Cybersecurity Professional “Test Prep”

Cybersecurity Professional “Test Prep”

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IT PROGRAMS/

Cybersecurity Professional “Test Prep”

Program Length Total Contact Hours
Clock Hours 360 Theory Hours 160
Weeks 16 Lab Hours 200
Externship Hours
Total Hours 360

           

Course Number Course Title Theory Hours Lab Hours
CCST-N Cisco Certified Support Technician Networking 40
CCST-S Cisco Certified Support Technician Security 40
COMP-70-740 Networking with Windows Server 2016 40
CCNA-CyberOpps CCNA Cybersecurity Operations 40
Total of Theory Hours 160
Lab Hours Breakdown
CCST-N Cisco Certified Support Technician Networking 50
CCST-S Cisco Certified Support Technician Security 50
COMP-70-740 Networking with Windows Server 2016 50
CCNA-CyberOpps CCNA Cybersecurity Operations 50
Total of Lab Hours 200
Total Hours 360
This Course is also offered Online and On-grounds.

 

 

Program Objective

Prepare the student to be able to design, manage, install, and troubleshoot Microsoft Windows Network Infrastructure professionally and efficiently. The successful candidate has the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to demonstrate how networks operate, including the devices, media, and protocols that enable network communication, the candidate will also have the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to demonstrate cybersecurity skills as pentester etc.

Program Description

Cisco Certified Support Technician (Networking)

  1. Standards and Concepts

1.1. Identify the fundamental conceptual building blocks of networks.

  • TCP/IP model, OSI model, frames and packets, addressing

1.2. Differentiate between bandwidth and throughput.

  • Latency, delay, speed test vs. Iperf

1.3. Differentiate between LAN, WAN, MAN, CAN, PAN, and WLAN.

  • Identify and illustrate common physical and logical network topologies.

1.4. Compare and contrast cloud and on-premises applications and services.

  • Public, private, hybrid, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, remote work/hybrid work

1.5. Describe common network applications and protocols.

  • TCP vs. UDP (connection-oriented vs. connectionless), FTP, SFTP, TFTP, HTTP, HTTPS,

DHCP, DNS, ICMP, NTP

  1. Addressing and Subnet Formats

2.1. Compare and contrast private addresses and public addresses.

  • Address classes, NAT concepts

2.2. Identify IPv4 addresses and subnet formats.

  • Subnet concepts, Subnet Calculator, slash notation, and subnet mask; broadcast domain

2.3. Identify IPv6 addresses and prefix formats.

  • Types of addresses, prefix concepts
  1. Endpoints and Media Types

3.1. Identify cables and connectors commonly used in local area networks.

  • Cable types: fiber, copper, twisted pair; Connector types: coax, RJ-45, RJ-11, fiber

connector types

3.2. Differentiate between Wi-Fi, cellular, and wired network technologies.

  • Copper, including sources of interference; fiber; wireless, including 802.11 (unlicensed,

2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz), cellular (licensed), sources of interference

3.3. Describe endpoint devices.

  • Internet of Things (IoT) devices, computers, mobile devices, IP Phone, printer, server

3.4. Demonstrate how to set up and check network connectivity on Windows, Linux, Mac OS,

Android, and Apple iOS.

  • Networking utilities on Windows, Linux, Android, and Apple operating systems; how to run

troubleshooting commands; wireless client settings (SSID, authentication, WPA mode)

  1. Infrastructure

4.1. Identify the status lights on a Cisco device when given instruction by an engineer.

  • Link light color and status (blinking or solid)

4.2. Use a network diagram provided by an engineer to attach the appropriate cables.

  • Patch cables, switches and routers, small topologies, power, rack layout

4.3. Identify the various ports on network devices.

  • Console port, serial port, fiber port, Ethernet ports, SFPs, USB port, PoE

4.4. Explain basic routing concepts.

  • Default gateway, layer 2 vs. layer 3 switches, local network vs. remote network

4.5. Explain basic switching concepts.

  • MAC address tables, MAC address filtering, VLAN
  1. Diagnosing Problems

5.1. Demonstrate effective troubleshooting methodologies and help desk best practices, including

ticketing, documentation, and information gathering.

