Aligned to SY0-701 official exam objectives across all 5 domains. Covers security concepts, threats, architecture, operations, and program management.
Level: Intermediate
Grade band: Certification
Time: about 40 hours
Outcomes
- Explain core security concepts, cryptography, and PKI
- Identify and analyse threats, vulnerabilities, and attack techniques
- Design and evaluate security architectures for enterprise environments
- Apply security operations skills: SIEM, incident response, forensics
- Describe governance, risk, compliance, and data privacy frameworks
Domain 1 — General Security Concepts (12%)
Security Controls & Frameworks
- Security control categories (technical, managerial, operational, physical) — 25 min
- Security frameworks: NIST CSF, ISO 27001, CIS Controls — 25 min
- Security policies, standards, procedures, and guidelines — 25 min
- Change management and configuration management in security — 25 min
Cryptography & PKI
- Cryptography concepts: symmetric, asymmetric, hashing — 25 min
- PKI: certificates, CAs, CRLs, OCSP, certificate types and use cases — 25 min
- Encryption algorithms: AES, RSA, ECC, DH, DSA — strengths and use cases — 25 min
- Hashing algorithms: MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, HMAC, digital signatures — 25 min
Authentication & Authorization
- Authentication factors: something you know/have/are; MFA, passwordless — 25 min
- Authorization models: DAC, MAC, RBAC, ABAC, rule-based access control — 25 min
Domain 2 — Threats, Vulnerabilities & Mitigations (22%)
Threat Actors & Attack Vectors
- Threat actors: nation-state, insider, hacktivist, criminal — 25 min
- Vulnerability scanning and assessment concepts — 25 min
- Attack surface and attack vectors: network, application, supply chain, human — 25 min
- Indicators of compromise (IoC) and indicators of attack (IoA) — 25 min
Social Engineering & Malware
- Social engineering: phishing, vishing, pretexting, BEC — 25 min
- Malware types: virus, worm, trojan, ransomware, rootkit, spyware, keylogger, botnet — 25 min
- Application attacks: SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, buffer overflow, directory traversal — 25 min
- Network attacks: DoS/DDoS, on-path, replay, DNS poisoning, ARP spoofing — 25 min
Vulnerability Management
- Vulnerability management lifecycle: identify, prioritize, remediate, verify — 25 min
- Penetration testing concepts: reconnaissance, exploitation, post-exploitation, reporting — 25 min
Domain 3 — Security Architecture (18%)
Network & Cloud Security Architecture
- Network security architecture: segmentation, DMZ, VPN, firewall — 25 min
- Cloud security architecture: shared responsibility, CASB, CSPM — 25 min
- Cloud service models: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS — security responsibilities at each layer — 25 min
- Secure network design: NAC, proxy, reverse proxy, load balancer, WAF, SIEM, SOAR — 25 min
Zero Trust & Resilience
- Zero trust architecture: identity, microsegmentation, least privilege — 25 min
- Resilience and redundancy: HA, clustering, RAID, backups, BCP/DRP — 25 min
- Infrastructure as code (IaC) and secure DevOps: CI/CD pipeline security, SAST, DAST — 25 min
Domain 4 — Security Operations (28%)
Identity, Access & Endpoint Security
- Identity and access management: MFA, SSO, PAM, directory services — 25 min
- Endpoint security: EDR, DLP, application control, hardening — 25 min
- Mobile device management: MDM, MAM, BYOD, containerization, remote wipe — 25 min
- Hardening techniques: patching, disabling services, secure baselines, CIS benchmarks — 25 min
Incident Response & Forensics
- Incident response lifecycle: preparation, detection, containment, eradication, recovery — 25 min
- Digital forensics: chain of custody, acquisition, analysis — 25 min
- Log analysis and SIEM: correlation rules, dashboards, alerting, threat hunting — 25 min
- Threat intelligence: STIX/TAXII, threat feeds, MITRE ATT&CK framework — 25 min
Monitoring & Automation
- Security automation: SOAR, playbooks, scripting for security operations — 25 min
- Vulnerability scanning tools: Nessus, OpenVAS, Qualys — interpreting scan results — 25 min
Domain 5 — Security Program Management & Oversight (20%)
Risk Management & Compliance
- Risk management: identification, analysis, treatment, monitoring — 25 min
- Compliance and regulations: GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOX — 25 min
- Security audits and assessments: internal, external, penetration test, vulnerability assessment — 25 min
- Business impact analysis (BIA): RTO, RPO, MTBF, MTTR, critical assets — 25 min
Data Privacy & Third-Party Risk
- Data privacy concepts and data classification — 25 min
- Third-party risk management and vendor assessment — 25 min
- Data loss prevention (DLP): policies, endpoint DLP, network DLP, cloud DLP — 25 min
- Security awareness training: phishing simulations, role-based training, metrics — 25 min
Start the first lesson: Security control categories (technical, managerial, operational, physical)