The (ISC)2 certification, Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP), is a certification for cloud security professionals. Furthermore, applicants who want to be cloud security specialists should get this certification. It’s one of the most sought-after cloud security certifications, and it distinguishes you from the competition. Furthermore, CCSP is a well-known and well-proven approach to further your career while also securing essential cloud assets.
Who Earns the CCSP?
Before we go into the specifics of the test, let’s have a look at who qualifies for the CCSP. The CCSP is appropriate for leaders in IT and information security. In other words, the former is in charge of ensuring that cloud security architecture, design, operations, and service orchestration follow best practices. The following positions are included:
Exam Overview
Before you get into CCSP Certification, it’s critical to understand what the test entails. The CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional) exam is highly sought after from (ISC)2. This certification course aims to educate you on safeguarding your cloud data storage against potential security threats by:
- Understanding information security risk
- Implementing strategies to maintain data security
CCSP Exam Format
Details are important when you think of taking the exam. The CCSP Exam Difficulty is quite high, therefore, it is always good to have exam details beforehand.
The CCSP exam is quite challenging and could last around three hours for completion. The test consists of 125 multiple-choice questions and is offered in English only. To pass the CCSP exam, you need to score at least 700 out of a possible 1000 points. The cost of the CCSP exam is USD $599.
Exam Details for CCSP Exam:
Prerequisites for the Exam
Obtaining CCSP certification is not an easy feat. To begin your voyage in CCSP certification course, you must have:
- Firstly, you should have a minimum of five years of working experience in the IT field. Out of these, three years should be specifically related to information security, and one year should involve working with cloud security.
- Secondly, if you lack the necessary experience to become a CCSP, you can still take the CCSP exam to become an Associate of (ISC)². This allows you to earn the full CCSP certification after gaining the required experience within six years of becoming an Associate.
CCSP Exam Outline
The CCSP exam course provides descriptive details about the topics covered in the exam. Also, it helps you familiarise with the CCSP Exam Pattern. The exam topics are:
Domain 1: Cloud Concepts, Architecture and Design 17%
Understand Cloud Computing Concepts
- Cloud computing definitions
- Cloud computing roles and responsibilities (e.g., cloud service customer, cloud service provider, cloud service partner, cloud service broker, regulator)
- Key cloud computing characteristics (e.g., on-demand self-service, broad network access, multi-tenancy, rapid elasticity and scalability, resource pooling, measured service)
- Building block technologies (e.g., virtualization, storage, networking, databases, orchestration)
Describe Cloud Reference Architecture
- Cloud Computing Activities
- Cloud Service Capabilities (e.g., application capability types, platform capability types, infrastructure capability types)
- Then, Cloud Service Categories, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS))
- Cloud deployment models (e.g., public, private, hybrid, community, multi-cloud)
- Cloud shared considerations (e.g., interoperability, portability, reversibility, availability, security, privacy, resiliency, performance, governance, maintenance and versioning, service levels and service-level agreements (SLA), auditability, regulatory, outsourcing)
- Impact of related technologies (e.g., data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), containers, quantum computing, edge computing, confidential computing, DevSecOps)
Understand Security Concepts Relevant to Cloud Computing
- Cryptography and key management
- Identity and access control (e.g., user access, privilege access, service access)
- Data and media sanitization (e.g., overwriting, cryptographic erase)
- Network security (e.g., network security groups, traffic inspection, geofencing, zero trust network)
- Virtualization security (e.g., hypervisor security, container security, ephemeral computing, serverless technology)
- Common threats
- Security hygiene (e.g., patching, baselining)
Understand the Design Principles of Secure Cloud Computing
- Cloud secure data lifecycle
- Cloud-based business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) plan
- Business impact analysis (BIA) (e.g., cost-benefit analysis, return on investment (ROI))
- Functional security requirements (e.g., portability, interoperability, vendor lock-in)
- Security considerations and responsibilities for different cloud categories (e.g., Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS))
- Cloud design patterns (e.g., SANS security principles, Well-Architected Framework, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Enterprise Architecture)
- DevOps security
Evaluate Cloud Service Providers
- Verification against criteria (e.g., International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 27017, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS))
- System/subsystem product certifications (e.g., Common Criteria (CC), Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2)
Domain 2: Cloud Data Security 20%
Describe Cloud Data Concepts
- Cloud Data Life Cycle Phases
- Data Dispersion
