Certified Cloud Security Professional ( widely known as CCSP) is a certification for individuals with information technology and security experience who want to advance their career in cloud-based cyber security. By providing CCSP training, potential employers show that they have the necessary technical skills to protect their valuable assets in the cloud. Additionally, as more companies move their operations to the cloud environment, security professionals with specialized cloud skills will be required. Many professional vendors rank cloud security as one of the fastest-growing skills in cyber security.
CCSP eligibility
The CCSP certification is designed for IT professionals with a few years of experience in both IT and security. To qualify for the examination, you need five years of cumulative experience in IT. Three years should have been in the field of information security, and one year should have been in one of the following six domains:
- Cloud architecture and design
- Cloud data security
- Cloud platform and infrastructure security
- Cloud application security
- Cloud security operations
- Legal, risk, and compliance
Full-time, part-time, paid, or unpaid internships are also counted towards the experience requirement. Acquiring the Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK) from the Cloud Security Alliance also counts toward one year of experience in one of the six domains. If you have the relevant IT and information security experience but have not yet worked with a cloud environment, earning the CCSK could be a faster option than accruing a year of experience in cloud security. CCSK has no experience requirements.
Job roles that suit CCSP
As more organizations adopt cloud technology, it is common for cybersecurity professionals to demand cloud security skills in various roles. Let’s look at some of the jobs that CCSPs do.
- Product safety engineer
- Cyber Security Solutions Architect
- Application Security Architect
- Cloud security engineer
- Information security auditor
- Compliance Technology Specialist
- Information security manage
Advantages of getting CCSP certified
Having CCSP training, you can move on to better, higher-paying jobs. However, it also has other additional benefits.
- Learn new skills: Preparing for the CCSP certification exam can also help you develop vendor-agnostic cloud security skills in a more structured way.
- Workplace Confidence: The knowledge and skills gained by achieving CCSP status will help you prepare to solve cloud security issues in the real world.
- Networking: Earning a CCSP also grants you an (ISC) ² membership that includes networking opportunities and expertise development resources.
How to acquire CCSP certification
To obtain CCSP certification, an individual must achieve 700 out of 1,000 on the CCSP exam. It consists of 125 multiple-choice questions that are completed within 4 hours. The exam contains 6 CCSP domains individually weighted to the final grade.
Summary
First presented at the RSA Conference in April 2015, the CCSP exam complements and builds the Certified Information Systems Security Professional certification (popularly known as CISSP) and the Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge while simultaneously requiring Cloud Security Professional to cover the necessary knowledge. Since its inception, CCSP training and certification has grown to be one of the most well-known vendor-neutral certifications in cloud security.
