Key components of the course include

• Define what a cybersecurity program is and how security operations can add value to an organization
• Explain how documented policies, standards, procedures, guidelines, and controls play a role in reducing risk to an organization
• Explain how frameworks can help form and implement security controls for an organization
• Explain common cybersecurity program functions and their role in protecting an organization
• Explain the function of compliance management and various considerations for compliance management in an organization
• Explain key concepts to compliance management such as privacy, data roles, legal actions, and potential consequences of non-compliance
• Describe common laws, regulations, and industry standards as it relates to compliance
• Explain what a gap analysis is and how it can identify areas that need improvement
• Explain the function of risk management and various considerations for risk management in an organization
• Define key risk management actions and terms such as risk identification, risk analysis, risk register, and risk reporting
• Define key risk measurement strategies and calculations such as AV, TCO, SLE, EF, ALE, and ARO
• Describe risk management strategies
• Explain methods of prioritizing projects using risk factors and Return on Investment (ROI)
• Explain the function of asset acquisition and management and various considerations while managing assets of an organization
• Explain the function of vulnerability management and various considerations while managing vulnerabilities
• Explain key terms and resources for vulnerability management, such as CVE, CVSS, CPE, CCE, CVE, SCAP, Pentesting, red teams, and blue teams
• Explain possible actions to take to deal with vulnerabilities within the organization
• Explain the importance of patch management and processes associated with patch management
• Explain the function of data management and various considerations while managing data
• Define key terms for data management, such as compliance, privacy, data roles, data types, and PII
• Explain types of data and the data type could determine the level of security controls needed to protect the data
• Explain common methods for protecting data, such as data classification, data labeling, ACLs, encrypting data, steganography, data masking, data obfuscation, and DLP
• Explain how data retention and retirement plays a role in keeping data safe
• Explain the function of vendor and supply chain management
• Explain key relationships to an organization and common agreement types
• Explain considerations when choosing and evaluating vendors
• Explain the function of personnel management
• Explain key policies in relation to personnel management such as least privilege, need to know, separation of duties, job rotation, and mandatory vacations
• Explain the function of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and it’s critical role in keeping an organization safe
• Explain key concepts to IAM such as AAA, PAM, key storage, MFA, OTP, HOTP, TOTP, SSO, Federation, and identity proofing
• Explain what makes a good password and the importance of a password manager and using MFA
• Explain key IAM policies and considerations for those policies
• Explain the importance of access control, access control models and their use cases for common access control models
• Explain methods for physical access control
• Explain the function of security awareness and training and its role in keeping an organization safe
• Explain the function of configuration and change management and it’s critical role in keeping an organization safe
• Explain the function of monitoring and its role in maintaining security for an organization
• Explain types and methods of monitoring and how monitoring protocols and software play a role in maintaining an infrastructure
• Define key monitoring terms, such as logging, NetFlow, SNMP, Syslog, benchmarking, SIEM, FIM, and threat hunting
• Explain Indicators of Compromise (IoC)
• Explain the function of alerting and it’s role of keeping an organization secure
• Explain the function of Incident Management and its role in keeping an organization safe
• Explain key concepts relating to incident management, such as uptime, five 9s, MTTR, MTBF, root cause analysis, and SOAR
• List what goes into a incident response plan and explain the importance of it
• Explain what digital forensics is, some key terms relating to digital forensics, and the process for collecting evidence
• Explain the function of contingency planning and its role in keeping an organization safe
• Explain key terms in relation to contingency planning, such as BIA, RPO, RTO, and DRP
• Explain the function of auditing and assessments and its role in keeping an organization safe
• Explain key terms, such as auditing, attestation, and gap analysis
• Explain the function of program management and its role in keeping an organization safe
• Describe key metrics for evaluating the performance of systems and programs related to security
• List various regulatory compliance and describe key concepts
• Determine who may have to comply with various compliance frameworks
• Describe various agreement types and where they might apply

Learn it Right, Learn it Well, and Reap the Rewards

Spending the time now to fully understand what security operations looks like and how an organization can implement processes and procedures to reduce risk and improve their services.