SSCP Exam Information and Guideline
Systems Security Certified Practioner
Below are complete topics detail with latest syllabus and course outline, that will help you good knowledge about exam objectives and topics that you have to prepare. These contents are covered in questions and answers pool of exam.
Exam Title :
ISC2 Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP)
Exam ID :
SSCP
Exam Duration :
180 mins
Questions in Exam :
125
Passing Score :
700/1000
Exam Center :
Pearson VUE
Real Questions :
ISC2 SSCP Real Questions
VCE Practice Test :
ISC2 SSCP Certification VCE Practice Test
Access Controls 16%
Implement and maintain authentication methods
- Single/multifactor authentication
- Single sign-on
- Device authentication
- Federated access
Support internetwork trust architectures
- Trust relationships (e.g., 1-way, 2-way, transitive)
- Extranet
- Third party connections
Participate in the identity management lifecycle
- Authorization
- Proofing
- Provisioning/de-provisioning
- Maintenance
- Entitlement
- Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems
Implement access controls
- Mandatory
- Non-discretionary
- Discretionary
- Role-based
- Attribute-based
- Subject-based
- Object-based
Security Operations and Administration 15%
Comply with codes of ethics
- (ISC)² Code of Ethics
- Organizational code of ethics
Understand security concepts
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Availability
- Accountability
- Privacy
- Non-repudiation
- Least privilege
- Separation of duties
Document, implement, and maintain functional security controls
- Deterrent controls
- Preventative controls
- Detective controls
- Corrective controls
- Compensating controls
Participate in asset management
- Lifecycle (hardware, software, and data)
- Hardware inventory
- Software inventory and licensing
- Data storage
Implement security controls and assess compliance
- Technical controls (e.g., session timeout, password aging)
- Physical controls (e.g., mantrap, cameras, locks)
- Administrative controls (e.g., security policies and standards, procedures, baselines)
- Periodic audit and review
Participate in change management
- Execute change management process
- Identify security impact
- Testing /implementing patches, fixes, and updates (e.g., operating system, applications, SDLC)
Participate in security awareness and training
Participate in physical security operations (e.g., data center assessment, badging)
Risk Identification, Monitoring, and Analysis 15%
Understand the risk management process
- Risk visibility and reporting (e.g., risk register, sharing threat intelligence, Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS))
- Risk management concepts (e.g., impact assessments, threat modelling, Business Impact Analysis (BIA))
- Risk management frameworks (e.g., ISO, NIST)
- Risk treatment (e.g., accept, transfer, mitigate, avoid, recast)
Perform security assessment activities
- Participate in security testing
- Interpretation and reporting of scanning and testing results
- Remediation validation
- Audit finding remediation
Operate and maintain monitoring systems (e.g., continuous monitoring)
- Events of interest (e.g., anomalies, intrusions, unauthorized changes, compliance monitoring)
- Logging
- Source systems
- Legal and regulatory concerns (e.g., jurisdiction, limitations, privacy)
Analyze monitoring results
- Security baselines and anomalies
- Visualizations, metrics, and trends (e.g., dashboards, timelines)
- Event data analysis
- Document and communicate findings (e.g., escalation)
Incident Response and Recovery 13%
Support incident lifecycle
- Preparation
- Detection, analysis, and escalation
- Containment
- Eradication
- Recovery
- Lessons learned/implementation of new countermeasure
Understand and support forensic investigations
- Legal and ethical principles
- Evidence handling (e.g., first responder, triage, chain of custody, preservation of scene)
Understand and support Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) activities
- Emergency response plans and procedures (e.g., information system contingency plan)
- Interim or alternate processing strategies
- Restoration planning
- Backup and redundancy implementation
- Testing and drills
Cryptography 10%
Understand fundamental concepts of cryptography
- Hashing
- Salting
- Symmetric/asymmetric encryption/Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC)
- Non-repudiation (e.g., digital signatures/certificates, HMAC, audit trail)
- Encryption algorithms (e.g., AES, RSA)
- Key strength (e.g., 256, 512, 1024, 2048 bit keys)
- Cryptographic attacks, cryptanalysis, and counter measures
Understand reasons and requirements for cryptography
- Confidentiality
- Integrity and authenticity
- Data sensitivity (e.g., PII, intellectual property, PHI)
- Regulatory
Understand and support secure protocols
- Services and protocols (e.g., IPSec, TLS, S/MIME, DKIM)
- Common use cases
- Limitations and vulnerabilities
Understand Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) systems
Fundamental key management concepts (e.g., key rotation, key composition, key creation, exchange, revocation, escrow)
- Web of Trust (WOT) (e.g., PGP, GPG)
Network and Communications Security 16%
Understand and apply fundamental concepts of networking
- OSI and TCP/IP models
- Network topographies (e.g., ring, star, bus, mesh, tree)
- Network relationships (e.g., peer to peer, client server)
- Transmission media types (e.g., fiber, wired, wireless)
- Commonly used ports and protocols
Understand network attacks and countermeasures (e.g., DDoS, man-in-the-middle, DNS poisoning)
Manage network access controls
- Network access control and monitoring (e.g., remediation, quarantine, admission)
- Network access control standards and protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.1X, Radius, TACACS)
- Remote access operation and configuration (e.g., thin client, SSL VPN, IPSec VPN, telework)
Manage network security
- Logical and physical placement of network devices (e.g., inline, passive)
- Segmentation (e.g., physical/logical, data/control plane, VLAN, ACLs)
- Secure device management
Operate and configure network-based security devices
- Firewalls and proxies (e.g., filtering methods)
- Network intrusion detection/prevention systems
- Routers and switches
- Traffic-shaping devices (e.g., WAN optimization, load balancing)
Operate and configure wireless technologies (e.g., bluetooth, NFC, WiFi)
- Transmission security
- Wireless security devices (e.g.,WIPS, WIDS)
Systems and Application Security 15%
Identify and analyze malicious code and activity
- Malware (e.g., rootkits, spyware, scareware, ransomware, trojans, virus, worms, trapdoors, backdoors, and remote access trojans)
- Malicious code countermeasures (e.g., scanners, anti-malware, code signing, sandboxing)
- Malicious activity (e.g., insider threat, data theft, DDoS, botnet)
- Malicious activity countermeasures (e.g., user awareness, system hardening, patching, sandboxing, isolation)
Implement and operate endpoint device security
- HIDS
- Host-based firewalls
- Application white listing
- Endpoint encryption
- Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
- Mobile Device Management (MDM) (e.g., COPE, BYOD)
- Secure browsing (e.g., sandbox)
Operate and configure cloud security
- Deployment models (e.g., public, private, hybrid, community)
- Service models (e.g., IaaS, PaaS and SaaS)
- Virtualization (e.g., hypervisor)
- Legal and regulatory concerns (e.g., privacy, surveillance, data ownership, jurisdiction, eDiscovery)
- Data storage and transmission (e.g., archiving, recovery, resilience)
- Third party/outsourcing requirements (e.g., SLA, data portability, data destruction, auditing)
- Shared responsibility model
Operate and secure virtual environments
- Software-defined networking
- Hypervisor
- Virtual appliances
- Continuity and resilience
- Attacks and countermeasures
- Shared storage