- Data flows
Design and Implement Cloud Data Storage Architectures
- Storage types (e.g., long-term, ephemeral, raw storage)
- Threats to storage types
Design and Apply Data Security Technologies and Strategies
- Encryption and key management
- Hashing
- Data obfuscation (e.g., masking, anonymization)
- Tokenization
- Data loss prevention (DLP)
- Keys, secrets and certificates management
Implement Data Discovery
- Structured data
- Unstructured data
- Semi-structured data
- Data location
Implement Data Classification
- Data classification policies
- Data mapping
- Data labeling
Design and Implement Information Rights Management (IRM)
- Objectives (e.g., data rights, provisioning, access models)
- Appropriate Tools (e.g., issuing and revocation of certificates)
Plan and Implement Data Retention, Deletion and Archiving Policies
- Data Retention Policies
- Then, Data Deletion Procedures and Mechanisms
- Data Archiving Procedures and Mechanisms
- Legal Hold
Design and Implement Auditability, Traceability and Accountability of Data Events
- Definition of Event Sources and Requirement of Identity Attribution
- Logging, Storage and Analysis of Data Events
- Chain of Custody and Non-repudiation
Domain 3: Cloud Platform & Infrastructure Security 17%
Comprehend Cloud Infrastructure Components
- Physical Environment
- Network and Communications
- Compute
- Virtualization
- Storage
- Management Plane
Design a Secure Data Center
- Logical Design (e.g., tenant partitioning, access control)
- Physical Design (e.g. location, buy or build)
- Environmental design (e.g., Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC), multi-vendor pathway connectivity)
- Design resilient
Analyze Risks Associated with Cloud Infrastructure
- Risk Assessment and Analysis
- Cloud Vulnerabilities, Threats and Attacks
- Risk mitigation strategies
Design and Plan Security Controls
- Physical and environmental protection (e.g., on-premises)
- System, storage and communication protection
- Identification, authentication and authorization in cloud environments
- Audit mechanisms (e.g., log collection, correlation, packet capture)
Plan Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC)
- Business continuity (BC) / disaster recovery (DR) strategy
- Business requirements (e.g., Recovery Time Objective (RTO), Recovery Point Objective (RPO), recovery service level)
- Creation, implementation and testing of plan
Domain 4: Cloud Application Security 17%
Advocate Training and Awareness for Application Security
- Cloud Development Basics
- Common Pitfalls
- Common Cloud vulnerabilities (e.g., Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Top-10, SANS Top-25)
Describe the Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Process
- Business Requirements
- Phases and methodologies (e.g., design, code, test, maintain, waterfall vs. agile)
Apply the Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
- Cloud-specific risks
- Threat modeling (e.g., Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service, and Elevation of Privilege (STRIDE), Damage, Reproducibility, Exploitability, Affected Users, and Discoverability (DREAD), Architecture, Threats, Attack Surfaces, and Mitigations (ATASM), Process for Attack Simulation and Threat Analysis (PASTA))
- Avoid common vulnerabilities during development
- Secure coding (e.g., Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) Application Security
- Verification Standard (ASVS), Software Assurance Forum for Excellence in Code (SAFECode))
- Software configuration management and versioning
Apply Cloud Software Assurance and Validation
- Functional and non-functional testing
- Security testing methodologies (e.g., blackbox, whitebox, static, dynamic, Software Composition Analysis (SCA), interactive application security testing (IAST))
- Quality assurance (QA)
- Abuse case testing
Use Verified Secure Software
- Securing application programming interfaces (API)
- Supply-chain management (e.g., vendor assessment)
- Third-party software management (e.g., licensing)
- Validated open-source software
Comprehend the Specifics of Cloud Application Architecture
- Supplemental security components (e.g., web application firewall (WAF), Database Activity Monitoring (DAM), Extensible Markup Language (XML) firewalls, application programming interface (API) gateway)
- Cryptography
- Sandboxing
- Application virtualization and orchestration (e.g., microservices, containers)
Design Appropriate Identity and Access Management (IAM) Solutions
- Federated identity
- Identity providers (IdP)
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
- Cloud access security broker (CASB)
- Secrets management
Domain 5: Cloud Security Operations 16%
Implement and Build Physical and Logical Infrastructure for Cloud Environment »
- Hardware specific security configuration requirements (e.g., hardware security module (HSM) and Trusted Platform Module (TPM))
- Installation and configuration of management tools
- Virtual hardware specific security configuration requirements (e.g., network, storage, memory, central processing unit (CPU), Hypervisor type 1 and 2)
- Installation of guest operating system (OS) virtualization toolsets
Operate Physical and Logical Infrastructure for Cloud Environment
- Access controls for local and remote access (e.g., Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), secure terminal access, Secure Shell (SSH), console-based access mechanisms, jumpboxes, virtual client)
- Secure network configuration (e.g., virtual local area networks (VLAN), Transport Layer Security (TLS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), virtual private network (VPN))