  • Policies and procedures, accurate and complete documentation, prioritization

5.2. Perform a packet capture with Wireshark and save it to a file.

  • Purpose of using a packet analyzer, saving and opening a .pcap file

5.3. Run basic diagnostic commands and interpret the results.

  • ping, ipconfig/ifconfig/ip, tracert/traceroute, nslookup; recognize how firewalls can

influence the result

5.4. Differentiate between different ways to access and collect data about network devices.

  • Remote access (RDP, SSH, telnet), VPN, terminal emulators, Console, Network

Management Systems, cloud-managed network (Meraki), scripts

5.5. Run basic show commands on a Cisco network device.

  • show run, show cdp neighbors, show ip interface brief, show ip route, show version, show

inventory, show switch, show mac address-table, show interface, show interface x, show

interface status; privilege levels; command help and auto-complete

  1. Security

6.1. Describe how firewalls operate to filter traffic.

  • Firewalls (blocked ports and protocols); rules deny or permit access

6.2. Describe foundational security concepts.

  • Confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA); authentication, authorization, and

accounting (AAA); Multifactor Authentication (MFA); encryption, certificates, and

password complexity; identity stores/databases (Active Directory); threats and

vulnerabilities; spam, phishing, malware, and denial of service

6.3. Configure basic wireless security on a home router (WPAx).

  • WPA, WPA2, WPA3; choosing between Personal and Enterprise; wireless security concepts

 

Cisco Certified Support Technician (Cybersecurity)

 

  1. Essential Security Principles

1.1. Define essential security principles

  • Vulnerabilities, threats, exploits, and risks; attack vectors; hardening; defense-indepth;

confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA); types of attackers; reasons

for attacks; code of ethics

1.2. Explain common threats and vulnerabilities

  • Malware, ransomware, denial of service, botnets, social engineering attacks

(tailgating, spear phishing, phishing, vishing, smishing, etc.), physical attacks, man

in the middle, IoT vulnerabilities, insider threats, Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)

1.3. Explain access management principles

  • Authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA); RADIUS; multifactor

authentication (MFA); password policies

1.4. Explain encryption methods and applications

  • Types of encryption, hashing, certificates, public key infrastructure (PKI); strong vs.

weak encryption algorithms; states of data and appropriate encryption (data in

transit, data at rest, data in use); protocols that use encryption

  1. Basic Network Security Concepts

2.1. Describe TCP/IP protocol vulnerabilities

  • TCP, UDP, HTTP, ARP, ICMP, DHCP, DNS

2.2. Explain how network addresses impact network security

  • IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, MAC addresses, network segmentation, CIDR notation,

NAT, public vs. private networks

2.3. Describe network infrastructure and technologies

  • Network security architecture, DMZ, virtualization, cloud, honeypot, proxy server,

IDS, IPS

2.4. Set up a secure wireless SoHo network

  • MAC address filtering, encryption standards and protocols, SSID

2.5. Implement secure access technologies

  • ACL, firewall, VPN, NAC
  1. Endpoint Security Concepts

3.1. Describe operating system security concepts

  • Windows, macOS, and Linux; security features, including Windows Defender and

host-based firewalls; CLI and PowerShell; file and directory permissions; privilege

escalation

3.2. Demonstrate familiarity with appropriate endpoint tools that gather security

assessment information

  • netstat, nslookup, tcpdump

3.3. Verify that endpoint systems meet security policies and standards

  • Hardware inventory (asset management), software inventory, program

deployment, data backups, regulatory compliance (PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR), BYOD

(device management, data encryption, app distribution, configuration

management)

3.4. Implement software and hardware updates

  • Windows Update, application updates, device drivers, firmware, patching

3.5. Interpret system logs

  • Event Viewer, audit logs, system and application logs, syslog, identification of

anomalies

3.6. Demonstrate familiarity with malware removal

  • Scanning systems, reviewing scan logs, malware remediation
  1. Vulnerability Assessment and Risk Management

4.1. Explain vulnerability management

  • Vulnerability identification, management, and mitigation; active and passive

reconnaissance; testing (port scanning, automation)

4.2. Use threat intelligence techniques to identify potential network vulnerabilities

  • Uses and limitations of vulnerability databases; industry-standard tools used to

assess vulnerabilities and make recommendations, policies, and reports; Common

Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), cybersecurity reports, cybersecurity news,

subscription services, and collective intelligence; ad hoc and automated threat

intelligence; the importance of updating documentation and other forms of

communication proactively before, during, and after cybersecurity incidents; how

to secure, share and update documentation

4.3. Explain risk management

  • Vulnerability vs. risk, ranking risks, approaches to risk management, risk mitigation

strategies, levels of risk (low, medium, high, extremely high), risks associated with

specific types of data and data classifications, security assessments of IT systems

(information security, change management, computer operations, information

assurance)

4.4. Explain the importance of disaster recovery and business continuity planning

  • Natural and human-caused disasters, features of disaster recovery plans (DRP) and

business continuity plans (BCP), backup, disaster recovery controls (detective,

preventive, and corrective)

