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Description

It is recommended that Essential Contacts is configured to designate email addresses for Google Cloud services to notify of important technical or security information.

Rationale​

Many Google Cloud services, such as Cloud Billing, send out notifications to share important information with Google Cloud users. By default, these notifications are sent to members with certain Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles. With Essential Contacts, you can customize who receives notifications by providing your own list of contacts.

Impact​

There is no charge for Essential Contacts except for the 'Technical Incidents' category that is only available to premium support customers.

Audit​

From Google Cloud Console​

  1. Go to Essential Contacts by visiting https://console.cloud.google.com/iam-admin/essential-contacts

  2. Make sure the organization appears in the resource selector at the top of the page. The resource selector tells you what project, folder, or organization you are currently managing contacts for.

  3. Ensure that appropriate email addresses are configured for each of the following notification categories:

    • Legal

    • Security

    • Suspension

    • Technical

Alternatively, appropriate email addresses can be configured for the All notification category to receive all possible important notifications.

From Google Cloud CLI​

  1. To list all configured organization Essential Contacts run a command:

    gcloud essential-contacts list --organization=<ORGANIZATION_ID>

  2. Ensure at least one appropriate email address is configured for each of the following notification categories:

    • LEGAL

    • SECURITY

    • SUSPENSION

    • TECHNICAL

Alternatively, appropriate email addresses can be configured for the ALL notification category to receive all possible important notifications.

Default Value​

By default, there are no Essential Contacts configured.

In the absence of an Essential Contact, the following IAM roles are used to identify users to notify for the following categories:

• Legal: `roles/billing.admin`
• Security: `roles/resourcemanager.organizationAdmin`
• Suspension: `roles/owner`
• Technical: `roles/owner`
• Technical Incidents: `roles/owner`

References​

  1. https://cloud.google.com/resource-manager/docs/managing-notification-contacts