(ISC)2 Systems Security Certified Practitioner

The official (ISC)2 Systems Security Certified Practitioner (SSCP) is the ideal certification for those with proven technical skills and practical, hands-on security knowledge in operational IT roles. It provides confirmation of a practitioner’s ability to implement, monitor and administer IT infrastructure in accordance with information security policies and procedures that ensure data confidentiality, integrity and availability. This course includes, the official courseware and SSCP exam voucher and is taught by an accredited official (ISC)2 trainer.

The broad spectrum of topics included in the SSCP Common Body of Knowledge (CBK) ensure its relevancy across all disciplines in the field of information security.

Successful candidates are competent in the following 7 domains:

1. Access Controls

2. Security Operations and Administration

3. Risk Identification, Monitoring, and Analysis

4. Incident Response and Recovery

5. Cryptography

6. Network and Communications Security

7. Systems and Application Security

Candidates must have a minimum of 1-year cumulative work experience in 1 or more of the 7 domains of the SSCP CBK. A 1-year prerequisite pathway will be granted for candidates who received a degree (bachelors or masters) in a cybersecurity program.

A candidate that doesn’t have the required experience to become an SSCP may become an Associate of (ISC)² by successfully passing the SSCP examination. The Associate of (ISC)² will then have 2 years to earn the 1 year required experience. You can learn more about SSCP experience requirements and how to account for part-time work and internships at www.isc2.org/Certifications/SSCP/experiencerequirements.

• Single/multifactor authentication
• Single sign-on » Device authentication
• Federated access

• Trust relationships (e.g., 1-way, 2-way, transitive)
• Extranet
• Third party connections

• Authorization » Proofing
• Provisioning/de-provisioning
• Maintenance » Entitlement
• Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems

• Mandatory
• Non-discretionary
• Discretionary
• Role-based
• Attribute-based
• Subject-based
• Object-based

• (ISC)² Code of Ethics
• Organizational code of ethics

• Confidentiality
• Integrity
• Availability
• Accountability
• Privacy
• Non-repudiation
• Least privilege
• Separation of duties

• Deterrent controls
• Preventative controls
• Detective controls
• Corrective controls
• Compensating controls

• Lifecycle (hardware, software, and data)
• Hardware inventory
• Software inventory and licensing
• Data storage

• 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

• 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)

• Participate in security testing » Interpretation and reporting of scanning and testing results » Remediation validation
• Audit finding remediation 3.3 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)

• Security baselines and anomalies
• Visualizations, metrics, and trends (e.g., dashboards, timelines)
• Event data analysis
• Document and communicate findings (e.g., escalation)

• Preparation
• Detection, analysis, and escalation
• Containment » Eradication
• Recovery
• Lessons learned/implementation of new countermeasure

• Legal and ethical principles
• Evidence handling (e.g., first responder, triage, chain of custody, preservation of scene)

• 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

• 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

• Fundamental key management concepts (e.g., key rotation, key composition, key creation, exchange, revocation, escrow)
• Web of Trust (WOT) (e.g., PGP, GPG)
• 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
• Confidentiality
• Integrity and authenticity
• Data sensitivity (e.g., PII, intellectual property, PHI)
• Regulatory
• Services and protocols (e.g., IPSec, TLS, S/MIME, DKIM)
• Common use cases » Limitations and vulnerabilities

• 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

• 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)

• Logical and physical placement of network devices (e.g., inline, passive)
• Segmentation (e.g., physical/logical, data/control plane, VLAN, ACLs)
• Secure device management

• Firewalls and proxies (e.g., filtering methods) » Network intrusion detection/prevention systems
• Routers and switches » Traffic-shaping devices (e.g., WAN optimization, load balancing)

• Transmission security
• Wireless security devices (e.g.,WIPS, WIDS)

• 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)

• 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)

• 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

• Software-defined networking
• Hypervisor
• Virtual appliances
• Continuity and resilience
• Attacks and countermeasures
• Shared storage