Back to roadmap
GCP cloud security

GCP Security Study Plan

A role-agnostic GCP security roadmap for Cloud Security Analysts, Researchers, Engineers, Operations experts, Managers, and Cloud Governance roles.

Use this after Common Security Skills. Learn practically, check what you can cover, and build strong role readiness through IAM, core services, security services, whitepapers, labs, benchmarks, and courses.

Total duration

10-14 weeks

Depends on practice depth and labs.

Ask this for every topic

What is this? Where is it used and why?
Why am I learning this service or concept now? Will it help my job role and future work?
How can I implement this? Hands-on knowledge has extra value.
How does this make things secure, or how do I secure it?
GCP FundamentalsGCP Native Security SkillsGCP Security WhitepapersCheck Your GCP Pentesting SkillsCheck Your Knowledge Against Security Benchmarks and FrameworksGCP Security Videos and Courses

Section 1

GCP Fundamentals

2-3 weeks

Start with IAM, then study key GCP services with least privilege, logging, monitoring, encryption, and misconfiguration risk in mind.

Week 1: IAM Deep Dive

IAM is important for every cloud role. Understand it practically as much as your target job demands.

Start with GCP IAM official docsUnderstand IAM roles and permissions
User, group, roles, when to use each, and why this over that.
Custom role vs Google managed role.
Cross-account IAM policy across roles, services, and accounts.
Understand IAM policy with a security mindset. Why this, why not this?
Using IAM Securely

Week 2-3: Core Services

For each GCP service, learn purpose, business value, security best practices, least privilege, misconfiguration risk, region needs, encryption, logging, monitoring, and service-specific controls.

GCS (Google Cloud Storage)
GKE
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)
Firewall rules and policies
Load Balancer
Cloud DNS
Cloud CDN
Google Cloud Armor
Google Cloud Logging
BigQuery
API Gateway
Certificate Manager
Secret Manager
Cloud Run
Cloud Function

Section 2

GCP Native Security Skills

4-6 weeks

Build security skill across GCP core services and get hands-on with native GCP security services.

Week 4-6: Core Services Security

IAM, super important.
Compute Instances
GCS (Storage Object)
VPC, one of the toughest areas along with GKE.
CloudSQL (RDS)
Bigtable (NoSQL)
API Gateway
GKE
Cloud Run
Cloud Function
Cloud Composer
BigQuery
Datastore
Dataproc
Secret Manager
Cloud Key Management

Week 7-9: Security Services Hands-on

IAM Policy Analyzer
IAM Organization Policies

Section 3

GCP Security Whitepapers

2 weeks

Read core GCP security papers and map them to architecture, governance, infrastructure security, and compliance thinking.

Week 10-11: Reading and Analysis

GCP OverviewImportant overviewIntroduction to GCP Security WhitepaperGoogle Cloud Security Foundation GuideGCP Well-Architected Security PillarRisk Governance of Digital TransformationGCP Security ChecklistGoogle Infrastructure Security Design OverviewNIST Cybersecurity Framework in the GCP cloudNIST 800-144 Security and Privacy in Public Cloud Computing