- Network security controls (e.g., firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), honeypots, vulnerability assessments, network security groups, bastion host)
- Operating system (OS) hardening through the application of baselines, monitoring and remediation (e.g., Windows, Linux, VMware)
- Patch management
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) strategy
- Availability of clustered hosts (e.g., distributed resource scheduling, dynamic optimization, storage clusters, maintenance mode, high availability (HA))
- Availability of guest operating system (OS)
- Performance and capacity monitoring (e.g., network, compute, storage, response time)
- Hardware monitoring (e.g., disk, central processing unit (CPU), fan speed, temperature)
- Configuration of host and guest operating system (OS) backup and restore functions
- Management plane (e.g., scheduling, orchestration, maintenance)
Implement operational controls and standards (e.g., Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 20000-1)
- Incident management
- Problem management
- Release management
- Deployment management
- Configuration management
- Service level management
- Availability management
- Capacity management
Support Digital Forensics
- Forensic Data Collection Methodologies
- Evidence Management
- Collect, Acquire and Preserve Digital Evidence
Manage Communication with Relevant Parties
- Vendors
- Customers
- Partners
- Regulators
- Other Stakeholders
Manage Security Operations
- Forensic data collection methodologies
- Evidence management
- Collect, acquire, and preserve digital evidence
- Security operations center (SOC)
- Intelligent monitoring of security controls (e.g., firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), intrusion prevention systems (IPS), honeypots, network security groups, artificial intelligence (AI))
- Log capture and analysis (e.g., security information and event management (SIEM), log management)
- Incident management
- Vulnerability assessments
Domain 6: Legal, Risk and Compliance 13%
Articulate Legal Requirements and Unique Risks within the Cloud Environment
- Conflicting international legislation
- Evaluation of legal risks specific to cloud computing
- Legal framework and guidelines
- eDiscovery (e.g., International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 27050, Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Guidance)
- Forensics requirements
Understand Privacy Issues
- Difference between contractual and regulated private data (e.g., protected health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII))
- Country-specific legislation related to private data (e.g., protected health information (PHI), personally identifiable information (PII))
- Jurisdictional differences in data privacy
- Standard privacy requirements (e.g., International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 27018, Generally Accepted Privacy Principles (GAPP), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR))
- Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA)
Understand Audit Process, Methodologies, and Required Adaptations for a Cloud Environment
- Internal and external audit controls
- Impact of audit requirements
- Identify assurance challenges of virtualization and cloud
- Types of audit reports (e.g., Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE), Service Organization Control (SOC), International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE))
- Restrictions of audit scope statements (e.g., Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE), International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE))
- Gap analysis (e.g., control analysis, baselines)
- Audit planning
- Internal information security management system
- Internal information security controls system
- Policies (e.g., organizational, functional, cloud computing)
- Identification and involvement of relevant stakeholders
- Specialized compliance requirements for highly-regulated industries (e.g., North American Electric Reliability Corporation / Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC / CIP), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, Payment Card Industry (PCI))
- Impact of distributed information technology (IT) model (e.g., diverse geographical locations and crossing over legal jurisdictions)
Understand the Implications of Cloud to Enterprise Risk Management
- Assess providers risk management programs (e.g., controls, methodologies, policies, risk profile, risk appetite)
- Difference between data owner/controller vs. data custodian/processor
- Regulatory transparency requirements (e.g., breach notification, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR))
- Risk treatment (i.e., avoid, mitigate, transfer, share, acceptance)
- Different risk frameworks
- Metrics for risk management
- Assessment of risk environment (e.g., service, vendor, infrastructure, business)
Understand Outsourcing and Cloud Contract Design
- Business requirements (e.g., service-level agreement (SLA), master service agreement (MSA), statement of work (SOW))
- Vendor management (e.g., vendor assessments, vendor lock-in risks, vendor viability, escrow)
- Contract management (e.g., right to audit, metrics, definitions, termination, litigation, assurance, compliance, access to cloud/data, cyber risk insurance)
- Supply-chain management (e.g., International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 27036)
You can also check CCSP Exam Outline for a deeper dive into the CCSP domains.
