SSCP Certification Exam Outline

1.1 - Comply with codes of ethics

• ISC2 Code of Ethics
• Organizational code of ethics

1.2 - Understand security concepts

• Confidentiality
• Integrity
• Availability
• Accountability
• Non-repudiation
• Least privilege
• Segregation of duties (SoD)

1.3 - Identify and implement security controls

• Technical controls (e.g., firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), access control list (ACL)
• Physical controls (e.g., mantraps, cameras, locks)
• Administrative controls (e.g., security policies, standards, procedures, baselines)
• Assessing compliance requirements
• Periodic audit and review

1.4 - Document and maintain functional security controls

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

1.5 - Support and implement asset management lifecycle (i.e., hardware, software, and data)

• Process, planning, design and initiation
• Development /Acquisition (e.g., DevSecOps, testing)
• Inventory and licensing (e.g., open source, closed-source)
• Implementation/Assessment
• Operation/Maintenance/End of Life (EOL)
• Archival and retention requirements
• Disposal and destruction

1.6 - Support and/or implement change management lifecycle

• Change management (e.g., roles, responsibilities, processes, communications, audit)
• Security impact analysis
• Configuration management (CM)

1.7 - Support and/or implement security awareness and training (e.g., social engineering/phishing/tabletop exercises/awareness communications)

1.8 - Collaborate with physical security operations (e.g., data center/facility assessment, badging and visitor management, personal device restrictions)

2.1 - Implement and maintain authentication methods

• Single/Multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Single sign-on (SSO) (e.g., Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), OpenID Connect)
• Device authentication (e.g., certificate, Media Access Control (MAC) address, Trusted Platform Module (TPM))
• Federated access (e.g., Open Authorization 2 (OAuth2), Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML))

2.2 - Understand and support internetwork trust architectures

• Trust relationships (e.g., 1-way, 2-way, transitive, zero)
• Internet, intranet, extranet, and demilitarized zone (DMZ)
• Third-party connections (e.g., application programming interface (API), app extensions, middleware)

2.3 - Support and/or implement the identity management lifecycle

• Authorization
• Proofing
• Provisioning/De-provisioning
• Monitoring, Reporting, and Maintenance (e.g., role changes, new security standards)
• Entitlement (e.g., inherited rights, resources)
• Identity and access management (IAM) systems

2.4 - Understand and administer access controls

• Mandatory
• Discretionary
• Role-based (e.g., subject-based, object-based, Privileged Access Management (PAM))
• Rule-based
• Attribute-based

3.1 - Understand risk management

• Risk visibility and reporting (e.g., risk register, sharing threat intelligence, indicators of Compromise (IOC), Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS), socialization, MITRE/ATT&CK model)
• Risk management concepts (e.g., impact assessments, threat modeling, scope)
• Risk management frameworks
• Risk tolerance (e.g., appetite, risk quantification)
• Risk treatment (e.g., accept, transfer, mitigate, avoid)

3.2 - Understand legal and regulatory concerns (e.g., jurisdiction, limitations, privacy)

3.3 - Perform security assessments and vulnerability management activities

• Risk management frameworks implementation
• Security testing
• Risk review (e.g., internal, supplier, architecture)
• Vulnerability management lifecycle (e.g., scanning, reporting, analysis, remediation)

3.4 - Operate and monitor security platforms (e.g., continuous monitoring)

• Source systems (e.g., applications, security appliances, network devices, hosts)
• Events of interest (e.g., errors, omissions, anomalies, unauthorized changes, compliance violations, policy failures)
• Log management (e.g., policy, integrity, preservation, architectures, configuration, aggregation, tuning)
• Security information and event management (SIEM) (e.g., real-time monitoring, analysis, tracking, audit)

3.5 - Analyze monitoring results

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

4.1 - Understand and support incident response lifecycle (e.g., National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), International Organization for Standardization (ISO))

• Preparation (e.g., defining roles, training programs)
• Detection, analysis, and escalation (e.g., incident communication, public relations)
• Containment
• Eradication
• Recovery (e.g., incident documentation)
• Post incident activities (e.g., lessons learned, new countermeasures, continuous improvement)

4.2 - Understand and support forensic investigations

• Legal (e.g., civil, criminal, administrative) and ethical principles
• Evidence handling (e.g., first responder, triage, chain of custody, preservation of scene)
• Reporting of analysis
• Organization Security Policy Compliance

4.3 - Understand and support business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DRP)

• Emergency response plans and procedures (e.g., information system contingency, pandemic, natural disaster, crisis management)
• Interim or alternate processing strategies
• Restoration planning (e.g., Restore Time Objective (RTO), Restore Point Objectives (RPO), Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD))
• Backup and redundancy implementation
• Testing and drills (e.g., playbook, tabletop, disaster recovery exercises, scheduling)

5.1 - Understand reasons and requirements for cryptography

• Confidentiality
• Integrity and authenticity
• Data sensitivity (e.g., personally identifiable information (PII), intellectual property (IP), protected health information (PHI))
• Regulatory and industry best practice (e.g., Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS), International Organization for Standardization (ISO))
• Cryptography entropy (e.g., quantum cryptography, quantum key distribution)