  1. Incident Handling

5.1. Monitor security events and know when escalation is required

  • Role of SIEM and SOAR, monitoring network data to identify security incidents

(packet captures, various log file entries, etc.), identifying suspicious events as they

occur

5.2. Explain digital forensics and attack attribution processes

  • Cyber Kill Chain, MITRE ATT&CK Matrix, and Diamond Model; Tactics, Techniques,

and Procedures (TTP); sources of evidence (artifacts); evidence handling

(preserving digital evidence, chain of custody)

5.3. Explain the impact of compliance frameworks on incident handling

  • Compliance frameworks (GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, FERPA, FISMA), reporting and

notification requirements

5.4. Describe the elements of cybersecurity incident response

  • Policy, plan, and procedure elements; incident response lifecycle stages (NIST

Special Publication 800-61 sections 2.3, 3.1-3.4

 

70-740 – Installation, Storage, and Compute with Windows Server 2016

Install windows servers in host and compute environment

  • Install, upgrade, and migrate servers and workloads
  • Install and configure Nano Server
  • Create, manage, and maintain images for deployment

 Implement storage solutions

  • Configure disks and volumes
  • Implement server storage
  • Implement data deduplication

Implement Hyper-V

  • Install and configure Hyper-V
  • Configure virtual machine (VM) settings
  • Configure Hyper-V storage
  • Configure Hyper-V networking

Implement Windows Containers

  • Deploy Windows containers
  • Manage Windows containers

Implement high availability

  • Implement high availability and disaster recovery options in Hyper-V
  • Implement failover clustering
  • Implement Storage Spaces Direct
  • Manage failover clustering
  • Manage VM movement in clustered nodes
  • Implement Network Load Balancing (NLB)

Maintain and Monitor server environment

  • Maintain server installations
  • Monitor server installations

 

Cisco Cybersecurity Operations Associate

  • 1. Describe the CIA triad
  • 2. Compare security deployments
    • a. Network, endpoint, and application security systems
    • b. Agentless and agent-based protections
    • c. Legacy antivirus and antimalware
    • d. SIEM, SOAR, and log management e. Container and virtual environments f. Cloud security deployments
  • 3. Describe security terms
    • a. Threat intelligence (TI)
    • b. Threat hunting
    • c. Malware analysis
    • d. Threat actor
    • e. Run book automation (RBA)
    • f. Reverse engineering
    • g. Sliding window anomaly detection
    • h. Principle of least privilege
    • i. Zero trust
    • j. Threat intelligence platform (TIP)
    • k. Threat modeling
  • 4. Compare security concepts
    • a. Risk (risk scoring/risk weighting, risk reduction, risk assessment)
    • b. Threat
    • c. Vulnerability
    • d. Exploit
  • 5. Describe the principles of the defense-in-depth strategy
  • 6. Compare access control models
    • a. Discretionary access control
    • b. Mandatory access control
    • c. Nondiscretionary access control
    • d. Authentication, authorization, accounting
    • e. Rule-based access control
    • f. Time-based access control
    • g. Role-based access control
    • h. Attribute-based access control
  • 7. Describe terms as defined in CVSS
    • a. Attack vector
    • b. Attack complexity
    • c. Privileges required
    • d. User interaction
    • e. Scope
    • f. Temporal metrics
    • g. Environmental metrics
  • 8. Identify the challenges of data visibility (network, host, and cloud) in detection
  • 9. Identify potential data loss from traffic profiles
  • 10. Interpret the 5-tuple approach to isolate a compromised host in a grouped set of logs
  • 11. Compare rule-based detection vs. behavioral and statistical detection

2.0       Security Monitoring

  • 1. Compare attack surface and vulnerability
  • 2. Identify the types of data provided by these technologies
    • a. TCP dump
    • b. NetFlow
    • c. Next-gen firewall
    • d. Traditional stateful firewall
    • e. Application visibility and control
    • f. Web content filtering
    • g. Email content filtering
  • 3. Describe the impact of these technologies on data visibility
    • a. Access control list
    • b. NAT/PAT
    • c. Tunneling
    • d. TOR
    • e. Encryption
    • f. P2P
    • g. Encapsulation
    • h. Load balancing
  • 4. Describe the uses of these data types in security monitoring
    • a. Full packet capture
    • b. Session data
    • c. Transaction data
    • d. Statistical data
    • e. Metadata
    • f. Alert data
  • 5. Describe network attacks, such as protocol-based, denial of service, distributed denial of service, and man-in-the-middle
  • 6. Describe web application attacks, such as SQL injection, command injections, and cross-site scripting
  • 7. Describe social engineering attacks
  • 8. Describe endpoint-based attacks, such as buffer overflows, command and control (C2), malware, and ransomware
  • 9. Describe evasion and obfuscation techniques, such as tunneling, encryption, and proxies
  • 10. Describe the impact of certificates on security (includes PKI, public/private crossing the network, asymmetric/symmetric)
  • 11. Identify the certificate components in a given scenario
    • a. Cipher-suite
    • b. X.509 certificates
    • c. Key exchange
    • d. Protocol version
    • e. PKCS