Book the Exam
Booking your (ISC)² exam is the first step in building a successful and long-term security career. Moreover, earning an (ISC)² certification validates your skills as a security professional in the eyes of hiring managers and your peers.
Registering for your (ISC)² exam is easy. Follow the steps below:
- Firstly, create an account with Pearson VUE, the exclusive global administrator of all (ISC)² exams.
- Secondly, select the (ISC)² certification exam you are pursuing.
- Thirdly, schedule your exam and testing location with Pearson VUE.
Request for Special Accommodation
For instance, if you require special accommodations for the exam, you can request one through (ISC)².
If you require special arrangements for the exam due to a valid need, (ISC)² will consider your request. To ask for accommodations, fill out the accommodation form and send it to (ISC)² before registering for the exam. Here’s a list of what you’ll need:
- Firstly, an explanation of the accommodations you need
- Secondly, documentation supporting the accommodation
- Further, the exam you want to take
- Lastly, the exam location
Reschedule the Exam
You can reschedule your exam if you failed to take it on the scheduled date and time. In order to reschedule or cancel your exam appointment, contact Pearson VUE:
- Online at least 48 hours before the exam
- By phone at least 24 hours before the exam
Above all, Pearson VUE charges a reschedule fee of USD$50 and a cancellation fee of USD$100.
Can you retake the exam?
The last thing on this earth would be to retake the exam. Nobody ever wishes to get flunk in the exam. However, failure can happen to anyone. Similarly, if you fail CCSP exam in your first attempt, you can retake it. Yes, you heard it right.
Pearson VUE allows you to retake the exam if you didn’t pass. You have the opportunity to take the exam up to three times in a year. Here’s how the retake rules work:
- If you don’t pass the exam on your first attempt, you can retake it after waiting for 90 days from the initial exam.
- If you don’t pass on your second attempt, you can retake it again after an additional 90-day waiting period.
- If you still don’t pass after the third attempt, you’ll need to wait for 180 days before you can retake the exam again.
Note: Every exam take is full price, despite whether it’s a retake or a first-time take.
Recertification of the Exam
CCSP certification like every other certification requires maintenance. To clarify, CCSP certification requires to be recertified in order to maintain its status. You can recertify the exam if you’ve become decertified due to:
- Firstly, not meeting your required number of continuing professional education credits.
- Secondly, having the time limit on your endorsement expire.
How To Prepare For CCSP Exam ?
Making preparation for the exam is an important part of academic life. It is all about studying smart as well as hard. Therefore, we bring you some tips that might help you in preparing for the exam.
- Book a date for the exam at least 3 months before and start studying immediately
- Moreover, it is pivotal to draw a timetable and stick to it diligently
- It is necessary to take into account the different personal and official responsibilities and thus, adjust the timetable and work hours accordingly
- Since the exam comprises 125 questions to be answered in 4 hrs time, the candidate needs to be totally thorough with all the topics of the exam.
- Above all, patience, persistence, and consistency are the factors that might help you to crack the exam
Apart from the aforesaid statements, the candidate is expected to study the following books thoroughly in order to pass the exam with ease
The Official (ISC)2 CCSP Study Guide:
The study guide is an official publication of (ISC)2. This guide offers Sybex study tools that help candidates to prepare smarter and faster. Moreover, it allows them to feel comfortable and confident on the exam day. Sybex study tools include:
- Pre-test assessments
- Exercises
- Objective maps
- Chapter review questions
In addition, this study guide also offers a Sybex interactive online learning environment that subsumes:
- Two complete practice exams
- Hundreds of flashcards
- Access to a PDF glossary
CCSP Certified Cloud Security Professional All-in-One Exam Guide:
The CCSP Certified Cloud Security Professional All-in-One Exam Guide is authored by Daniel Carter and established by both (ISC)2 and CSA. This self-study CCSP Exam Guide provides 100% coverage of all the six domains of CCSP exam. Moreover, every subject in this guide is clearly explained and featured accurately.
