ISSEP Exam Format | ISSEP Course Contents | ISSEP Course Outline | ISSEP Exam Syllabus | ISSEP Exam Objectives

Length of exam : 3 hours

Number of questions : 150

Question format : Multiple choice

Passing grade : 700 out of 1000 points

Exam availability : English

Testing center : Pearson VUE Testing Center



The Information Systems Security Engineering Professional (ISSEP) is a CISSP who specializes in the practical application of systems engineering principles and processes to develop secure systems. An ISSEP analyzes organizational needs, defines security requirements, designs security architectures, develops secure designs, implements system security, and supports system security assessment and authorization for government and industry.

The broad spectrum of topics included in the ISSEP Common Body of Knowledge (CBK) ensure its relevancy across all disciplines in the field of security engineering. Successful candidates are competent in the following



5 domains:

• Security Engineering Principles

• Risk Management

• Security Planning, Design, and Implementation

• Secure Operations, Maintenance, and Disposal

• Systems Engineering Technical Management



Domains Weight

1. Security Engineering Principles 22%

2. Risk Management 24%

3. Security Planning, Design, and Implementation 22%

4. Secure Operations, Maintenance, and Disposal 21%

5. Systems Engineering Technical Management 11%

Total: 100%



Domain 1:

Security Engineering Principles

1.1 General Security Principles

1.2 Security Risk Management Principles

1.3 System Resilience Principles

1.4 Vulnerability Management Principles

» Align security risk management with enterprise risk management

» Integrate risk management throughout the lifecycle

» Identify organizational security authority

» Identify elements of a system security policy

» Understand trust concepts and hierarchies

» Determine boundaries governed by security

policies

» Specify complete mediation

» Determine least common mechanism

» Understand open design concepts

» Analyze psychological acceptability/usability

» Understand the importance of consistent measurement

» Apply resilience methods to address threats

» Understand concepts of layered security

» Specify fail-safe defaults

» Avoid single points of failure

» Incorporate least privilege concepts

» Understand economy of mechanism

» Understand separation of privilege/duties concepts

» Understand security best practices applicable to the context



Domain 2:

Risk Management

2.1 Risk Management Process

2.2 Operational Risk Management

» Confirm operational risk appetite

» Identify remediation needs and other system changes

» Propose remediation for unaccepted security risks

» Assess proposed remediation or change activities

» Participate in implementation of the remediation or change

» Perform verification and validation activities relative to the requirements impacted

» Update risk assessment documentation to account for the impact of the remediation or change

» Establish risk context

» Identify system security risks

» Perform risk analysis

» Perform risk evaluation

» Recommend risk treatment options



Domain 3:
Security Planning, Design, and Implementation



3.1 Stakeholder Requirements Definition

3.2 Requirements Analysis

3.3 System Security Architecture and Design

3.4 Implementation, Integration, and Deployment of Systems or System Modifications

3.5 Verification and Validation of Systems or System Modifications

Domain 3:

Security Planning, Design, and Implementation

» Define security roles and responsibilities

» Understand stakeholders mission/business and operational environment

» Identify security-relevant constraints and assumptions

» Identify and assess threats to assets

» Determine protection needs

» Document stakeholder requirements

» Analyze stakeholder requirements

» Develop system security context

» Identify security functions within the security concept of operations

» Develop system security requirements baseline

» Analyze and define security constraints

» Analyze system security requirements for completeness, adequacy, conflicts, and inconsistencies

» Perform functional analysis and allocation

» Maintain mutual traceability between specified design and system requirements

» Define system security design components

» Perform trade-off studies for system components

» Assess information protection effectiveness



Domain 4:

Secure Operations, Maintenance, and Disposal

4.1 Secure Operations

4.2 Secure Maintenance

4.3 Secure Disposal

» Document and maintain secure operations strategy

» Maintain and monitor continuous monitoring processes

» Support the incident response process

» Develop and direct secure maintenance strategy

» Participate in system remediation and change management processes

» Perform scheduled security reviews

» Develop and direct secure disposal strategy

» Verify proper security protections are in place during the decommissioning and disposal processes

» Document all actions and results of the disposal process



Domain 5:

Systems Engineering Technical Management

5.1 Acquisition Process

5.2 System Development Methodologies

5.3 Technical Management Processes

» Prepare security requirements for acquisitions

» Participate in vendor selection

» Participate in supply chain risk management

» Participate in contractual documentation development to verify security inclusion

» Perform acquisition acceptance verification and validation

» Integrate security tasks and activities into system development methodologies

» Verify security requirements are met throughout the process

» Identify opportunities for automation of security processes

» Perform project planning processes

» Perform project assessment and control processes

» Perform decision management processes

» Perform risk management processes

» Perform configuration management processes

» Perform information management processes

» Perform measurement processes

» Perform quality assurance processes