Earning AWS Certified Security – Specialty validates knowledge of data and workload security in the AWS Cloud. AWS has consistently provided the best solutions for a wide range of industries, assisting them in achieving the best results. This credential assists organizations in identifying and developing talent with critical skills for cloud initiatives. Because of the introduction of future technologies such as Machine Learning, AWS’ services have become even more advanced. Many top organizations and businesses benefit from these areas because they reduce expenses and resources.
Let us begin with the planning for becoming an AWS Certified Security Specialist!
AWS Certified Security Speciality
The AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C01) exam is intended for security professionals. The test validates a candidate’s ability to demonstrate knowledge of AWS platform security. The exam also determines whether an applicant possesses the following qualities:
- Understanding of specific data classifications as well as AWS data security protocols
- Knowledge of data encryption techniques and the AWS technologies used to implement them
- Knowledge of secure internet protocols, as well as the AWS technologies used to deploy them
- A solid understanding of AWS security services and service capabilities is required to enable a secure production environment.
- Competence in utilising AWS security services and features based on at least two years of production deployment experience.
- The ability to make tradeoff decisions between cost, security, and deployment complexity in order to meet a set of application requirements.
- Working knowledge of security risks and operations
You must take and pass the AWS Certified Security – Specialty exam to obtain this certification (SCS-C01).
Who should take the exam?
The AWS certified security – speciality (SCS-C01) exam is designed for individuals who work in a security role. The AWS exam validates an examinee’s ability to effectively demonstrate knowledge of the AWS platform’s security. Candidates must have a minimum of five years of IT security experience, designing and implementing security solutions, as one of the AWS certified security specialty prerequisites. In addition, you must have at least two years of hands-on experience securing AWS workloads with security controls for AWS workloads.
Let us now move to the meat of the article –
How to become an AWS Certified Security Specialist?
The primary responsibilities of an AWS Security Specialist include identifying, analyzing, and reporting security risks to management and internal customers. Using appropriate evaluation procedures, they assess security measures as well as operational threats to our personnel, data, and physical assets. The development of skills and a firm understanding of the concepts will be the most important aspects of this journey. But there’s no need to panic. The most important factor is to have the necessary skills and knowledge. let us get started –
Step 1 – Know in-depth about the exam syllabus
Below mentioned is the detailed course outline for the exam along with the documentation and whitepapers offered by AWS
Domain 1: Threat Detection and Incident Response (14%)
Task Statement 1.1: Design and implement an incident response plan.
Knowledge of:
- AWS best practices for incident response (AWS Documentation: AWS Security Incident Response Guide)
- Cloud incidents
- Roles and responsibilities in the incident response plan (AWS Documentation: Define roles and responsibilities)
- AWS Security Finding Format (ASFF) (AWS Documentation: AWS Security Finding Format (ASFF))
Skills in:
- Implementing credential invalidation and rotation strategies in response to compromises (for example, by using AWS Identity and Access Management [IAM] and AWS Secrets Manager) (AWS Documentation: Automatically rotate IAM user access keys at scale with AWS Organizations and AWS Secrets Manager)
- Isolating AWS resources (AWS Documentation: Design isolated resource environments)
- Designing and implementing playbooks and runbooks for responses to security incidents (AWS Documentation: Develop and test security incident response playbooks)
- Deploying security services (for example, AWS Security Hub, Amazon Macie, Amazon GuardDuty, Amazon Inspector, AWS Config, Amazon Detective, AWS Identity and Access Management Access Analyzer) (AWS Documentation: Security, identity, and compliance)
- Configuring integrations with native AWS services and third-party services (for example, by using Amazon EventBridge and the ASFF)
Task Statement 1.2: Detect security threats and anomalies by using AWS services.
