The GIAC Cloud Security Automation (GCSA) certification is designed for practitioners who want to deepen their understanding of DevSecOps and enhance their ability to implement security controls in automated DevOps pipelines. This certification is ideal for anyone working in public cloud or DevOps environments, including developers, software architects, operations engineers, system administrators, security analysts, auditors, and risk managers.
Who Should Pursue GCSA?
- Developers and software architects
- Operations engineers and system administrators
- Security analysts and engineers
- Auditors and risk managers
- Security consultants
- Anyone in a public cloud or DevOps environment
What Will You Learn?
The GCSA certification covers essential areas to ensure the security, reliability, and integrity of cloud-hosted systems:
- DevOps and DevSecOps Fundamentals
- Secure Infrastructure
- Configuration management
- Securing Cloud Architecture
- Continuous security monitoring
- Data and secrets protection
- Compliance
- Security and Automation
- Deployment
- Runtime
- Content delivery
Exam Details
- Format: One proctored exam
- Number of Questions: 75
- Duration: 2 hours
- Passing Score: 61%
- Delivery Options: Remote proctoring through ProctorU or onsite proctoring through PearsonVUE
Exam Objectives
- Microservice Security: Understand microservice architecture and security controls.
- Automated Remediation: Familiarity with event-based monitoring and security automation tools.
- Compliance as Code: Leveraging automated scanners for policy requirements.
- Configuration Management as Code: Managing infrastructure with programmable tools and hardening CI/CD tools.
- Container Security: Addressing container security issues and orchestration tools.
- Continuous Security Monitoring: Metrics, monitoring tools, and alerting for cloud security.
- Deployment Orchestration and Secure Content Delivery: Deployment patterns and secure CDN configurations.
- DevOps Fundamentals: Secure DevOps culture and terminology.
- DevSecOps Security Controls: Security considerations in the CI/CD pipeline.
- Kubernetes Security: Kubernetes access control, namespaces, and secrets management.
- Runtime Security Protection: Configuring Security as a Service for cloud protection.
- Secrets Administration: Managing sensitive data in cloud secret keepers.
- Secure Infrastructure as Code: Managing cloud infrastructure via code.
- Securing Cloud Architecture: Securing CI/CD pipelines in Azure and AWS.
- Serverless Security: Deploying effective security in serverless architectures.
Resources for Preparation
- Training Modalities: Live training, OnDemand courses, college-level courses, and self-paced study programs.
- Practical Work Experience: Hands-on experience to master necessary skills.
- Practice Tests: Simulations of the real exam to familiarize with the test engine and question styles.
Embrace the opportunity to enhance your cloud security skills with the GCSA certification. This credential will equip you with the knowledge and tools to secure and automate DevOps pipelines effectively, making you a valuable asset in any cloud-focused role.
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Difficulty: 2 out of 5.
I had a bit of experience in DevOps and a ton of experience in security before taking this class. I was excited to learn how to pentest CI/CD pipelines.
That said, there was about 5 minutes devoted to pentesting CI/CD pipelines so that was a bit of a bust.
However, this does teach you the essentials of kubernetes and enough about CI/CD pipelines to get you started. I feel a bit more confident about devops work now and know that I'm probably pretty well equipped to figure things out.
That said, I'm a little bit concerned that this is a $8000 dollar course that really doesn't teach that much more than the average Youtube video series. Some of the security specific work is unique and the labs are definitely unique... but 8k? Not sure about that.
Luckily, work paid for my certification. I would probably recommend this to people that have minimal exposure to devops.
Day 1 covers mostly what DevOps is and how git works. You start from zero and work your way up.
Day 2 covers what IaC is and how to use it. You'll go through how to build CI/CD pipes, packer/vagrant templates, and things of that nature.
Day 3 covers cloud native application usage..namely docker and what that whole container thing is about. You spend a bit of time learning about dockerfiles which was neat.
Day 4 covers Kubernetes.
I guess Day 5 covers WAFs and what a CSPM is. It was pretty light.
The labs are all instantiated in an AWS or Azure instance. You get to choose. They're pretty heavily prebuilt so I personally kind of went my own path and built my own stuff to really learn it. I suppose this gets 3 out of 5 stars because it teaches you the basics but doesn't really feel like a 500 level course.
