My experience with CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) 2023
Three months ago, I passed The CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) certification exam CS0–002. Here, I will answer the most common question regarding the exam for those who are interested in taking it. I will go through the common questions from a specialized/technical perspective rather than the general info (e.g. price, duration, language, etc..) that can be found on CompTIA’s website.
Is the exam for the red team or the blue team fields?
I’d say both. Although the majority of the exam focus on testing the knowledge of SOC analysts and IRs. Yet, it has enriching knowledge that is useful for pen-testers and others as well. I am personally in my red teaming process journey, but this exam was very useful to me as it gave me a great overview of how a secure environment should look/work.
What is the practical part about?
Along with the multiple choice questions, you will be given a virtual environment that is all set with everything, no need for you to start or use your local machine or anything. As I mentioned earlier that the exam is useful for red teamers as well. Some scenarios are about testing and evaluating the security status of the given virtual machines as part of vulnerability management. Other scenarios are about assessing a given report by determining which can be considered false positive, false positive, and so on. Also, analyzing indicators of malicious activity using the most up-to-date methods and tools, such as threat intelligence, security information and event management (SIEM), endpoint detection and response (EDR), and others.
What topics are covered in the exam?
Some of the topics included and tested in the exam are the following:
- Cloud Security
- Vulnerability management
- Risk management
- Security operation and monitoring
- Threat intelligence
- Incident response
Is the exam worth it?
Defninlty YES. The exam will provide you with most of the essential pieces of knowledge for working as a cybersecurity analyst. It delivers a comprehensive overview of many important domains in cybersecurity.
Useful tips to pass the exam?
Study well and “understand the topic”. It’s not a random MCQ answer, some questions have more than one correct answer. However, you need to choose the BEST answer in a given scenario. Find old dumps or practice questions. They’re highly useful to put all the information together and organize your thoughts.
The new Cybersecurity Analyst (CySA+) — CS0–003
I believe that there is a new exam version that will be released at the end on June 2023 as I saw on the CompTIA website CySA+ (Cybersecurity Analyst+) (CS0–003). Bare in mind that the certificate expires after 3 years of the passing date.
In the end, all mentioned above is from my personal experience. Others might have different opinions. Wishing you all the best and keep watching for other exams review :)!