Knowledge of:
- AWS managed security services that detect threats (AWS Documentation: Monitoring data security with managed AWS security services)
- Anomaly and correlation techniques to join data across services (AWS Documentation: Concepts for anomaly or outlier detection)
- Visualizations to identify anomalies
- Strategies to centralize security findings (AWS Documentation: Centralized Security Management)
Skills in:
- Evaluating findings from security services (for example, GuardDuty, Security Hub, Macie, AWS Config, IAM Access Analyzer) (AWS Documentation: AWS service integrations with AWS Security Hub)
- Searching and correlating security threats across AWS services (for example, by using Detective)
- Performing queries to validate security events (for example, by using Amazon Athena) (AWS Documentation: Querying AWS CloudTrail logs)
- Creating metric filters and dashboards to detect anomalous activity (for example, by using Amazon CloudWatch) (AWS Documentation: Using CloudWatch anomaly detection)
Task Statement 1.3: Respond to compromised resources and workloads.
Knowledge of:
- AWS Security Incident Response Guide (AWS Documentation: AWS Security Incident Response Guide)
- Resource isolation mechanisms (AWS Documentation: Design isolated resource environments)
- Techniques for root cause analysis (AWS Documentation: What is Root Cause Analysis (RCA)?)
- Data capture mechanisms (AWS Documentation: Capture data)
- Log analysis for event validation (AWS Documentation: Analyzing log data with CloudWatch Logs Insights)
Skills in:
- Automating remediation by using AWS services (for example, AWS Lambda, AWS Step Functions, EventBridge, AWS Systems Manager runbooks, Security Hub, AWS Config) (AWS Documentation: AWS Systems Manager Automation)
- Responding to compromised resources (for example, by isolating Amazon EC2 instances) (AWS Documentation: Remediating a potentially compromised Amazon EC2 instance)
- Investigating and analyzing to conduct root cause analysis (for example, by using Detective) (AWS Documentation: What is Amazon Detective?)
- Capturing relevant forensics data from a compromised resource (for example, Amazon Elastic Block Store [Amazon EBS] volume snapshots, memory dump) (AWS Documentation: Amazon EBS snapshots)
- Querying logs in Amazon S3 for contextual information related to security events (for example, by using Athena) (AWS Documentation: Querying AWS CloudTrail logs)
- Protecting and preserving forensic artifacts (for example, by using S3 Object Lock, isolated forensic accounts, S3 Lifecycle, and S3 replication) (AWS Documentation: Using S3 Object Lock)
- Preparing services for incidents and recovering services after incidents (AWS Documentation: Recovery)
Domain 2: Security Logging and Monitoring (18%)
Task Statement 2.1: Design and implement monitoring and alerting to address security events.
Knowledge of:
- AWS services that monitor events and provide alarms (for example, CloudWatch, EventBridge) (AWS Documentation: Alarm events and EventBridge)
- AWS services that automate alerting (for example, Lambda, Amazon Simple Notification Service [Amazon SNS], Security Hub) (AWS Documentation: Automated response and remediation)
- Tools that monitor metrics and baselines (for example, GuardDuty, Systems Manager)
Skills in:
- Analyzing architectures to identify monitoring requirements and sources of data for security monitoring (AWS Documentation: Designing and implementing logging and monitoring with Amazon CloudWatch)
- Analyzing environments and workloads to determine monitoring requirements (AWS Documentation: Perform an analysis on the workload demand)
- Designing environment monitoring and workload monitoring based on business and security requirements
- Setting up automated tools and scripts to perform regular audits (for example, by creating custom insights in Security Hub) (AWS Documentation: Custom insights)
- Defining the metrics and thresholds that generate alerts (AWS Documentation: Using Amazon CloudWatch alarms)
Task Statement 2.2: Troubleshoot security monitoring and alerting.
Knowledge of:
- Configuration of monitoring services (for example, Security Hub) (AWS Documentation: What is AWS Security Hub?)
