As we know that there are numerous IT certifications available out there. Almost every day thousands of jobs are waiting for the one particular candidate who is capable of doing the thing perfectly. So, here we are with the study guide of the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam so that you will become the one for the job. Let us begin, CISSP is one of the usual sought-after and elite certifications in the information security industry. Maybe you heard that the CISSP exam is hard, terrifying, and resource-intensive, but it’s not impossible to pass it! Not to mention, obtaining a Certified Information Systems Security Professional certificate can assist the candidate to have a thriving profession as a computer security professional.
As you may have already known, CISSP fills for Certified Information Systems Security Professional, and it’s a certification designed by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, or (ISC)2, in 1991. Further, the CISSP certification is a means to show your knowledge and demonstrate that you can install and direct an information security program successfully.
Job Title
If you are thinking that what your title will be like, then let us tell you that a CISSP is a seasoned consultant or employee, normally with a job title such as security analyst, security manager, or chief information security officer, to name just a few. Also, this personality has been on the job for five or more years and has a thorough knowledge and skills of the IT threat landscape, comprising emerging and excellent persistent threats, also controls, and technology to decrease attack surfaces.
Furthermore, a CISSP can create policies that set up a framework for effective controls. They can also manage or supervise risk management and the security of software development.
Course Outline: Certified Information Systems Security Professional
The most important step is understanding all the exam objectives because the final exam will depend on these objectives only. So, let’s discuss CISSP exam outline. So, the CISSP exam covers eight domains from the (ISC)2 Common Body of Knowledge (CBK):
Domain 1: Security and Risk Management 16%
1.1 – Understand, adhere to, and promote professional ethics
- ISC2 Code of Professional Ethics
- Organizational code of ethics
1.2 – Understand and apply security concepts
- Confidentiality, integrity, and availability, authenticity, and nonrepudiation (5 Pillars of Information Security)
1.3 – Evaluate and apply security governance principles
- Alignment of the security function to business strategy, goals, mission, and objectives
- Organizational processes (e.g., acquisitions, divestitures, governance committees)
- Organizational roles and responsibilities
- Security control frameworks (e.g., International Organization for Standardization (ISO), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT), Sherwood Applied Business Security Architecture (SABSA), Payment Card Industry (PCI), Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP))
- Due care/due diligence
1.4 – Understand legal, regulatory, and compliance issues that pertain to information security in a holistic context
- Cybercrimes and data breaches
- Licensing and Intellectual Property requirements
- Import/export controls
- Transborder data flow
- Issues related to privacy (e.g., General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), California Consumer Privacy Act, Personal Information Protection Law, Protection of Personal Information Act)
- Contractual, legal, industry standards, and regulatory requirements
1.5 – Understand requirements for investigation types (i.e., administrative, criminal, civil, regulatory, industry standards)
1.6 – Develop, document, and implement security policy, standards, procedures, and guidelines
- Alignment of the security function to business strategy, goals, mission, and objectives
- Organizational processes (e.g., acquisitions, divestitures, governance committees)
- Organizational roles and responsibilities
- Security control frameworks (e.g., International Organization for Standardization (ISO), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT), Sherwood Applied Business Security Architecture (SABSA), Payment Card Industry (PCI), Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP))
- Due care/due diligence
1.7 – Identify, analyze, assess, prioritize, and implement Business Continuity (BC) requirements
- Business impact analysis (BIA)
- External dependencies
1.8 – Contribute to and enforce personnel security policies and procedures
- Candidate screening and hiring
- Employment agreements and policy driven requirements
- Onboarding, transfers, and termination processes
- Vendor, consultant, and contractor agreements and controls
1.9 – Understand and apply risk management concepts
- Threat and vulnerability identification
- Risk analysis, assessment, and scope
- Risk response and treatment (e.g., cybersecurity insurance)
- Applicable types of controls (e.g., preventive, detection, corrective)