5.2 - Apply cryptography concepts

• Hashing
• Salting
• Symmetric/Asymmetric encryption/Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC)
• Non-repudiation (e.g., digital signatures/certificates, Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC), audit trails)
• Strength of encryption algorithms and keys (e.g., Advanced Encryption Standards (AES), Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA)
• Cryptographic attacks and cryptanalysis

5.3 - Understand and implement secure protocols

• Services and protocols
• Common use cases (e.g., credit card processing, file transfer, web client, virtual private network (VPN), transmission of PII data)
• Limitations and vulnerabilities

5.4 - Understand public key infrastructure (PKI)

• Fundamental key management concepts (e.g., storage, rotation, composition, generation, destruction, exchange, revocation, escrow)
• Web of Trust (WOT) (e.g., Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), GNU Privacy Guard (GPG), blockchain)

6.1 - Understand and apply fundamental concepts of networking

• Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) models
• Network topologies
• Network relationships (e.g., peer-to-peer (P2P), client server)
• Transmission media types (e.g., wired, wireless)
• Software-defined networking (SDN) (e.g., Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), network virtualization, automation)
• Commonly used ports and protocols

6.2 - Understand network attacks (e.g., distributed denial of service (DDoS), man-in-the-middle (MITM), Domain Name System (DNS) cache poisoning)

• Countermeasures (e.g., content delivery networks (CDN), firewalls, network access controls, intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS))

6.3 - Manage network access controls

• Network access controls, standards and protocols (e.g., Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1X, Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), Terminal Access Controller Access-Control System Plus (TACACS+))
• Remote access operation and configuration (e.g., thin client, virtual private network (VPN), virtual desktop infrastructure)

6.4 - Manage network security

• Logical and physical placement of network devices (e.g., inline, passive, virtual)
• Segmentation (e.g., physical/logical, data/control plane, virtual local area network (VLAN), access control list (ACL), firewall zones, micro-segmentation)
• Secure device management

6.5 - Operate and configure network-based security appliances and services

• Firewalls and proxies (e.g., filtering methods, web application firewall (WAF), cloud access security broker (CASB))
• Network intrusion detection/prevention systems
• Routers and switches
• Traffic-shaping devices (e.g., wide area network (WAN) optimization, load balancing)
• Network Access Control (NAC)
• Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
• Unified Threat Management (UTM)

6.6 - Secure wireless communications

• Technologies (e.g., cellular network, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Near-Field Communication (NFC))
• Authentication and encryption protocols (e.g., Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP), Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2), Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3))

6.7 Secure and monitor Internet of Things (IoT) (e.g., configuration, network isolation, firmware updates, End of Life (EOL) management)

7.1 - Identify and analyze malicious code and activity

• Malware (e.g., rootkits, spyware, scareware, ransomware, trojans, virus, worms, trapdoors, backdoors, fileless, app/code/operatin3 system (OS)/mobile code vulnerabilities)
• Malware countermeasures (e.g., scanners, anti-malware, containment and remediation, software security)
• Types of malicious activity (e.g., insider threat, data theft, distributed denial of service (DDoS), botnet, zero-day exploits, web-based attacks, advanced persistent threat (APT))
• Malicious activity countermeasures (e.g., user awareness/training, system hardening, patching, isolation, data loss prevention (DLP))
• Social engineering methods (e.g., SPAM email, phishing/smishing/vishing, impersonation, scarcity, whaling)
• Behavior analytics (e.g., machine learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), data analytics)

7.2 - Implement and operate endpoint device security

• Host-based intrusion prevention system (HIPS)
• Host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS)
• Host-based firewalls
• Application white listing
• Endpoint encryption (e.g., full disk encryption)
• Trusted Platform Module (TPM) (e.g., hardware security module management)
• Secure browsing (e.g., digital certificates)
• Endpoint detection and response (EDR)

7.3 - Administer and manage mobile devices

• Provisioning techniques (e.g., corporate owned, personally enabled (COPE), Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Mobile Device Management (MDM))
• Containerization
• Encryption
• Mobile application management

7.4 - Understand and configure cloud security

• Deployment models (e.g., public, private, hybrid, community)
• Service models (e.g., Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS))
• Virtualization (e.g., hypervisor, Virtual Private Cloud (VPC))
• Legal and regulatory concerns (e.g., privacy, surveillance, data ownership, jurisdiction, eDiscovery, shadow information technology (IT))
• Data storage, processing, and transmission (e.g., archiving, backup, recovery, resilience)
• Third-party/Outsourcing requirements (e.g., service-level agreement (SLA), data portability/ privacy/destruction/auditing)
• Shared responsibility model

7.5 - Operate and maintain secure virtual environments

• Hypervisor (i.e., Type 1 (e.g., bare metal), Type 2 (e.g., software))
• Virtual appliances
• Containers
• Continuity and resilience
• Storage management (e.g., data domain)
• Threats, attacks, and countermeasures (e.g., brute-force attack, virtual machine escape, threat hunting)