- Relevant data that indicates security events (AWS Documentation: Logging and events)
Skills in:
- Analyzing the service functionality, permissions, and configuration of resources after an event that did not provide visibility or alerting (AWS Documentation: Refining permissions in AWS using last accessed information)
- Analyzing and remediating the configuration of a custom application that is not reporting its statistics (AWS Documentation: What Is AWS Config?)
- Evaluating logging and monitoring services for alignment with security requirements (AWS Documentation: Monitoring and Logging)
Task Statement 2.3: Design and implement a logging solution.
Knowledge of:
- AWS services and features that provide logging capabilities (for example, VPC Flow Logs, DNS logs, AWS CloudTrail, Amazon CloudWatch Logs) (AWS Documentation: Logging IP traffic using VPC Flow Logs)
- Attributes of logging capabilities (for example, log levels, type, verbosity) (AWS Documentation: AWS Lambda function logging in Python)
- Log destinations and lifecycle management (for example, retention period) (AWS Documentation: Managing your storage lifecycle)
Skills in:
- Configuring logging for services and applications (AWS Documentation: Configure service and application logging)
- Identifying logging requirements and sources for log ingestion
- Implementing log storage and lifecycle management according to AWS best practices and organizational requirements (AWS Documentation: Managing your storage lifecycle)
Task Statement 2.4: Troubleshoot logging solutions.
Knowledge of:
- Capabilities and use cases of AWS services that provide data sources (for example, log level, type, verbosity, cadence, timeliness, immutability) (AWS Documentation: AWS services for logging and monitoring)
- AWS services and features that provide logging capabilities (for example, VPC Flow Logs, DNS logs, CloudTrail, CloudWatch Logs) (AWS Documentation: Logging IP traffic using VPC Flow Logs)
- Access permissions that are necessary for logging (AWS Documentation: CloudWatch Logs permissions reference)
Skills in:
- Identifying misconfiguration and determining remediation steps for absent access permissions that are necessary for logging (for example, by managing read/write permissions, S3 bucket permissions, public access, and integrity) (AWS Documentation: Enabling Amazon S3 server access logging)
- Determining the cause of missing logs and performing remediation steps (AWS Documentation: Remediating security issues discovered by GuardDuty)
Task Statement 2.5: Design a log analysis solution.
Knowledge of:
- Services and tools to analyze captured logs (for example, Athena, CloudWatch Logs filter) (AWS Documentation: Logging and monitoring in Athena)
- Log analysis features of AWS services (for example, CloudWatch Logs Insights, CloudTrail Insights, Security Hub insights) (AWS Documentation: Analyzing log data with CloudWatch Logs Insights)
- Log format and components (for example, CloudTrail logs) (AWS Documentation: CloudTrail log file examples)
Skills in:
- Identifying patterns in logs to indicate anomalies and known threats (AWS Documentation: Log anomaly detection)
- Normalizing, parsing, and correlating logs (AWS Documentation: Parsing logs and structured logging)
Domain 3: Infrastructure Security (20%)
Task Statement 3.1: Design and implement security controls for edge services.
Knowledge of:
- Security features on edge services (for example, AWS WAF, load balancers, Amazon Route 53, Amazon CloudFront, AWS Shield) (AWS Documentation: How AWS WAF works with Amazon CloudFront features)
- Common attacks, threats, and exploits (for example, Open Web Application Security Project [OWASP] Top 10, DDoS)
- Layered web application architecture (AWS Documentation: Three-tier architecture overview)
Skills in:
- Defining edge security strategies for common use cases (for example, public website, serverless app, mobile app backend) (AWS Documentation: Identity and access management)
- Selecting appropriate edge services based on anticipated threats and attacks (for example, OWASP Top 10, DDoS)
- Selecting appropriate protections based on anticipated vulnerabilities and risks (for example, vulnerable software, applications, libraries) (AWS Documentation: Vulnerability Reporting)
- Defining layers of defense by combining edge security services (for example, CloudFront with AWS WAF and load balancers)
- Applying restrictions at the edge based on various criteria (for example, geography, geolocation, rate limit) (AWS Documentation: Restricting the geographic distribution of your content)
- Activating logs, metrics, and monitoring around edge services to indicate attacks (AWS Documentation: Metrics and alarms)
Task Statement 3.2: Design and implement network security controls.
