# CompTIA SecurityX Exam Preparation Course Canonical URL: ## Overview This advanced course prepares experienced security practitioners to sit the CompTIA SecurityX (CAS-005) exam, CompTIA's most advanced cybersecurity certification and the successor to CASP+. Every module maps to one of CompTIA's published exam objectives. Learners work through governance, risk, and compliance; security architecture; security engineering; and security operations. Scenario work in every module asks learners to make architecture decisions, triage incidents, or defend risk choices. ## What you'll learn - Perform quantitative and qualitative risk management, including third-party and supply chain risk - Apply threat modeling frameworks such as STRIDE, the Cyber Kill Chain, and the Diamond Model of Intrusion Analysis to a real architecture - Evaluate the information security risks of AI adoption, including model-level threats and AI-enabled attacks - Design resilient systems architecture and secure identity, access, and PKI systems - Securely implement cloud capabilities, including CASB, container, and serverless controls - Integrate zero trust concepts into system architecture design - Troubleshoot identity and access management, endpoint, and network infrastructure security issues - Implement hardware security technologies, including roots of trust and boot integrity - Secure specialized and legacy systems, including operational technology, ICS, and IoT environments - Use automation and infrastructure as code to secure the enterprise - Apply advanced cryptographic concepts, including post-quantum cryptography, and select the correct cryptographic use case and technique - Analyze data to enable security monitoring and response, including SIEM tuning and alert prioritization - Identify named vulnerability and attack classes and select the correct mitigation - Apply threat-hunting and threat intelligence concepts, including rule-based detection languages - Analyze incident response data and artifacts, including malware analysis and timeline reconstruction ## Prerequisites CompTIA recommends [Network+](/courses/network-plus-exam-prep-course-self-paced), [Security+](/courses/security-plus-exam-preparation-course), [CySA+](/courses/cysa-plus-exam-preparation-course), [Cloud+](/courses/cloud-plus-exam-prep-course-self-paced), and [PenTest+](/courses/pentest-plus-exam-preparation-course) level knowledge, plus 10 years of IT experience, including 5 in hands-on security. ## Curriculum #### Module 1: Course and Exam Orientation - Lessons: - Exam format and domain weighting - How this course maps to the CAS-005 objectives - Building a personal study and practice plan - Applied activity: Learners map their own job responsibilities against the four domains and identify their two weakest areas. #### Module 2 (Objective 1.1): Implementing Governance Components - Lessons: - Security program documentation and management - Governance frameworks and change management - GRC tools and data governance - Applied activity: Learners build a RACI matrix for a new security policy rollout and identify a GRC tool to track its compliance status. #### Module 3 (Objective 1.2): Performing Risk Management Activities - Lessons: - Impact analysis and risk assessment - Third-party risk and availability/confidentiality risk - Integrity, privacy risk, and crisis management - Applied activity: Learners score a scenario involving a subprocessor data breach and select the correct availability, confidentiality, and privacy risk responses. #### Module 4 (Objective 1.3): Compliance and Information Security Strategy - Lessons: - Industry-specific compliance and standards - Security and reporting frameworks and audits - Privacy regulation and cross-jurisdictional compliance - Applied activity: Learners review a scenario describing a multinational data transfer and identify which privacy regulations and cross-jurisdictional obligations apply. #### Module 5 (Objective 1.4): Threat Modeling - Lessons: - Threat actor characteristics and attack patterns - Threat modeling frameworks - Attack surface determination and modeling methods - Applied activity: Learners apply STRIDE to a sample application architecture diagram and identify the attack surface introduced by a described organizational change, such as a merger. #### Module 6 (Objective 1.5): AI Adoption and Information Security Challenges - Lessons: - Legal, privacy, and model-level threats - AI-enabled attacks and usage risk - Governing AI-enabled assistants and digital workers - Applied activity: Learners review a proposed AI assistant deployment and design the access permissions, guardrails, and usage disclosure it needs before approval. #### Module 7 (Objective 2.1): Designing Resilient Systems - Lessons: - Security component placement - Availability and integrity design considerations - Applying resilient design to a scenario - Applied activity: Learners place a set of security components onto a blank architecture diagram for a described resilient system requirement. #### Module 8 (Objective 2.2): Security Throughout the Systems Life Cycle - Lessons: - Security requirements and software assurance - CI/CD and supply chain risk - Hardware assurance and end-of-life considerations - Applied activity: Learners select the correct software assurance technique for each stage of a described CI/CD pipeline and flag a missing SBOM step. #### Module 9 (Objective 2.3): Integrating Controls into Secure Architecture - Lessons: - Attack surface management and detection enablers - Information and data security design - Hybrid infrastructure, third-party integration, and control effectiveness - Applied activity: Learners recommend sensor placement and a DLP control for a described hybrid infrastructure with a third-party integration. #### Module 10 (Objective 2.4): Access, Authentication, and Authorization System Design - Lessons: - Provisioning, federation, and policy points - Access control models and logging - PKI architecture and access control systems - Applied