- Control assessments (e.g., security and privacy)
- Continuous monitoring and measurement
- Reporting (e.g., internal, external)
- Continuous improvement (e.g., risk maturity modeling)
- Risk frameworks (e.g., International Organization for Standardization (ISO), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT), Sherwood Applied Business Security Architecture (SABSA), Payment Card Industry (PCI))
1.10 – Understand and apply threat modeling concepts and methodologies
1.11 – Apply Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM) concepts
- Risks associated with the acquisition of products and services from suppliers and providers (e.g., product tampering, counterfeits, implants)
- Risk mitigations (e.g., third-party assessment and monitoring, minimum security requirements, service level requirements, silicon root of trust, physically unclonable function, software bill of materials)
1.12 – Establish and maintain a security awareness, education, and training program
- Methods and techniques to increase awareness and training (e.g., social engineering, phishing, security champions, gamification)
- Periodic content reviews to include emerging technologies and trends (e.g., cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain)
- Program effectiveness evaluation
Domain 2: Asset Security 10%
2.1 Identify and classify information and assets
- Data classification
- Asset Classification
2.2 Establish information and asset handling requirements
2.3 Provision information and assets securely
- Information and asset ownership
- Asset inventory (e.g., tangible, intangible)
- Asset management
2.4 – Manage data lifecycle
- Data roles (i.e., owners, controllers, custodians, processors, users/subjects)
- Data collection
- Data location
- Data maintenance
- Data retention
- Data remanence
- Data destruction
2.5 – Ensure appropriate asset retention (e.g., End-of-Life (EOL), End-of-Support (EOS))
2.6 – Determine data security controls and compliance requirements
- Data states (e.g., in use, in transit, at rest)
- Scoping and tailoring
- Standards selection
- Data protection methods (e.g., Digital Rights Management (DRM), Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB))
Domain 3: Security Architecture and Engineering 13%
3.1 – Research, implement and manage engineering processes using secure design principles
- Threat modeling
- Least privilege
- Defense in depth
- Secure defaults
- Fail securely
- Separation of Duties (SoD)
- Keep it simple and small
- Zero trust or trust but verify
- Privacy by design
- Shared responsibility
- Secure access service edge
3.2 – Understand the fundamental concepts of security models (e.g., Biba, Star Model, Bell-LaPadula)
3.3 – Select controls based upon systems security requirements
3.4 – Understand security capabilities of Information Systems (IS) (e.g., memory protection, Trusted Platform Module (TPM), encryption/decryption)
3.5 – Assess and mitigate the vulnerabilities of security architectures, designs, and solution elements
- Client-based systems
- Server-based systems
- Database systems
- Cryptographic systems
- Industrial Control Systems (ICS)
- Cloud-based systems (e.g., Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS))
- Distributed systems
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Microservices (e.g., application programming interface (API))
- Containerization
- Serverless
- Embedded systems
- High-Performance Computing systems
- Edge computing systems
- Virtualized systems
3.6 – Select and determine cryptographic solutions
- Cryptographic life cycle (e.g., keys, algorithm selection)
- Cryptographic methods (e.g., symmetric, asymmetric, elliptic curves, quantum)
- Public key infrastructure (PKI) (e.g., quantum key distribution
3.7 – Understand methods of cryptanalytic attacks
- Brute force
- Ciphertext only
- Known plaintext
- Frequency analysis
- Chosen ciphertext
- Implementation attacks
- Side-channel
- Fault injection
- Timing
- Man-in-the-Middle (MITM)
- Pass the hash
- Kerberos exploitation
- Ransomware
3.8 – Apply security principles to site and facility design
3.9 – Design site and facility security controls
- Wiring closets/intermediate distribution facilities
- Server rooms/data centers
- Media storage facilities
- Evidence storage
- Restricted and work area security
- Utilities and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)
- Environmental issues (e.g., natural disasters, man-made)
- Fire prevention, detection, and suppression
- Power (e.g., redundant, backup)
3.10 – Manage the information system lifecycle
- Stakeholders needs and requirements
- Requirements analysis
- Architectural design
- Development /implementation
- Integration
- Verification and validation
- Transition/deployment
- Operations and maintenance/sustainment
- Retirement/disposal
Domain 4: Communication and Network Security 13%
4.1 – Apply secure design principles in network architectures
- Open System Interconnection (OSI) and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) models