Knowledge of:
- VPC security mechanisms (for example, security groups, network ACLs, AWS Network Firewall) (AWS Documentation: Security best practices for your VPC)
- Inter-VPC connectivity (for example, AWS Transit Gateway, VPC endpoints) (AWS Documentation: Amazon VPC-to-Amazon VPC connectivity options)
- Security telemetry sources (for example, Traffic Mirroring, VPC Flow Logs) (AWS Documentation: Logging IP traffic using VPC Flow Logs)
- VPN technology, terminology, and usage (AWS Documentation: What is AWS Site-to-Site VPN?)
- On-premises connectivity options (for example, AWS VPN, AWS Direct Connect) (AWS Documentation: AWS Direct Connect)
Skills in:
- Implementing network segmentation based on security requirements (for example, public subnets, private subnets, sensitive VPCs, on-premises connectivity)
- Designing network controls to permit or prevent network traffic as required (for example, by using security groups, network ACLs, and Network Firewall) (AWS Documentation: Control traffic to subnets using network ACLs)
- Designing network flows to keep data off the public internet (for example, by using Transit Gateway, VPC endpoints, and Lambda in VPCs) (AWS Documentation: What is a transit gateway?)
- Determining which telemetry sources to monitor based on network design, threats, and attacks (for example, load balancer logs, VPC Flow Logs, Traffic Mirroring) (AWS Documentation: Monitor your Network Load Balancers)
- Determining redundancy and security workload requirements for communication between on-premises environments and the AWS Cloud (for example, by using AWS VPN, AWS VPN over Direct Connect, and MACsec) (AWS Documentation: AWS Direct Connect)
- Identifying and removing unnecessary network access (AWS Documentation: Security best practices in IAM)
- Managing network configurations as requirements change (for example, by using AWS Firewall Manager) (AWS Documentation: Working with AWS Firewall Manager policies)
Task Statement 3.3: Design and implement security controls for compute workloads.
Knowledge of:
- Provisioning and maintenance of EC2 instances (for example, patching, inspecting, creation of snapshots and AMIs, use of EC2 Image Builder) (AWS Documentation: What is EC2 Image Builder?)
- IAM instance roles and IAM service roles (AWS Documentation: IAM roles)
- Services that scan for vulnerabilities in compute workloads (for example, Amazon Inspector, Amazon Elastic Container Registry [Amazon ECR]) (AWS Documentation: Scanning Amazon ECR container images with Amazon Inspector)
- Host-based security (for example, firewalls, hardening)
Skills in:
- Creating hardened EC2 AMIs (AWS Documentation: Create a custom Windows AMI)
- Applying instance roles and service roles as appropriate to authorize compute workloads (AWS Documentation: IAM roles for Amazon EC2)
- Scanning EC2 instances and container images for known vulnerabilities (AWS Documentation: Scanning Amazon EC2 instances with Amazon Inspector)
- Applying patches across a fleet of EC2 instances or container images (AWS Documentation: AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager)
- Activating host-based security mechanisms (for example, host-based firewalls)
- Analyzing Amazon Inspector findings and determining appropriate mitigation techniques (AWS Documentation: Understanding findings in Amazon Inspector)
- Passing secrets and credentials securely to compute workloads (AWS Documentation: AWS security credentials)
Task Statement 3.4: Troubleshoot network security.
