What is SSCP certification?

Overview

SSCP stands for Systems Security Certified Practitioner and it is a certificate for professionals working in IT administration. In addition, it is managed and provided by a famous organization known as (ISC) ². Moreover, it is ideal credential for those with proven technical skills and practical security knowledge in operational IT roles.

It is a certification for practitioners with at least one year work experience. In addition, aspirants must have a minimum of one year cumulative, paid full-time work experience in one or more of the seven domains of the SSCP CBK.

Certification Requirements

The certificate validates practitioner’s ability to implement, monitor and administer IT infrastructure in accordance with information security policies and procedures. As with any other certificate, SSCP basically focuses on ensuring the tenets of security objectives of an organization. In other words, it focuses on achieving confidentiality, integrity and availability of organizational data.

The exam evaluates candidate’s capabilities across the following seven technical domains:

• Security Operations and Administration (16%)
• Access Controls (15%)
• Risk Identification, Monitoring and Analysis (15%)
• Incident Response and Recovery (14%)
• Cryptography (9%)
• Network and Communication Security (16%)
• Systems and Application Security (15%)

Candidates can download and review the official exam outline before starting their preparation.

The exam is administered through Pearson VUE approved Testing Centers. It is multiple choice based and contains 125 items.

Candidates work on the exam for a maximum of three hours. Besides, they must achieve a passing grade of 700 out of 1000 points to apply for certification.  And this certificate costs you $249 as of the writing of this piece.

Passing the exam proves you have the advanced knowledge and technical skills to implement, monitor and administer IT infrastructure using security best practices, policies and procedures.

Certified professionals must collect 40 CPEs (Continuing Professionals Education) annually for three successive years. Exam takers must adhere to (ISC) code of professional ethics to acquire and retain their hard earned credential.