In a cloud environment, which portion is typically handled by the customer in the shared responsibility model?

• A. All infrastructure
• B. Networking hardware
• C. Data and configurations
• D. Physical security of facilities

Answer: (C)

In the shared responsibility model, what the customer typically handles is data and configurations. The cloud provider takes care of the underlying infrastructure—physical hardware, networking gear, data center security, and the base platform. The customer is responsible for safeguarding the data they store in the cloud, including encryption, classification, retention, and backup, as well as configuring access controls, identity management, and the security settings of cloud services (such as firewall rules and secure default configurations). For example, you’d manage who can access data, what permissions they have, and how services are configured to enforce security policies, while the provider ensures the physical facilities, servers, storage, and virtualization are secure and up to date.