Knowledge of:
- How to analyze reachability (for example, by using VPC Reachability Analyzer and Amazon Inspector) (AWS Documentation: Getting started with Reachability Analyzer)
- Fundamental TCP/IP networking concepts (for example, UDP compared with TCP, ports, Open Systems Interconnection [OSI] model, network operating system utilities)
- How to read relevant log sources (for example, Route 53 logs, AWS WAF logs, VPC Flow Logs) (AWS Documentation: Logging IP traffic using VPC Flow Logs)
Skills in:
- Identifying, interpreting, and prioritizing problems in network connectivity (for example, by using Amazon Inspector Network Reachability) (AWS Documentation: Network Reachability)
- Determining solutions to produce desired network behavior (AWS Documentation: AWS Config Managed Rules)
- Analyzing log sources to identify problems (AWS Documentation: Analyzing log data with CloudWatch Logs Insights)
- Capturing traffic samples for problem analysis (for example, by using Traffic Mirroring) (AWS Documentation: What is Traffic Mirroring?)
Domain 4: Identity and Access Management (16%)
Task Statement 4.1: Design, implement, and troubleshoot authentication for AWS resources.
Knowledge of:
- Methods and services for creating and managing identities (for example, federation, identity providers, AWS IAM Identity Center [AWS Single Sign-On], Amazon Cognito) (AWS Documentation: Identity providers and federation)
- Long-term and temporary credentialing mechanisms (AWS Documentation: Use temporary credentials)
- How to troubleshoot authentication issues (for example, by using CloudTrail, IAM Access Advisor, and IAM policy simulator) (AWS Documentation: Troubleshooting AWS CloudTrail identity and access)
Skills in:
- Establishing identity through an authentication system, based on requirements (AWS Documentation: How IAM works)
- Setting up multi-factor authentication (MFA) (AWS Documentation: General steps for enabling MFA devices)
- Determining when to use AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS) to issue temporary credentials (AWS Documentation: Requesting temporary security credentials)
Task Statement 4.2: Design, implement, and troubleshoot authorization for AWS resources.
Knowledge of:
- Different IAM policies (for example, managed policies, inline policies, identity-based policies, resource-based policies, session control policies) (AWS Documentation: Policies and permissions in IAM)
- Components and impact of a policy (for example, Principal, Action, Resource, Condition) (AWS Documentation: IAM JSON policy elements reference)
- How to troubleshoot authorization issues (for example, by using CloudTrail, IAM Access Advisor, and IAM policy simulator) (AWS Documentation: Troubleshooting AWS CloudTrail identity and access)
Skills in:
- Constructing attribute-based access control (ABAC) and role-based access control (RBAC) strategies (AWS Documentation: What is ABAC for AWS?)
- Evaluating IAM policy types for given requirements and workloads (AWS Documentation: Policy evaluation logic)
- Interpreting an IAM policy’s effect on environments and workloads (AWS Documentation: IAM policy elements: Variables and tags)
- Applying the principle of least privilege across an environment
- Enforcing proper separation of duties
- Analyzing access or authorization errors to determine cause or effect (AWS Documentation: Using AWS Identity and Access Management Access Analyzer)
- Investigating unintended permissions, authorization, or privileges granted to a resource, service, or entity (AWS Documentation: Managing access permissions for your AWS organization)
Domain 5: Data Protection (18%)
Task Statement 5.1: Design and implement controls that provide confidentiality and integrity for data in transit.
Knowledge of:
- TLS concepts (AWS Documentation: Transport Layer Security (TLS))
- VPN concepts (for example, IPsec) (AWS Documentation: What is a VPN (Virtual Private Network)?)