activity: Learners select the correct access control model for three described scenarios and design a certificate template for a new PKI use case. #### Module 11 (Objective 2.5): Securely Implementing Cloud Capabilities - Lessons: - CASB, shared responsibility, and CI/CD in the cloud - Container, serverless, and API security - Cloud data security and control strategies - Applied activity: Learners review a cloud workload diagram and assign a CASB, container, and API control to close a described shadow IT and data exposure gap. #### Module 12 (Objective 2.6): Integrating Zero Trust into System Architecture Design - Lessons: - Continuous authorization and network architecture - API integration and asset identification - Security boundaries and deperimeterization - Applied activity: Learners redesign a perimeter-based network into a zero trust architecture, defining security boundaries and selecting a deperimeterization technology. #### Module 13 (Objective 3.1): Troubleshooting Identity and Access Management - Lessons: - Subject access control and secrets management - Conditional access and privileged identity management - Authentication and authorization protocols - Applied activity: Learners diagnose a described SSO failure and identify whether the root cause lies in the SAML assertion, the conditional access policy, or key rotation. #### Module 14 (Objective 3.2): Enhancing Endpoint and Server Security - Lessons: - Endpoint control and monitoring - Host-based protection technologies - Threat-actor tactics, techniques, and procedures against endpoints - Applied activity: Learners review a sequence of endpoint events and identify which threat-actor TTP each step represents. #### Module 15 (Objective 3.3): Troubleshooting Network Infrastructure Security - Lessons: - Network misconfigurations and IPS/IDS issues - DNS and email security - TLS, PKI, and denial-of-service issues - Applied activity: Learners review a network capture and email header showing a spoofed message, and identify which of DKIM, SPF, or DMARC failed to catch it. #### Module 16 (Objective 3.4): Implementing Hardware Security Technologies - Lessons: - Roots of trust and coprocessors - Boot integrity and tamper resistance - Hardware-level threat-actor tactics - Applied activity: Learners select the correct hardware root of trust and boot integrity control for a device that must resist firmware tampering. #### Module 17 (Objective 3.5): Securing Specialized and Legacy Systems - Lessons: - Operational technology and embedded systems - Security and privacy considerations for specialized systems - Industry-specific challenges and legacy system characteristics - Applied activity: Learners design a segmentation approach for a described SCADA environment that cannot be patched, citing the safety constraint that rules out a standard patching approach. #### Module 18 (Objective 3.6): Using Automation to Secure the Enterprise - Lessons: - Scripting and infrastructure as code - Automated response and containment - Vulnerability scanning and workflow automation - Applied activity: Learners draft a SOAR playbook step that automatically contains a host flagged by a CVSS-scored vulnerability scan. #### Module 19 (Objective 3.7): Advanced Cryptographic Concepts - Lessons: - Post-quantum cryptography - Key management and computation techniques - Performance, secrecy, and authentication trade-offs - Applied activity: Learners evaluate a proposed cryptographic architecture for a long-lived data set and recommend whether post-quantum algorithms or envelope encryption better fit the retention requirement. #### Module 20 (Objective 3.8): Applying Cryptographic Use Cases and Techniques - Lessons: - Cryptographic use cases across data states - Provenance, authentication, and key management use cases - Cryptographic techniques - Applied activity: Learners select the cryptographic use case and technique that best fit a described mobile payment scenario, justifying the choice against data-in-use and non-repudiation requirements. #### Module 21 (Objective 4.1): Analyzing Data for Monitoring and Response - Lessons: - SIEM and aggregate data analysis - Behavior baselines and diverse data sources - Alerting and reporting - Applied activity: Learners triage a batch of SIEM alerts and rank them using the prioritization factors, then propose one SIEM tuning change to reduce noise. #### Module 22 (Objective 4.2): Analyzing Vulnerabilities and Attacks to Reduce Attack Surface - Lessons: - Injection, memory, and request-forgery vulnerabilities - Configuration, software, and cryptographic weaknesses - Mitigations - Applied activity: Learners review a short code and traffic sample set, identify the vulnerability class present in each, and select a matching mitigation for each. #### Module 23 (Objective 4.3): Threat-Hunting and Threat Intelligence - Lessons: - Internal and external intelligence sources - Counterintelligence and threat intelligence platforms - Rule-based detection languages and indicators of attack - Applied activity: Learners draft a hypothesis-based hunt using a described threat intelligence feed and translate one indicator of compromise into a Sigma rule. #### Module 24 (Objective 4.4): Incident Response Data and Artifact Analysis - Lessons: - Malware and reverse-engineering analysis - Storage, network, host, and metadata analysis - Response, recovery, and root cause - Applied activity: Learners reconstruct a simulated incident timeline from a set of host, network, and metadata artifacts, then identify the root cause. #### Module 25: Exam Strategy, Practice Scenarios, and Review - Lessons: - Performance-based question strategy - Full-length practice scenarios across all four domains - Reviewing weak domains and final readiness - Applied activity: Learners complete a timed practice scenario set spanning all four domains and self-score against the domain weighting. ## Schedule - Mar 8, 2027 – Mar 12, 2027 — Live Online - May 24, 2027 – May 28, 2027 — Live Online ## Pricing **Tuition:** $3199