- Internet Protocol (IP) version 4 and 6 (IPv6) (e.g., unicast, broadcast, multicast, anycast)
- Secure protocols (e.g., Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), Secure Shell (SSH), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/ Transport Layer Security (TLS))
- Implications of multilayer protocols
- Converged protocols (e.g., Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), InfiniBand over Ethernet, Compute Express Link)
- Transport architecture (e.g., topology, data/control/management plane, cut-through/store-and-forward)
- Performance metrics (e.g., bandwidth, latency, jitter, throughput, signal-to-noise ratio)
- Traffic flows (e.g., north-south, east-west)
- Physical segmentation (e.g., in-band, out-of-band, air-gapped)
- Logical segmentation (e.g., virtual local area networks (VLANs), virtual private networks (VPNs), virtual routing and forwarding, virtual domain)
- Micro-segmentation (e.g., network overlays/encapsulation; distributed firewalls, routers, intrusion detection system (IDS)/intrusion prevention system (IPS), zero trust)
- Edge networks (e.g., ingress/egress, peering)
- Wireless networks (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, satellite)
- Cellular/mobile networks (e.g., 4G, 5G)
- Content distribution networks (CDN)
- Software defined networks (SDN), (e.g., application programming interface (API), Software-Defined Wide- Area Network, network functions virtualization)
- Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)
- Monitoring and management (e.g., network observability, traffic flow/shaping, capacity management, fault detection and handling)
4.2 – Secure network components
- Operation of infrastructure (e.g., redundant power, warranty, support)
- Transmission media (e.g., physical security of media, signal propagation quality)
- Network Access Control (NAC) systems (e.g., physical, and virtual solutions)
- Endpoint security (e.g., host-based)
4.3 – Implement secure communication channels according to design
- Voice, video, and collaboration (e.g., conferencing, Zoom rooms)
- Remote access (e.g., network administrative functions)
- Data communications (e.g., backhaul networks, satellite)
- Third-party connectivity (e.g., telecom providers, hardware support)
Domain 5: Identity and Access Management (IAM) 13%
5.1 Control physical and logical access to assets
- Information
- Systems
- Devices
- Facilities
- Application
- Services
5.2 Design identification and authentication strategy (e.g., people, devices, and services)
- Groups and Roles
- Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) (e.g., multi-factor authentication (MFA), password-less authentication)
- Session management
- Registration, proofing, and establishment of identity
- Federated Identity Management (FIM)
- Credential management systems (e.g., Password vault)
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Just-In-Time
5.3 Federated identity with a third-party service
- On-premise
- Cloud
- Hybrid
5.4 Implement and manage authorization mechanisms
- Role Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Rule-based access control
- Mandatory Access Control (MAC)
- Discretionary Access Control (DAC)
- Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC)
- Risk based access control
- Access policy enforcement (e.g., policy decision point, policy enforcement point)
5.5 Manage the identity and access provisioning lifecycle
- Account access review (e.g., user, system, service)
- Provisioning and deprovisioning (e.g., on /off boarding and transfers)
- Role definition and transition (e.g., people assigned to new roles)
- Privilege escalation (e.g., use of sudo, auditing its use)
- Service accounts management
5.6 – Implement authentication systems
Domain 6: Security Assessment and Testing 12%
6.1 Design and validate assessment, test, and audit strategies
- Internal (e.g., within organization control)
- External (e.g., outside organization control)
- Third-party (e.g., outside of enterprise control)
- Location (e.g., on-premises, cloud, hybrid)
6.2 Conduct security control testing
- Vulnerability assessment
- Penetration testing (e.g., red, blue, and/or purple team exercises)
- Log reviews
- Synthetic transactions/benchmarks
- Code review and testing
- Misuse case testing
- Coverage analysis
- Interface testing (e.g., user interface, network interface, application programming interface (API))
- Breach attack simulations
- Compliance checks
6.3 Collect security process data (e.g., technical and administrative)
- Account management
- Management review and approval
- Key performance and risk indicators
- Backup verification data
- Training and awareness
- Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC)
6.4 Analyze test output and generate report
- Remediation
- Exception handling
- Ethical disclosure
6.5 Conduct or facilitate security audits
- Internal (e.g., within organization control)
- External (e.g., outside organization control)
- Third-party (e.g., outside of enterprise control)
- Location (e.g., on-premises, cloud, hybrid)
Domain 7: Security Operations 13%