- Secure remote access methods (for example, SSH, RDP over Systems Manager Session Manager) (AWS Documentation: AWS Systems Manager Session Manager)
- Systems Manager Session Manager concepts
- How TLS certificates work with various network services and resources (for example, CloudFront, load balancers) (AWS Documentation: TLS listeners for your Network Load Balancer)
Skills in:
- Designing secure connectivity between AWS and on-premises networks (for example, by using Direct Connect and VPN gateways) (AWS Documentation: AWS Direct Connect )
- Designing mechanisms to require encryption when connecting to resources (for example, Amazon RDS, Amazon Redshift, CloudFront, Amazon S3, Amazon DynamoDB, load balancers, Amazon Elastic File System [Amazon EFS], Amazon API Gateway) (AWS Documentation: Encrypting Amazon RDS resources)
- Requiring TLS for AWS API calls (for example, with Amazon S3) (AWS Documentation: Infrastructure security in Amazon S3)
- Designing mechanisms to forward traffic over secure connections (for example, by using Systems Manager and EC2 Instance Connect) (AWS Documentation: Connect using EC2 Instance Connect)
- Designing cross-Region networking by using private VIFs and public VIFs
Task Statement 5.2: Design and implement controls that provide confidentiality and integrity for data at rest.
Knowledge of:
- Encryption technique selection (for example, client-side, server-side, symmetric, asymmetric) (AWS Documentation: AWS KMS concepts)
- Integrity-checking techniques (for example, hashing algorithms, digital signatures) (AWS Documentation: Checking object integrity)
- Resource policies (for example, for DynamoDB, Amazon S3, and AWS Key Management Service [AWS KMS]) (AWS Documentation: Key policies in AWS KMS)
- IAM roles and policies (AWS Documentation: Policies and permissions in IAM)
Skills in:
- Designing resource policies to restrict access to authorized users (for example, S3 bucket policies, DynamoDB policies) (AWS Documentation: Examples of Amazon S3 bucket policies)
- Designing mechanisms to prevent unauthorized public access (for example, S3 Block Public Access, prevention of public snapshots and public AMIs) (AWS Documentation: Blocking public access to your Amazon S3 storage)
- Configuring services to activate encryption of data at rest (for example, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS, DynamoDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service [Amazon SQS], Amazon EBS, Amazon EFS) (AWS Documentation: Encryption at rest in Amazon SQS)
- Designing mechanisms to protect data integrity by preventing modifications (for example, by using S3 Object Lock, KMS key policies, S3 Glacier Vault Lock, and AWS Backup Vault Lock) (AWS Documentation: Using S3 Object Lock)
- Designing encryption at rest by using AWS CloudHSM for relationaldatabases (for example, Amazon RDS, RDS Custom, databases on EC2 instances)
- Choosing encryption techniques based on business requirements (AWS Documentation: Creating an enterprise encryption strategy for data at rest)
Task Statement 5.3: Design and implement controls to manage the lifecycle of data at rest.
Knowledge of:
- Lifecycle policies
- Data retention standards
Skills in:
- Designing S3 Lifecycle mechanisms to retain data for required retention periods (for example, S3 Object Lock, S3 Glacier Vault Lock, S3 Lifecycle policy) (AWS Documentation: Managing your storage lifecycle)
- Designing automatic lifecycle management for AWS services and resources (for example, Amazon S3, EBS volume snapshots, RDS volume snapshots, AMIs, container images, CloudWatch log groups, Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager) (AWS Documentation: Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager)
- Establishing schedules and retention for AWS Backup across AWS services (AWS Documentation: Creating a backup plan)
Task Statement 5.4: Design and implement controls to protect credentials, secrets, and cryptographic key materials.
Knowledge of:
- Secrets Manager (AWS Documentation: What is AWS Secrets Manager?)
- Systems Manager Parameter Store (AWS Documentation: AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store)
- Usage and management of symmetric keys and asymmetric keys (for example, AWS KMS)
Skills in:
- Designing management and rotation of secrets for workloads (for example, database access credentials, API keys, IAM access keys, AWS KMS customer managed keys)
- Designing KMS key policies to limit key usage to authorized users (AWS Documentation: Key policies in AWS KMS)
- Establishing mechanisms to import and remove customer-provided key material (AWS Documentation: Importing key material for AWS KMS keys)
Domain 6: Management and Security Governance (14%)
Task Statement 6.1: Develop a strategy to centrally deploy and manage AWS accounts.