3.0 Host based Analysis

  • 1. Describe the functionality of these endpoint technologies in regard to security monitoring
    • a. Host-based intrusion detection
    • b. Antimalware and antivirus
    • c. Host-based firewall
    • d. Application-level allow listing/block listing
    • e. Systems-based sandboxing (such as Chrome, Java, Adobe Reader)
  • 2. Identify components of an operating system (such as Windows and Linux) in a given scenario
  • 3. Describe the role of attribution in an investigation
    • a. Assets
    • b. Threat actor
    • c. Indicators of compromise
    • d. Indicators of attack
    • e. Chain of custody
  • 4. Identify type of evidence used based on provided logs
    • a. Best evidence
    • b. Corroborative evidence
    • c. Indirect evidence
  • 5. Compare tampered and untampered disk image
  • 6. Interpret operating system, application, or command line logs to identify an event
  • 7. Interpret the output report of a malware analysis tool such as a detonation chamber or sandbox
    • a. Hashes
    • b. URLs
    • c. Systems, events, and networking

4.0 Network Intrusion analysis

  • 1. Map the provided events to source technologies
    • a. IDS/IPS
    • b. Firewall
    • c. Network application control
    • d. Proxy logs
    • e. Antivirus
    • f. Transaction data (NetFlow)
  • 2. Compare impact and no impact for these items
    • a. False positive
    • b. False negative
    • c. True positive
    • d. True negative
    • e. Benign
  • 3. Compare deep packet inspection with packet filtering and stateful firewall operation
  • 4. Compare inline traffic interrogation and taps or traffic monitoring
  • 5. Compare the characteristics of data obtained from taps or traffic monitoring and transactional data (NetFlow) in the analysis of network traffic
  • 6. Extract files from a TCP stream when given a PCAP file and Wireshark
  • 7. Identify key elements in an intrusion from a given PCAP file
    • a. Source address
    • b. Destination address
    • c. Source port
    • d. Destination port
    • e. Protocols
    • f. Payloads
  • 8. Interpret the fields in protocol headers as related to intrusion analysis
    • a. Ethernet frame
    • b. IPv4
    • c. IPv6
    • d. TCP
    • e. UDP
    • f. ICMP
    • g. DNS
    • h. SMTP/POP3/IMAP
    • i. HTTP/HTTPS/HTTP2
    • j. ARP
  • 9. Interpret common artifact elements from an event to identify an alert
    • a. IP address (source / destination)
    • b. Client and server port identity
    • c. Process (file or registry)
    • d. System (API calls)
    • e. Hashes
    • f. URI / URL
  • 10. Interpret basic regular expressions

5.0 Security Policies and Procedures

  • 1. Describe management concepts
    • a. Asset management
    • b. Configuration management
    • c. Mobile device management
    • d. Patch management
    • e. Vulnerability management
  • 2. Describe the elements in an incident response plan as stated in NIST.SP800-61
  • 3. Apply the incident handling process such as NIST.SP800-61 to an event
  • 4. Map elements to these steps of analysis based on the NIST.SP800-61
    • a. Preparation
    • b. Detection and analysis
    • c. Containment, eradication, and recovery
    • d. Post-incident analysis (lessons learned)
  • 5. Map the organization stakeholders against the NIST IR categories (CMMC, NIST.SP800-61)
    • a. Preparation
    • b. Detection and analysis
    • c. Containment, eradication, and recovery
    • d. Post-incident analysis (lessons learned)
  • 6. Describe concepts as documented in NIST.SP800-86
    • a. Evidence collection order
    • b. Data integrity
    • c. Data preservation
    • d. Volatile data collection
  • 7. Identify these elements used for network profiling
    • a. Total throughput
    • b. Session duration
    • c. Ports used
    • d. Critical asset address space
  • 8. Identify these elements used for server profiling
    • a. Listening ports
    • b. Logged in users/service accounts
    • c. Running processes
    • d. Running tasks
    • e. Applications
  • 9. Identify protected data in a network
    • a. PII
    • b. PSI
    • c. PHI
    • d. Intellectual property
  • 10. Classify intrusion events into categories as defined by security models, such as Cyber Kill Chain Model and Diamond Model of Intrusion
  • 11. Describe the relationship of SOC metrics to scope analysis (time to detect, time to contain, time to respond, time to control)