7.1 Understand and comply with investigations
- Evidence collection and handling
- Reporting and documentation
- Investigative techniques
- Digital forensics tools, tactics, and procedures
- Artifacts (e.g., data, computer, network, mobile device)
7.2 Conduct logging and monitoring activities
- Intrusion detection and prevention (IDPS)
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Continuous monitoring and tuning
- Egress monitoring
- Log management
- Threat intelligence (e.g., threat feeds, threat hunting)
- User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA)
7.3 – Perform Configuration Management (CM) (e.g., provisioning, baselining, automation)
7.4 – Apply foundational security operations concepts
- Need-to-know/least privilege
- Separation of Duties (SoD) and responsibilities
- Privileged account management
- Job rotation
- Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
7.5 – Apply resource protection
- Media management
- Media protection techniques
- Data at rest/data in transit
7.6 – Conduct incident management
- Detection
- Response
- Mitigation
- Reporting
- Recovery
- Remediation
- Lessons learned
7.7 – Operate and maintain detective and preventative measures
- Firewalls (e.g., next generation, web application, network)
- Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)
- Whitelisting/blacklisting
- Third-party provided security services
- Sandboxing
- Honeypots/honeynets
- Anti-malware
- Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based tools
7.8 – Implement and support patch and vulnerability management
7.9 – Understand and participate in change management processes
7.10 – Implement recovery strategies
- Backup storage strategies (e.g., cloud storage, onsite, offsite)
- Recovery site strategies (e.g., cold vs. hot, resource capacity agreements)
- Multiple processing sites
- System resilience, high availability (HA), Quality of Service (QoS), and fault tolerance
7.11 – Implement Disaster Recovery (DR) processes
- Response
- Personnel
- Communications (e.g., methods)
- Assessment
- Restoration
- Training and awareness
- Lessons learned
7.12 – Test Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP)
- Read-through/tabletop
- Walkthrough
- Simulation
- Parallel
- Full interruption
- Communications (e.g., methods)
7.13 – Participate in Business Continuity (BC) planning and exercises
7.14 – Implement and manage physical security
- Perimeter security controls
- Internal security controls
7.15 – Address personnel safety and security concerns
- Travel
- Security training and awareness (e.g., insider threat, social media impacts, two-factor authentication (2FA) fatigue)
- Emergency management
- Duress
Domain 8: Software Development Security 10%
8.1 Understand and integrate security in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
- Development methodologies (e.g., Agile, Waterfall, DevOps, DevSecOps, Scaled Agile Framework)
- Maturity models (e.g., Capability Maturity Model (CMM), Software Assurance Maturity Model (SAMM))
- Operation and maintenance
- Change management
- Integrated Product Team
8.2 Identify and apply security controls in software development ecosystems
- Programming languages
- Libraries
- Tool sets
- Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
- Runtime
- Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)
- Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR)
- Software Configuration Management (SCM)
- Code repositories
- Application security testing (e.g., static application security testing (SAST), dynamic application security testing (DAST), software composition analysis, Interactive Application Security Test (IAST))
8.3 Assess the effectiveness of software security
- Auditing and logging of changes
- Risk analysis and mitigation
8.4 Assess security impact of acquired software
- Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)
- Open source
- Third-party
- Managed services (e.g., enterprise applications)
- Cloud services (e.g., Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS))
8.5 Define and apply secure coding guidelines and standards
- Security weaknesses and vulnerabilities at the source-code level
- Security of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
- Secure coding practices
- Software-defined security
CISSP Exam Details
Let us make the basic details about the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam clear for you. To begin with, the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam includes 250 questions of about ten different areas, business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning, access control systems and methodology, operations, physical security, management practices, telecommunications, security, and networking security. Just so you know, other important areas to the CISSP certification are security architecture application and systems development, cryptography, law, investigation, and ethics. Moreover, the CISSP exam questions are resent in the form of multiple-choice or multiple responses.