Knowledge of:
- Multi-account strategies (AWS Documentation: Organizing Your AWS Environment Using Multiple Accounts)
- Managed services that allow delegated administration (AWS Documentation: AWS services that you can use with AWS Organizations)
- Policy-defined guardrails
- Root account best practices (AWS Documentation: Root user best practices for your AWS account)
- Cross-account roles (AWS Documentation: Delegate access across AWS accounts using IAM roles)
Skills in:
- Deploying and configuring AWS Organizations (AWS Documentation: Creating and configuring an organization)
- Determining when and how to deploy AWS Control Tower (for example, which services must be deactivated for successful deployment) (AWS Documentation: Deploying AWS Control Tower in an AWS Landing Zone organization)
- Implementing SCPs as a technical solution to enforce a policy (for example, limitations on the use of a root account, implementation of controls in AWS Control Tower)
- Centrally managing security services and aggregating findings (for example, by using delegated administration and AWS Config aggregators) (AWS Documentation: How central configuration works)
- Securing AWS account root user credentials (AWS Documentation: AWS security credentials)
Task Statement 6.2: Implement a secure and consistent deployment strategy for cloud resources.
Knowledge of:
- Deployment best practices with infrastructure as code (IaC) (for example, AWS CloudFormation template hardening and drift detection) (AWS Documentation: AWS CloudFormation best practices)
- Best practices for tagging (AWS Documentation: Best Practices for Tagging AWS Resources)
- Centralized management, deployment, and versioning of AWS services
- Visibility and control over AWS infrastructure
Skills in:
- Using CloudFormation to deploy cloud resources consistently and securely (AWS Documentation: AWS CloudFormation best practices)
- Implementing and enforcing multi-account tagging strategies (AWS Documentation: Implementing and enforcing tagging)
- Configuring and deploying portfolios of approved AWS services (for example, by using AWS Service Catalog) (AWS Documentation: Automate AWS Service Catalog portfolio and product deployment by using AWS CDK)
- Organizing AWS resources into different groups for management (AWS Documentation: What are resource groups?)
- Deploying Firewall Manager to enforce policies (AWS Documentation: Working with AWS Firewall Manager policies)
- Securely sharing resources across AWS accounts (for example, by using AWS Resource Access Manager [AWS RAM]) (AWS Documentation: Shareable AWS resources)
Task Statement 6.3: Evaluate the compliance of AWS resources.
Knowledge of:
- Data classification by using AWS services (AWS Documentation: Data classification overview)
- How to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of AWS resources (for example, by using AWS Config) (AWS Documentation: Evaluating Resources with AWS Config Rules)
Skills in:
- Identifying sensitive data by using Macie (AWS Documentation: Discovering sensitive data with Amazon Macie)
- Creating AWS Config rules for detection of noncompliant AWS resources (AWS Documentation: Remediating Noncompliant Resources with AWS Config Rules)
- Collecting and organizing evidence by using Security Hub and AWS Audit Manager (AWS Documentation: Reviewing the evidence in an assessment)
Task Statement 6.4: Identify security gaps through architectural reviews and cost analysis.
Knowledge of:
- AWS cost and usage for anomaly identification (AWS Documentation: Getting started with AWS Cost Anomaly Detection)
- Strategies to reduce attack surfaces (AWS Documentation: Attack surface reduction)
- AWS Well-Architected Framework (AWS Documentation: AWS Well-Architected Framework)
Skills in:
- Identifying anomalies based on resource utilization and trends (AWS Documentation: Using CloudWatch anomaly detection)
- Identifying unused resources by using AWS services and tools (for example, AWS Trusted Advisor, AWS Cost Explorer) (AWS Documentation: Analyzing your costs with AWS Cost Explorer)
- Using the AWS Well-Architected Tool to identify security gaps (AWS Documentation: Security in AWS Well-Architected Tool)
Step 2 – Know about the Exam Format
Another thing that the candidate should be aware of is the exam’s fundamentals. The AWS Certified Security Specialty SCS C01 exam consists of 65 questions that must be answered in 170 minutes. The certification has a three-year validity period and is available in English, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. On the examination, there are two types of questions:
- There is one correct response and three incorrect responses in a multiple choice question (distractors).
