Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP):

What is the CCSP certification and what does it entail?

The International Information System Security Certification Consortium, or (ISC)2, offers the CCSP, a cloud-focused security certification for experienced security professionals. CCSP stands for Certified Cloud Security Professional, and it’s one of a number of certifications given by (ISC)2, a non-profit dedicated to cybersecurity education and certification.

While (ISC)2 has been offering certifications since the 1980s, the CCSP is a newer certification on the market: it was introduced at the RSA Conference in 2015 and has grown in popularity since then as more companies seek to move their storage, infrastructure, and applications to the cloud in a secure manner. ” You have the sophisticated technical skills and knowledge required to create, manage, and secure data, apps, and infrastructure in the cloud while adhering to best practices, rules, and procedures.,” according to (ISC)2.

The following are some answers to commonly asked questions concerning this cloud-based security certification.

Who should take the CCSP exam?

According to Daniel Carter, author of the CCSP Cloud Security Professional All-in-One Exam Guide, “More experienced IT architects and security professionals, especially engineers, are the ideal candidates. It’s crucial for those whose businesses are shifting to the cloud. It’s also a wonderful strategy to increase your employer marketability. Because the cloud is so new, the CCSP allows firms to verify that potential workers have passed the test.”

A CCSP credential indicates that you have shown domain knowledge as well as related experience. Later in this post, we’ll look at what a CCSP certification may imply for your career; for now, let’s look at how you can get certified.

What does the CCSP exam cover?

Let’s start with the most important aspect of the CCSP certification: the test. The CCSP includes questions based on what (ISC)2 refers to as a peer-developed compendium of what a competent professional in their respective field must know, including the skills, techniques, The CBK is then divided into domains, or subject areas. The following are the several CCSP domains and the portions of the test that each will cover:

• Cloud concepts, architecture, and design: 17%
• Cloud data security: 19%
• Cloud platform and infrastructure security:17%
• Cloud application security: 17%
• Cloud security operations: 17%
• Legal, risk and, compliance: 13%

At your local Pearson VUE test facility, you’ll take the exam on a computer terminal. You have three hours to complete the test, which contains 100 to 150 questions. The length varies because it is a “adaptive” test, which means that if you correctly answer enough questions within a domain to demonstrate competence for that domain, your computer terminal will stop asking you those questions. (In the (ISC)2 community forums, there’s a lively discussion thread where test-takers debate how many questions they saw when they took it.)

Although the questions are multiple-choice, you may be asked to answer “scenario-based” questions, which require you to answer many multiple-choice questions concerning a hypothetical situation. Furthermore, 25 questions on each exam are “pre-test” questions, which are included for research reasons while (ISC)2 evaluates them for future tests. They don’t affect your grade, but they’re also not labelled, so you won’t know which ones they are.

What is the cost of the CCSP exam?

In the United States, the CCSP test costs $599, with similar prices in local currencies in the EU and the UK.

This is a considerable financial investment—and it’s crucial to remember that this isn’t the only expense associated with CCSP certification. There are also other criteria (and corresponding fees).

What are the criteria for the CCSP?

Passing the CCSP test is merely the first step toward achieving CCSP certification. Candidates must also exhibit industry professional experience because this isn’t a certification for individuals just starting out in their jobs.

In a nutshell, you must have the following qualifications to become CCSP certified:

• Five years of paid IT experience is required;
• At least three years of experience in information security is required.;
• At least one year must have been spent in one of the six CCSP CBK domains specified above.

More information is available on the (ISC)2 website, including how alternative experience such as part-time or unpaid labor can be used to meet these requirements. If you already hold a Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge from the Cloud Security Alliance, (ISC)2 deems it to be comparable to a year of professional experience. The (ISC)2 CISSP security certification has its own set of substantial professional experience requirements, and having that cert qualifies you for CCSP as well.

Furthermore, (ISC)2 needs an endorsement from another (ISC)2-certified professional attesting to your work experience, however you can negotiate an agreement with (ISC)2 to offer an endorser if you don’t know anybody who can.

One final remark on this subject: even if you don’t have all of the required experience, you may still take the CCSP test. If you pass, you will be granted Associate of (ISC)2 status, which will grant you access to (ISC)2 training materials as you work toward your ultimate certification objective, which you have six years to complete.

What is the cost of CCSP certification?

Candidates who want to be completely certified must pay (ISC)2 $125 in Annual Maintenance Fees in addition to the test fee. (These costs are just $50 per year for Associates.) Because these costs are for organization membership, they are the same regardless of how many (ISC)2 certifications you have. You’ll also have to meet continuing education requirements, which may come with a price tag.

Is the CCSP more difficult than the CISSP?

The Certified Information Systems Security Professional, or CISSP, is another (ISC)2 certification for upper-level security professionals with some industry experience. The CISSP test is designed to demonstrate that you can plan, execute, and manage a cybersecurity programmed at the corporate level, and it draws from a far bigger and more general body of security knowledge. CCSP, on the other hand, is solely focused on the cloud. It covers less ground than the CISSP test, which is twice as long as the CCSP exam. CCSP, on the other hand, is more in-depth on cloud themes.

A discussion on the (ISC)2 community forums sheds some light on how various people who have taken or are considering taking both examinations approach the topic of which is more difficult—and in what sequence you should take the two exams.

What CCSP courses are available?

If you go through that post, you’ll see that there’s a discussion on how much time and effort certain forum users put into preparing for the exam – and in some cases, it was a lot. Even if you believe you know a lot about cloud security, you’ll need study materials to become ready. For this aim, (ISC)2 supplies its own approved material, which includes a study guide and a set of practice examinations.

Third-party books are, of course, also available. Daniel Carter’s book is the gold standard, as we indicated before. You should also look into Gwen Bettwy’s CCSP Cloud Guardians.

There are a number of more fully featured and interactive training courses available if you wish to go beyond books. (ISC)2 offers a self-paced training course that includes the test, which can help you save some money. The Infosec Institute provides a CCSP boot camp with an exam pass guarantee (essentially, if you fail the test after completing their training course, they will pay for you to retake it).

There are several training courses available, as is the case with most certifications. To give you an idea of which courses are the most popular, here’s a list of open online CCSP courses ordered by registered students and reviews.

What kind of pay can I expect if I have a CCSP certification?

We’ll wrap up with answering the question that has undoubtedly been on your mind the entire time you’ve been reading this article: Can a CCSP certification help you generate more money?

It’s a lot simpler to ask than it is to answer. Obviously, it is in (ISC)2’s best interests to persuade you that obtaining a CCSP will increase your earning potential. The organization’s website cites a handful of pay studies that suggest CCSP holders earn a lot of money—over $115,000 in North America, and similar amounts worldwide.

Of course, determining whether this is a case of correlation or causation is challenging. After all, in order to obtain CCSP certification, you must have five or more years of professional experience, and this alone will increase your marketability. Anyone who promises you a particular pay increase as a result of a certification should be avoided. However, in a high-demand field like cloud security, a certification will only help you stand out even more—and the CCSP and (ISC)2 certifications are well-known in the industry.