a provider may offer a managed database service where they handle patching of the database engine, but you still handle database user accounts, network exposure settings, and encryption keys. If you choose to manage your own database on a virtual machine in the cloud, you take on even more responsibility, including patching and hardening the operating system. The more you manage, the more you own. The more the provider manages, the more you can offload, but you still retain responsibility for identity and data decisions. The mindset is about asking, what do we control here, what do we not control, and what does that imply for our security obligations.

Shared responsibility also matters for third-party integrations and connected devices, where responsibility can be fragmented. A SaaS platform might integrate with another service through an A P I. That integration might involve tokens or keys that grant access. If those tokens are mismanaged, an attacker can abuse the integration to extract data or perform actions. The platform provider might secure the core service, but your organization is responsible for how integrations are configured and who can create them. Connected devices and I O T systems add another layer because devices may be managed by vendors, may have long update cycles, and may be deployed in environments where monitoring is limited. Responsibility can be shared between device manufacturers, service providers, and the organization deploying the devices. The shared responsibility mindset forces you to identify where updates come from, who applies them, and how device access is controlled.

To adopt this mindset effectively, you should develop a habit of asking specific questions whenever you use a service. Who controls identity for this service. Who can grant permissions. Who owns the encryption keys if encryption is used. Who controls logging settings and retention. Who is responsible for patching and vulnerability management at each layer. Who is responsible for incident response actions such as account disabling or access revocation. These questions are not about paranoia. They are about clarity. Clarity prevents assumptions, and assumptions are a common root cause of cloud misconfigurations and data exposure incidents. Beginners often feel intimidated by cloud security, but the shared responsibility mindset simplifies it. You do not need to know every technical detail immediately. You need to know what you own so you can prioritize learning and control.

By the end of this lesson, the main takeaway is that cloud and connected security is a partnership between providers and customers, and your security outcomes depend heavily on how well you understand and execute your part. Providers typically secure the underlying infrastructure, while customers typically secure identities, configurations, access policies, and data handling. In SaaS, you still control who can access what and how data is shared. In hybrid and connected environments, the boundaries blur, so you must map responsibility across connections and integrations. The decision rule to remember is this: whenever you adopt a cloud or connected service, explicitly identify which layers the provider secures and which layers you must secure, then prioritize controls for identity, configuration, and data because those are where customer responsibility most often determines success or failure.