- Multiple answers: Has two or more correct answers out of five or more options.
Furthermore, the AWS certified security specialty certification costs $300; however, prices may vary depending on location.
Step 3 – Know about – What’s in the Future?
There are some important points of which you should be aware of when you will be taking this exam – this includes knowing about the scope and future of the exam. It is important to know if the objectives of the exam align with your goals or the specific purpose you wish to achieve.
AWS Security experts in the United States earn approximately US$143,677 per year, according to ZipRecruiter. The average Amazon Security Specialist salary in India, on the other hand, ranges from 3.3 Lakhs for those with less than one year of experience to 12 Lakhs for those with more than one year of experience. A Security Specialist at Amazon can expect to earn between 2.3 and 4.8 lakhs per year.
Step 4 – Refer to the best Resources
Different resources have varying levels of knowledge and comprehension. In academic life, however, revision should be done on a case-by-case basis. As a result, it is critical to match the type of revision you do on your source material. Below mentioned are some of the resources that you can refer to and that can be of utmost benefit for your preparation –
Refer to AWS Academy
AWS Academy provides higher education institutions with free, ready-to-teach cloud computing coursework, preparing students to pursue industry-recognized certifications and in-demand cloud careers. Their curriculum helps instructors stay on the cutting edge of AWS Cloud innovation so that they can provide students with the skills needed to land a job in one of the fastest-growing industries. Refer to the Amazon training listed below –
- Getting Started with AWS Security, Identity, and Compliance
- AWS Security Fundamentals (Second Edition)
- Architecting on AWS
- Security Engineering on AWS
Refer to Amazon Whitepapers
Candidates preparing for the AWS can also benefit from Amazon whitepapers. We can confidently recommend the AWS certified security specialty whitepapers as genuine study resources. These are PDF versions of the topics found on the official Amazon certifications page. Whitepapers not only help you prepare better, but they also help you develop a solid plan to focus on. AWS provides sample papers to applicants to help them gain more knowledge and skills in order to prepare for certification exams. If you want to refer to reading materials, you can also refer to Amazon white papers. Some of them are listed below:
- Security Pillar – AWS Well Architected Framework
- Amazon Web Services: Overview of Security Processes
- AWS Security Best Practices
Online Study Groups
Candidates may benefit from online study groups when studying for exams. In other words, participating in study groups will enable you to stay in touch with experts and professionals who are already on this path. To clear the concepts and develop a strong understanding, you can also refer to instructor-led training and online classes. More emphasis should be placed on the theoretical aspect and hands-on training, which can be strengthened by receiving training from experts or taking classes from a reputable organization.
Referring to Practice Tests
It is critical to take practice exams to improve your readiness. You will learn about your weak and strong points by taking the AWS Security Specialist exam. You will also be able to improve your response abilities, which will allow you to save a significant amount of time during the test. This is the most important aspect of your preparation; complete as many sample papers and practice tests as possible. This will help you improve your weak areas while also clearing your conceptual areas. You will feel more confident if you practice as much as possible. Now is the time to take the free test!
Step 5 – Take the exam in accordance with the Expert’s Advice
Even a single qualification has the potential to transform your life. It has the potential to create new opportunities. It is up to you, however, to seize and capitalize on such opportunities. And, in an increasingly DevOps world, you can’t expect someone else to handle all the details you don’t understand. Specialization and collaboration are essential, but you must also be able to run systems on your own.
Given this, pursuing the AWS Security Specialist certification is a good idea to lay a solid foundation for efficiently utilizing AWS daily. This course will teach you how to design, build, configure, monitor, and maintain AWS-based security systems.
