ISC2 Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) Certification Examination

The CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional) examination validates specialized proficiency in securing cloud environments through a structured assessment of architecture, data protection, platform and infrastructure safeguards, application security, operational controls, and legal, risk and compliance considerations. Candidates are expected to demonstrate practical understanding of cloud concepts and reference architectures, to design and evaluate secure cloud solutions, and to apply controls for data lifecycle protection including encryption, key management, classification, retention, and forensic traceability. The scope extends to platform and infrastructure design and resilience, covering physical and logical data center considerations, virtualization and container security, network protections, management plane safeguards, and the planning and testing of business continuity and disaster recovery. Application security skills emphasize secure software development life cycles, testing and assurance, API and supply chain risk management, and identity and access management patterns suitable for cloud-native architectures. Operational competencies include secure configuration and hardening of hosts and hypervisors, patch and configuration management, logging and SIEM integration, incident response and digital forensics, automation via infrastructure-as-code, and ongoing service and change management. The exam also assesses knowledge of legal and regulatory obligations, privacy principles across jurisdictions, auditability and assurance frameworks, contract and vendor management, and enterprise risk treatment strategies. Cross-cutting themes of governance, compliance, auditability, privacy, resiliency, and quality assurance are woven throughout the domains and inform decisions about controls, monitoring and vendor selection. Entry to the credential requires substantial professional experience—typically five years of IT work including three in cybersecurity and at least one year in cloud security domains—with limited waivers available for qualifying education or related credentials; candidates who lack required experience may still pass the exam and attain Associate status while completing experience requirements. The CCSP examination is delivered as a computerized adaptive test, assessing applied knowledge through multiple-choice and advanced item types to reflect contemporary cloud security practice.