CompTIA CASP Certification

The CompTIA CASP+, or the Advanced Security Practitioner certification belongs to the Cybersecurity track and validates the learner’s ability to work with a ton of security concepts across several disciplines. In particular, this training targets individuals who are fully committed to managing security concepts rather than simply managing them. Thus, CASP+ certified IT professionals implement effective solutions within cybersecurity frameworks and policies at an advanced level.

Affiliated Test

To qualify for the CompTIA CASP+ certificate, you must pass the CAS-003 exam. In more detail, this test covers the technical skills related to architecting, engineering, integrating, and implementing security solutions across different environments. This is in a bid to provision resilient systems and enterprise environments while keeping in mind the effect of risk, compliance, and governance requirements.

CAS-003 Exam Details & General Info

All in all, the CompTIA CAS-003 exam comprises 90 items in performance-based and multiple-choice format. It has a seat time of 165 minutes and exists in the English and Japanese languages. Generally, CAS-003 exam-takers should possess at least 10 years of proven experience as IT administrators. This should involve at least 5 years of practical experience as the lead security expert. At the moment, the vendor, CompTIA, has introduced a new evaluation, CAS-004, which will be available starting August 2021 as the replacement for the current CAS-003 exam. Unlike many tests, the CompTIA CAS-003 does not include a scaled passing score. Instead, students will be graded on a pass/fail basis. Regardless, they can still schedule this exam through Pearson VUE and take it from designated testing centers or as an online test from the comfort of their homes. Of course, the pricing remains the same for both exam versions, and it is $466 for every exam attempt.

CAS-003 Exam objectives

In order to easily get a pass status, you need to meticulously prepare for the topics measured by the final exam. Thus, here’s an overview of the CAS-003 exam objectives:

1. Risk Management (19%)

This knowledge area addresses 4 key subtopics as part of the CAS-003 exam including summarizing industry & business influences and the relevant security risks, comparing and contrasting security, privacy policies, and procedures depending on the requirements of the organization, executing the controls as well as strategies for mitigating risks, and analyzing the scenarios of risk metric for enterprise security.

2. Enterprise Security Architecture (25%)

Enterprise security architecture, in particular, covers the skills associated with analyzing scenarios and integrating security as well as network components to satisfy specific requirements, analyzing a scenario to integrate security components into host devices to satisfy the security needs, and analyzing a scenario for integrating security controls for mobile devices to satisfy the security objectives. Also tested is the learner’s knowledge of selecting the most suitable security controls when there are software vulnerability case scenarios.

3. Enterprise Security Operations (20%)

Here, the key emphasis will be on conducting a security assessment using the right methods, analyzing a case output or scenario, selecting the right tool for assessing security and implementing procedures for recovery and incident response. Henceforth, it's important to understand how to work with methods, the SCAP tool, security tools, e-discovery, and data breach among similar concepts before facing any questions from this section.

4. Technical Integration of Enterprise Security (23%)

Such a test objective is centered on the knowledge of integrating networks, applications, storage, and hosts into secure enterprise architectures, integrating virtualization and cloud technologies into secure enterprise architectures, and integrating as well as troubleshooting authorization technologies along with authentication to meet the security objectives. In addition, this topic will test the candidates’ skills related to implementing the techniques of cryptography and selecting the right control for the security of collaboration solutions and communications.

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

In conclusion, the last topic will highlight questions from the tasks like applying research methods when determining the industry trends and their effect on the enterprise, implementing security activities throughout the technology life cycle, and explaining the significance of interaction across different business units to attain the desired security objectives.

Career Opportunities

Attaining the CASP+ designation will lead you to multiple career jobs and opportunities like:

• Security Architect

  The job scope of a security architect entails designing, testing, implementing, and building security systems for their organizations. As a rule, these are competent IT specialists who review the existing security measures and recommend enhancement strategies, design project timelines for the pending tasks and system upgrades, respond to security issues and perform regular tests on functional systems to ensure constant monitoring. More so, a security architect boasts a painstaking understanding of IT systems and keeps abreast of the latest developments & best practices to help the company realize its business objectives. According to the PayScale website, a typical security architect earns an average salary of $124,763 per year.

• Security Engineer

  Security engineers, on the other hand, are the go-to individuals when a company desires to build a competent team of IT specialists who can test and screen their security software in a bid to monitor networks for intrusions and security breaches. Their scope of work, in particular, covers detecting system vulnerabilities, designing firewalls, configuring functional systems, and performing a comprehensive risk assessment. Also, such specialists may be involved in analyzing security systems to improve the existing features, responding to and documenting security issues, and sourcing new security strategies to ensure the security of their systems. On that note, they make an average income of $93,115 annually as it’s revealed by PayScale.

• Application Security Engineer

  Application security engineers or simply AppSec engineers are responsible for setting security controls and designing requirements at a critical stage of the software lifecycle. Also, these specialists are tasked with integrating such designs into software systems. As part of their continuing role in IT departments, AppSec engineers may also secure data, applications, and systems. Usually, these individuals work as part of a broader security engineering department with the primary objective of ensuring that the company’s infrastructure and software are in line with the security best practices in place. According to PayScale salary information, a typical AppSec engineer is guaranteed a mean salary of $97,684 per annum.

Designation Path

The CompTIA CASP+ is an advanced-level certification that validates your technical ability to work with security concepts. Thus, it will be a wise step for you to procure other certificates that are issued by the same vendor. In particular, you can explore their Additional Professional path and choose the validation to your liking. To illustrate, you can secure the CTT+, the Cloud Essentials+, or the Project+ certificates, where each one will specialize in a specific field and can be a big plus to your overall career.