Hi everyone.
My name is Chester Kenrick and let me tell you a little bit about myself.
I have a PhD in Information technology with an emphasis in information systems security, a master's
in cybersecurity, an MBA, plus a ton of experience with 25 years hands on experience in information
technology, cybersecurity, and telecommunications.
I also have been teaching for the last five years, both in academia and boot camp courses that specifically
go into exams like the one you're going to take today.
I possess the Cispes, the CSA, and the Security+ certifications.
You may be asking yourself, why should I take the Cisa plus exam?
Cisa is an intermediate certification, meaning you should already have foundational knowledge in cybersecurity
and security related fields.
With certifications such as Security+ already under your belt, you should know that Cisa is considered
to be a level two DoD Dodd 8570 industry recognized certification, meaning that you can go through
the process and already be qualified for level two of the fields for government jobs related to cybersecurity.
Unlike other vendors specific certifications, Cisa is vendor neutral.
It doesn't have a specific recommendation for a specific technology or a manufacturer tied to it.
Vendor neutrality means that it goes through the entire process, understanding that cybersecurity is
about cybersecurity and not related to one specific technology.
Cisa provides you for the foundational knowledge in order to progress your careers.
Maybe you imagine yourself in a career as cybersecurity analyst, going through and identifying threats
and providing the appropriate acknowledgement for those threats and responding to those incidents.
Maybe you're imagining yourself in a different career, such as an incident response analyst, where
cybersecurity analyst goes in and identifies the threat.
Maybe you want to be the actual person that goes and responds to that threat, locking down systems,
identifying how they got in and where to stop them.
Maybe your key idea is an application security analyst going through the different web applications,
or the different programming and developments that come into play, identifying where those weaknesses
and vulnerabilities are and how to properly protect against them.
You may be asking yourself, what's the difference between Security+ versus Cisa, when Security+ already
gives you that foundational knowledge in cybersecurity that you may already be accustomed to or already
possess?
While CompTIA Security+ provides you a foundational knowledge of cybersecurity concepts, Cisa provides
you with an analyst or an incident response behavior.
This means that our focus isn't so much on the basic concepts, but the intermediate knowledge that
comes with being an analyst and understanding how to properly respond to specific incidents that impede
upon your infrastructure.
The different roles associated with Security+ are more on the security side.
Network administration, system administrator, or foundational positions that, while they're entry
level, do go into specific cybersecurity positions.
The job roles associated with Cisa plus are more in line with advanced roles such as an analyst position,
whether it's with a vulnerability or even threat intelligence.
Security plus is relatively accessible to most individuals with limited knowledge with pure foundational
knowledge, whereas Cisa is considered to be a little bit more challenging.
Understanding logs and how to read those logs, the different incidents associated with it, how to
read vulnerabilities, and what the proper procedures are to shore up those vulnerabilities.
The exam structure in both are similar in case Security Plus is multiple choice with performance based
questions, and you're going to see relatively the same structure within Cisa.
Plus, the exam duration for Security Plus is only 90 minutes.
However, Cisa gives you almost three hours at 165 minutes.
Security plus is more network driven.
It provides access, control and foundational knowledge of cryptography, risk and incident response,
and how the overall flair within cybersecurity really is at a truly foundational level.
However, Sisa covers things like threat and vulnerability management, security operations and monitoring,
incident response, Siem and Soar, as well as compliance and assessment of the different incidents
associated with specifically with your network.
Security plus is more of an entry level role, providing you with positions that truly are limited experience
to no experience, and a cybersecurity foundational role.
However, Sisa prepares you for more advanced role excelling in your career in the terms of cybersecurity
to some key roles and positions to really and truly understand cybersecurity at a level that Security+
just doesn't offer.
CompTIA recommends that you have four years of hands on experience in information security role, maybe
incident response, or even security operations.
They also recommend that you have Network+ or an equivalent certification as well as Security+.
I sort of disagree with this recommendation and my personal opinion, you should have security+ already
hand and understand the foundational understanding of cyber security.
Security+ or an equivalent certification would be a great rule or great certification to have before
starting this course.
However, I recommend that you start your Cisa immediately after Security+.
A lot of that foundational knowledge is going to appear right into the Cisa objectives, and truly prepare
you to pass that exam.
I don't necessarily think that you need those four years of hands on experience.
That doesn't mean that you shouldn't have hands on experience or understand how to read logs.
I'm not saying that, but what I am saying is that Security+ is a great entry level certification.
However, I would start studying for Cisa immediately after.
Let's explore the specific exam domains associated with Cisa.
Right now, Cisa makes up four distinct domains, with each one having a percentage weighted scale within
the exam itself, For instance, domain one security operations makes up 33% of the exam.
Security.
Vulnerability management 30%.
Incident response and management 20%.
Reporting and communication.
A mere 17%.
All these.
Total the exam weighted domain of 100%.
And domain one.
We're going.
To cover security operations such as log ingestion we're going to hit some tools such as.
Wireshark VirusTotal cuckoo sandbox.
We're going to talk about file hashing and XML.
Programming.
We're going to cover threat hunting and threat intelligence sharing as well as tactics techniques and
procedures.
And domain two we're going to talk about vulnerability management.
We're going to discuss map tools.
Finger device fingerprinting.
We're going to talk about device debuggers angry IP scanner maltego.
We're going to cover different attack vectors and cross-site scripting.
How it differs from buffer overflows and heap stacking.
We're also going to explain different concepts such as risk management compliances, threat modeling
and attack surface management.
And 3.0 we're going to talk about incident response and management such as cyber kill chains, the Mitre
attack methodology and framework.
We're also going to cover IOCs and incident response plans, playbooks and business continuity versus
disaster recovery, a domain for.
We're going to talk about reporting and communication and decide why it's so important to actually use
those reporting mechanisms.
We're going to talk about patching and configuration management.
We're going to talk about communications from legal to public relations, all the way to different law
enforcements and regulatory reporting requirements throughout the entire exam.
We're going to cover in depth every last one of these domains and talk about the knowledge units you
need to pass the Cisa plus exam.
Our course follows closely along with the book pictured here as you're going through.
If you're looking for a companion source or resource for this course, McGraw-Hill, Cisa course book
is one that I would highly recommend.
Pictured here you can see the chapter guide specifically with the domain coverage that we utilize throughout
the course.
You'll notice that the domains are not covered on a case by case basis, exactly as the domains depicted
for the Cisa exam.
This is on purpose.
Our course structure is designed to give you the highest reflection of your knowledge and the most easily
retainable format, and that's why we follow the chapters provided below.
Here you can see the book chapters which correspond with the video course structure, as well as the
exam objectives covered in each chapter.
You will notice that some of the exam objectives are out of order.
This is done intentionally to ensure foundational knowledge and retainability of the information provided.
Here you can see the book chapters which correspond with the video course structure as well as the exam
objectives covered in each chapter.
You will notice some of the exam objectives are out of order.
This is done intentionally to ensure foundation, knowledge and retainability of the information provided.
This will be available to you as a resource as well as a map identifying the exam objectives.
Now that we've talked about everything that's included within this course, let's talk about how to
set up and prepare for your exam.