Google Cloud: Credit Card Info Not Needed

[hamahiramarin]

https://cloud.google.com/

The link above to the official Google Cloud page takes you to signup and then asks for debit/credit card info to prevent fraud/abuse, as described here: https://cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features#why-credit-card

However this step (entering credit card/bank account info) can be skipped, and any random GOogle account can be used to access the cloud computing resources via skipping that signup page and going directly to the dashboard: https://console.cloud.google.com/home/dashboard (if you know what the URL to the dashboard is).

This is a security risk since credit card/bank account info is used to verify an user's identity and help distinguish actual people from robots. Anyone who has the URL to the dashboard can exploit this vulnerability. Hackers, scammers, and terrorists can use Google Cloud resources to attack systems across the world; "simple" attacks such as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks can be used to paralyse any critical website.

Isn't this a huge security risk?

[strungout]

Yeah bro but not really as the free trial still requires passing a 2 step process with a valid credit card or bank details. So accessing the dashboard ain't much to do unless one adds payment to use anything useful. Btw, hackers aren't criminals, criminals are criminals. Thank hackers for your modern day security for being as secure as it is today.