CompTIA CySA+ (Cybersecurity Analyst) certification, with exam codes CS0-002 and CS0-003, is designed for cybersecurity professionals responsible for incident detection, prevention, and response through continuous security monitoring. Here are the key highlights of this certification:
- Industry Standard: CompTIA CySA+ is recognized as an industry standard for cybersecurity professionals.
- Current Trends: It focuses on current cybersecurity trends, including cloud and hybrid environments, ensuring you are well-equipped to tackle modern challenges.
- Incident Detection: CySA+ equips you with the skills to proactively monitor and detect indicators of malicious activity using advanced methods and tools like threat intelligence, SIEM, EDR, and XDR.
- Response to Threats: You will demonstrate your knowledge of incident response and vulnerability management processes and effective communication skills crucial for security analysis and compliance.
- Skills Covered: The certification covers security operations, vulnerability management, incident response and management, and reporting and communication.
- Career Opportunities: CySA+ opens doors to roles such as Security Architect, Cybersecurity Engineer, Threat Hunter, and more.
- Industry Contributors: The certification was developed with contributions from organizations like Northrop Grumman, Target, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Netflix, and Ricoh.
- Two Exam Versions: There are two exam versions, CS0-002 and CS0-003, with CS0-002 retiring on December 5, 2023.
- Exam Details: The exam consists of a maximum of 85 questions, including multiple-choice and performance-based questions, with a duration of 165 minutes. A passing score of 750 (on a scale of 100-900) is required. The recommended experience for CS0-002 is Network+, Security+, or equivalent knowledge, along with a minimum of 4 years of hands-on information security or related experience. For CS0-003, it recommends a minimum of 4 years of hands-on experience as an incident response analyst or security operations center (SOC) analyst or equivalent experience.
- Languages: The exams are available in English, with Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish versions to follow.
- Retirement: CS0-002 is set to retire on December 5, 2023, with the retirement date for CS0-003 yet to be determined.
- Testing Provider: Pearson VUE.
- Price: The exam costs $392 USD.
CompTIA CySA+ is marketed as a respected certification that equips cybersecurity professionals with the skills and knowledge needed to excel in the fields of incident detection, prevention, and response.
Difficulty: 2 out of 5.
Somewhat easy cert to do.
Did it after security+, 3 years later. Within 2 weeks with Jason Dion.
7 months later, hasn't really been much help for finding employment.
Don't really see jobs putting this as a req as much either.
Might be better to just focus on home projects to better show your knowledge for a junior position.
Difficulty: 3 out of 5.
I don't think this is a difficult certification but it will feel difficult at the point in your career when you're attempting it... which should be pretty early on. This certification is great for a junior SOC analyst to round out their knowledge when they're thinking about going for a promotion. You're going to get more advanced Security+ questions. That said, it's still a multiple choice CompTIA exam so it won't be too bad. You're not going to have to figure out especially difficult problems but you will have to look at logs.
A lot of logs.
More logs than you're expecting.
Like, your eyes will hurt.
Expect to get system or application logs and have to figure out what's happening. Over and over and over again.
It's kinda fun if you're into that sort of thing.
