The CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner or simply CASP+ is an advanced-level designation that falls under the CompTIA cybersecurity path. It combines performance-based questions with hands-on items to certify individuals implementing cybersecurity policies.

Suitable Audience and Exam to Pass

This certificate, in particular, targets cybersecurity managers and any individual who is fully absorbed in technology as well as management roles. And that’s why cybersecurity managers are perfectly suited to it. To complete the qualification requirements, you must pass one exam, CAS-003, whose details are highlighted in the next section.

CompTIA CASP+ Exam Facts

The CASP+ exam coded CAS-003 verifies a high-level mastery of risk management skills, security operations, collaboration, and research. What is more, this test addresses the conceptualization, engineering, integration, and implementation of highly secure solutions covering a wide range of environments that support a functional enterprise. Usually, it will bring a maximum of 90 items in performance-based and multiple-choice formats which must be attempted in 165 minutes at $466 for every try. Unlike many certification exams you might have attempted in the past, the CAS-003 test is not scaled, meaning you will only be graded on a pass/fail basis. At the moment, CompTIA only provides this test in English and Japanese versions and according to the latest information, a new version, CAS-004, will be available starting August 2021.

Revealing CASP+ Tested Domains

In a nutshell, the CompTIA CAS-003 exam will cover the following objectives:

1. Risk Management (19%)

The topic of managing risk is built around the concepts of summarizing industry and business influences and the potential security risks, comparing and contrasting privacy, security procedures, and policies depending on the company requirements and executing controls and strategies for mitigating risks when you have a case scenario. Also tested is the knowledge of analyzing scenarios for risk metrics when securing the enterprise. All in all, this topic will spin around external as well as internal influences, common business documents, IT governance, enterprise resilience, prototypes, and solution metrics.

2. Enterprise Security Architecture (25%)

This domain focuses on the analysis of a scenario and integration of security and network components, architectures, and concepts to satisfy the requirements of security as well as those of host devices to achieve the same goal. Also, such an area covers an analysis of case scenarios for the integration of security controls used in mobile and other devices to fulfill the security demands and the selection of the fitting security controls when you have scenarios of software vulnerability. In more detail, in this part, you’ll encounter notions like security zones, network access control, trusted OS, host hardening, protections for the boot loader, wearable technology, particular app issues, firmware vulnerabilities, and the like.

3. Enterprise Security Operations (20%)

Such a section covers 3 major tasks including conducting security assessment by following the right methods & types, analyzing an output or scenario as well as picking the fitting tools for assessing security, and finally, implementing the recovery procedures and incident response. When it comes to tested concepts scrutinized here, among them, you’ll come across port scanners, host tools, data breaches, e-discovery, Fuzzer, IR camera, and the like.

4. Technical Integration of Enterprise Security (23%)

This knowledge area will address the integration of hosts, applications, networks, storage, cloud, and virtualization technologies into safe enterprise architecture, and the integration and troubleshooting of advanced authorization & authentication technologies for supporting the objectives of enterprise security. What’s more, it will highlight what the students should understand regarding the implementation of cryptographic techniques and the selection of the right control for the security of collaboration solutions and communications. Overall, under this section, you’ll deal with remote access, executions, trust models, augmented services of the cloud, identity proofing, and federation just to mention a few.

5. Research, Development, and Collaboration (13%)

To conclude, the actual test will cover the application of methods for determining the industry trends and the impact they may have on enterprise, the implementation of security activities covering the entire lifecycle of technology, and the description of the significance of interaction covering varied business elements to realize the security objectives. In particular, such a topic will shed light on systems & software development, threat intelligence, the global IA community, asset management, and so on.

Career Prospects

The CompTIA CASP+ certification is directly linked to the technical roles discussed below:

• Security Engineer

  As a rule, security engineers have an extensive job profile covering the testing and screening of security software to detect possible intrusions or security breaches. They also detect vulnerabilities in target systems, create firewalls, configure operational systems, and conduct a detailed risk analysis on the available systems. What’s more, they analyze the existing security systems to identify possible improvements, respond to the underlying security issues, and source new and better strategies to guarantee the safety of the available network systems. Consequently, they will be rewarded with an average pay of $93,704 per year according to PayScale.

• Application Security Engineer

  Application security engineers are sometimes called AppSec engineers and are known to set security controls and design the basic security requirements at different stages of the project lifecycle. Also, they integrate the relevant designs into software and secure apps, systems, and data, and if their responsibilities overlap with those of other security professionals, AppSec engineers may choose to join a security engineering department to ascertain that the organization’s critical software and infrastructure align with the projected best practices. Thus, according to ZipRecruiter, AppSec engineers make an average salary of $136,209 per annum in the US.

• Security Architect

  When it comes to security architects, these specialists design, test, build and implement their organization’s security systems. Moreover, they are knowledgeable IT professionals assigned with a wide range of duties in the day-to-day management of security operations such as reviewing the available strategies to identify possible upgrades, creating deadlines for project completion, responding to security threats, and conducting scheduled tests on the existing systems. Generally speaking, modern security architects acquire a solid understanding of IT systems and their operations and work tirelessly in a bid to stay updated on the latest trends as far as the IT best practices are involved. Usually, the bigger picture is for them to ensure the business objectives are fully achieved. Lastly, according to PayScale salary reports, security architects earn an average of $124,960 yearly.

Certification Path

The CASP+ certificate will confirm if you can manage security operations at the highest level, and it completes the CompTIA cybersecurity certification ladder as the furthest level you can go along this track. So, after attaining it, your best option will be to go after Additional Professional designations offered by the same vendor. Thus, among those certificates, you’ll encounter the CTT+, Cloud Essentials+, and the Project+.