Which practice is crucial for maintaining the integrity of cloud resources?

Maintaining the integrity of cloud resources is essential for ensuring that data remains accurate, consistent, and trustworthy over its lifecycle. Regular software updates are crucial because they address vulnerabilities and bugs that could be exploited by attackers. When software, including operating systems and applications, is kept up to date, security patches and enhancements help protect against new threats and vulnerabilities that emerge over time. This proactive approach mitigates risks and fortifies the cloud environment against potential breaches that could compromise data integrity.

The other options, while they may contribute to security in their own way, do not have the same broad and critical impact on maintaining the integrity of cloud resources. Limiting access can be beneficial for reducing potential attack surfaces but does not inherently protect against vulnerabilities within the software itself. Establishing a firewall is a crucial aspect of network security but does not directly address integrity through software vulnerabilities. Relying on a single factor for authentication can significantly weaken security, increasing the risk of unauthorized access, which could ultimately lead to compromised integrity.