Further, a CISSP certification needs an annual preservation CISSP exam fee of $85 at the end of each certification year, and the candidate must take the test every three years to remain a member in standing with the certification. Furthermore, to pass the exam, the candidate needs to achieve a minimum score of 700 out of 1000 points. Now, let’s move on to the study guide.
Study Guide for Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
Now let us begin the discussion for CISSP exam preparation, the following details are some necessary steps that you should study for producing an ideal plan for your Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) preparation. So, let’s kick start the preparation with the CISSP exam study guide:
Visit the Official website
To prepare effectively, it’s crucial to stay current with all the exam details, especially since certification exams often change due to evolving technology. Start by visiting the Official website of (ISC)² to ensure your information matches what’s there. If not, make sure you have all the latest Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam information available.
Download the Exam Outline
First of all, it is obvious to download the exam Outline. Make sure you don’t skip this part. As mentioned earlier, the CISSP exam outline is the most important part of any certification exam. You can easily locate the exam outline on the official website as well. Also, make sure to view if there are any important notices, you must be updated on any new changes. So, just take a quick look at the CISSP exam topics:
- Security and Risk Management
- Asset Security
- Also, security engineering
- Communications and Network Security
- Identity and Access Management
- Security and Assessment Testing
- In addition, security operations
- Furthermore, software development security
CISSP Ultimate Guide
For the utmost preparation, the CISSP Ultimate Guide is your one-stop station to all the doubts relevant to the CISSP exam. Also, there is nothing wrong to say that this CISSP exam guide serves as full coverage of the exam and its related objectives. Further, candidates who are seeking an in-depth review of information must go and bookmark this guide so that they can get access to it anywhere and anytime they need.
Self-paced Training
(ISC)² Online Self-Paced Training is an alternative to traditional training classrooms. These modern and exclusive training courses allow candidates to study on their own convenient schedule with interactive study material. Remember, once you purchase the course, you can access the course content for a period of 120 days.
CISSP Flashcards
Candidates who are preparing for the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam can now study anytime and anywhere for the certification exam. Moreover, the CISSP Flashcards given by (ISC)² assist candidates to get immediate feedback pertaining to their queries. Also, these flashcards give the capabilities to flag individual cards for a separate study. These flashcards are sectioned for each objective to make learning easier and effective.
Instructor-led Training
The candidate can also opt for the CISSP training programs. The (ISC)² provides training programs on every exam. The Instructor-led training programs for a particular exam contain all information on the exam such as description, intended audience, delivery method, duration, etc. Since, training is not feasible for everyone, (ISC)² offers instructor-led training as an option to help candidates prepare for the exam. These online training sessions allow you to participate from the convenience of your computer, thereby saving you travel time and expense. So what are you waiting for? Go and get trained!
Join a Study Group
Participating in a study group can be really helpful for the candidate. It can motivate them to put in extra effort. Additionally, studying with others who are pursuing the same goals can help them stay connected. Moreover, the discussions in these study groups can benefit students when they’re preparing for their exams.
Practice Test
Practice tests play a crucial role in confirming a candidate’s readiness. The CISSP practice test allows candidates to identify their weak points so they can improve them. They are highly effective for exam preparation because they simulate the actual CISSP exam experience. Nowadays, you can find numerous practice tests online, giving candidates the flexibility to choose the ones they prefer. Additionally, (ISC)² provides its own practice test. The candidate can start Preparing for Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) Now!
In addition, we at Testprep training also provide free practice tests for making your preparation journey easier. Give them a shot!
Tips to Remember
Here are some CISSP exam tips to fight our exm stress
- Gather all the related information about the exam.
- Attempt all the essential steps of the above-mentioned study guide.
- Don’t forget to try the practice test.
- Get proper sleep!
- Have faith in the hard work you’re doing.
Testprep training wishes you all the very best for your exam!
