A cloud engineer is preparing to roll out several virtual instances for a department handling highly confidential data. The organization has specific compliance requirements that dictate a stringent security configuration. The engineer must choose a deployment method that ensures each virtual instance will be consistent with the latest organizational security directives. Which method should the engineer employ?
Utilize a template from the organization's image repository without verifying when it was last updated with the latest security standards.
Execute a standard operating system installation followed by an automated security configuration script that was last reviewed six months ago.
Duplicate the configuration of an existing, secure environment without reviewing recent security advisories and baseline updates.
Deploy instances from a hardened golden image crafted to reflect up-to-date organizational security baselines at the time of instance creation.