CCSP – Certified Cloud Security Professional

The Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) certification ensures that cloud security specialists have the needed expertise, abilities, and skills in cloud security design, implementation, architecture, operations, controls, and compliance with regulatory frameworks. A CCSP implements information security expertise to a cloud computing environment and demonstrates competence in cloud security architecture, design, progress, and service orchestration. This professional capability is validated against a globally acknowledged body of knowledge. The CCSP is an outstanding credential that complements and develops upon existing credentials and educational programs, including (ISC)²’s Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and CSA’s Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK).

Experience Requirements

Candidates must have a least of 5 years total paid work experience in information technology, of which 3 years must be in information security and 1 year in 1 or more of the 6 regions of the CCSP. Earning (ISC)²’s CISSP credential can be replaced for the entire CCSP experience requirement.

CCSP, Certified Cloud Security Professional learning objectives

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 exam is intense and can take you three hours to complete. Further, the exam comprises 125 multiple-choice questions. Also, the CCSP Exam Questions are available in English language only. Above all, you will need to accumulate a minimum of seven hundred out of a thousand points to achieve the CCSP Exam Passing Score.

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)

The Whole Certification Process

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.

For CCSP Exam Schedule, 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.

Reasonable and appropriate accommodations for the exam are only provided to people who have demonstrated a need for test accommodations. Therefore, if you wish to request an accommodation, complete the accommodation form and return it to (ISC)² prior to registering for your exam. All you need is a list of the following:

Firstly, an explanation of the accommodations you need
Secondly, documentation supporting the accommodation
Further, the exam you want to take
Lastly, the exam location

Note: The basis of test accommodations is to provide examinees with full access to the test. In other words, they don’t offer a guarantee of improved performance or test completion.

Reschedule the Exam

You can reschedule your CCSP 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 the CCSP exam in your first attempt, you can retake it. Yes, you heard it right.

Pearson VUE grants a chance to retake your failed exam. Moreover, you can sit the exam up to three times a year. The following are the rules in order to retake the exam:

If you don’t pass the exam the first time, you can retest after 90 days of the actual exam
Similarly, if you don’t pass a second time, you can retest after an additional 90 days
Further, if you don’t pass a third time, you can retest after 180 days

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 expires.

Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) Interview Questions

Exam Policies

CCSP provides exam policies to support the candidates by providing every detail related to the certification program. However, candidates studying for the CCSP exam should first go through and understand the (ISC)2 Certification exam policies. On this page, the candidates will get information about after the exam or before exam procedures. This includes the exam retaking process, rules to be followed during the exam time, and other information about the exams and its testing centres.

While preparing for the CCSP exam you will be solely responsible for understanding and complying with CCSP exam policies, together with the specified exam delivery provider’s policies and procedures.

For more queries, visit the CCSP FAQ Page

Success Guide: CCSP Guide

To succeed in your journey, and achieve your desired goal, preparation resources always come in handy. All the resources mentioned here will allow the candidate to build a stronger foundation for the exam. This way there are more chances of them to qualify with the desired result. If you yearn for the perfect score, below mentioned CCSP Exam Preparation resources is all you need to qualify the CCSP exam.

Review all the Exam Objectives

Your first step in the CCSP Exam Guide is to review all the exam objectives. And, to do so, make sure to visit the Official Website of CCSP exam. As this is the most authentic site for obvious reasons. By doing so, you’ll have a clear view of each and every information related to the CCSP exam. So, make sure, to begin with, this step.

Download Exam skill Outline

After this, you must download the exam skill outline available on the official website itself. Downloading the outline will provide you with the updated exam outline. All the domains and their subtopics are listed down in the outline. Keep in mind not to rely on any other website except the official website itself. Since the exam is updated after every few years hence the official website is your door to reliable information.

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 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.

Join a Study Group/Online Forum

Online forums and study groups are a great way to prepare for the CCSP exam. Therefore, feel free to get in touch with other candidates through study forums or online groups to ask a question related to the topic you’re having difficulty with.

However, it’s not something you have to join. It’s just something very subjective. Not to mention, these online groups help you stay equated with the other people who are also walking through the same path as yours. Moreover, you can also ask a question related to the topic you’re having difficulty with.

Practice Tests

In the age of the Internet, practice tests have gone digital. In other words, pen and paper have left behind and you can perform practice tests sitting in your living room. Tests have more value than you can ever imagine Therefore, you are recommended to perform CCSP Mock Exam and evaluate yourself.

Candidates who see their practice tests as learning opportunities make the biggest scoring leaps. Therefore, Testprep Training is your one-stop destination. In other words, Testprep Training provides exclusive practice tests which help you clear the exam with proper preparation and training.

Master your certification with the all-new learning tutorial. Prepare for CCSP exam and become Certified Cloud Security Professional now!