Domain 3: Security Operations and Monitoring (25%)
The Security Operations and Monitoring domain is the largest domain in the CySA+ syllabus, accounting for 25% of the exam. This domain focuses on continuous security monitoring and analyzing network traffic to detect potential threats.
Key Areas Covered:
- Monitoring and Analyzing Network Traffic
- This involves using Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools such as Splunk, ELK Stack, and IBM QRadar to Cysa+ Syllabus monitor network traffic in real-time.
- You'll need to understand how to analyze logs, detect anomalies, and identify security incidents using correlation rules and alerts generated by SIEM tools.
- Network Forensics
- Understanding network forensics is essential for tracking the activity of attackers. This section focuses on capturing and analyzing network traffic to identify suspicious behavior.
- Tools such as Wireshark, tcpdump, and Snort are used for traffic analysis, and knowledge of PCAP (Packet Capture) files and how to interpret them is required.
- Implementing Security Controls
- Implementing and maintaining security controls such as firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS), and network access control (NAC) systems is essential for preventing unauthorized access and mitigating attacks.
- Understanding how to fine-tune security controls to reduce false positives while maintaining a high level of security is important in this domain.
- Automation and Orchestration
- Security teams must increasingly rely on automation to handle the volume of data generated by monitoring tools. This section covers how to use automation to reduce the time taken to detect and respond to security incidents.
- Concepts such as Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) are key in understanding how automation can help streamline security operations.