In addition, the guide offers various other attributes, including:
- Firstly, exam tips and summary at the end of each chapter
- Secondly, CCSP Exam Questions And Answers
- Thirdly, electronic content incorporating 300+ downloadable practice questions
ISC)2 Online Self-Paced Training and Official CCSP Flash Cards:
(ISC)2 Online Self-Paced Training is an alternative to traditional training classroom. In other words, it allows candidates to study on their own convenient schedule with interactive study material. Once you purchase this course, you can access the course content for a period of 120 days.
Similarly, with Official CCSP Flash Cards, CCSP aspirants can study anytime and anywhere for their CCSP certification exam. While performing the test, you will get immediate feedback about whether your answer is correct or not. Moreover, it has the ability to flag individual cards for a separate study. The cards are sectioned for each domain to make learning easier. Above all, this learning tool is the latest, unique, and interactive way to test your knowledge about the cloud security subject.
Practice Tests
Practice Tests have been proven to be one of best ways to prepare effectively for the exam. Moreover, CCSP Mock Exams help you evaluate your level of understanding and preparation for the exam day.
Want to perform one but don’t know where to find? Don’t worry! Testprep is here to serve you the same. Testprep Training has launched CCSP Certification Training guide which we believe will help you to step into the next level in your CCSP Exam Preparation. The most highlighted part of the training is you will get exposure to the real-time platform exposure. Hence, you can clear the exam with proper preparation and training with Testprep training.
Exam Day
Exam day is not only about taking the exam and getting your results. Rather, it is more than that. In other words, there are few other factors you need to consider on your exam day.
Check-In Process
Try to reach at your test center at least 30 minutes before your exam. To check in, you’ll need to:
- Firstly, show two acceptable forms of ID
- Secondly, provide your signature
- Thirdly, submit to a palm vein scan
There are few things you cannot take in the test room.
- Firstly, you can’t wear hats, scarf etc in the test room.
- Secondly, you have to leave your personal belongings outside the testing room. You will have access to secure storage. However, storage space is small, so plan accordingly.
The Test Administrator (TA) gives you a short orientation. After that, the TA will escort you to a computer terminal.
Exam Assistance and Breaks
During the exam, it’s important to stay in your seat unless instructed otherwise. You can’t switch to another computer station unless a TA tells you to. If you encounter any issues with your computer, want to change your note boards, need a break, or require assistance from the administrator, raise your hand and let the TA know. This helps maintain the exam environment and ensures a smooth process.
The time for your entire exam includes any breaks you might take, even if they’re not planned. While you can step out of the testing room during a break, it’s important not to leave the building or access your personal things unless it’s really necessary. When you do take a break, there will be a palm vein scan before and after to make sure everything is in order.
Testing Environment
Hearing the sound of pages turning in a paper-and-pencil test is completely normal. Similarly, when you’re taking a test on a computer, the noise of typing is expected. The test centers can’t do anything about the keyboard sounds from other people sitting near you.
Note: Earplugs are available on request.
When You Finish Your Exam
When you’re done with the exam, signal the TA by raising your hand. The TA will release you once all the requirements are fulfilled. In rare instances, there might be technical issues at the test center that require you to reschedule your exam. For example, if technical problems cause a delay of more than 30 minutes from your scheduled start time, you have two options without paying extra:
- Firstly, if you proceed with the test after the delay, your results will stand, and there won’t be any further options.
- Secondly, if you initially choose to wait but later decide not to start or restart the exam, you can take it later without additional fees.
- Lastly, if you opt to reschedule or if the technical problem can’t be resolved, you’ll be able to take the test on another date at no additional cost.
From the Expert’s Desk
The article focuses on most common questions which every aspiring candidate wishes to learn about. Moreover, the article would surely help you to equip yourself with proper exam details and preparation. Keep updating your knowledge and skills with the provided materials. Above all, take the exam with full confidence once you are done with the preparation. You will surely get results for your efforts.
Testprep Training is a chief problem solver here. Therefore, we highly recommend you to try Testprep Training CCSP Practice Test and boost your confidence.
Good luck with your exam!
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