How I Passed the AWS Security Specialty Exam

AWS Certified Security — Specialty

I passed the AWS Certified Security — Specialty(SCS-C01) exam recently, so wanted to share my approach and studying resources that helped me the most.

It is worth noting that the AWS Certified Security — Specialty is intended for those who have a security role and have at least two years of hands-on experience securing AWS workloads. I have a cyber security consulting background that includes architecting secure systems and applications in cloud environments (Mostly Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure).

The AWS Certified Security — Specialty(SCS-C01) Exam Breakdown

The exam is broken down into 5 security domains. The table below outlines how the various areas of focus are weighted on the exam.

Studying for the AWS Certified Security — Specialty(SCS-C01) Exam

Everyone is different when it comes to learning and there are resources to fit each style. My approach to preparing for the AWS Certified Security — Specialty exam was to take an online course, followed up by hands-on labs, then taking as many practice exams as my brain would allow.

AWS Certified Security — Specialty(SCS-C01) Online Courses

I spent a couple of weeks watching and sometimes just listening to Cloud Academy Security — Specialty Certification Preparation for AWS. I considered this time well spent as I built upon a lot of familiar concepts and services such as IAM, Security Hub, and GuardDuty, while broadening my knowledge in areas such as KMS.

Additional course: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-security-specialty/

AWS Certified Security — Specialty(SCS-C01) Labs

Now I can watch videos until the cows come home, but at some point I need to get my hands dirty and start turning the dials myself to cement the concepts into my brain. WhizLabs offers a variety of hands-on activities in a sandbox so that you do not have to spend time tearing down resources or worrying about additional costs.

AWS Certified Security — Specialty(SCS-C01) Practice Exams

Check your knowledge! This is where the rubber meets the road. In the last couple of weeks leading up to exam day I took a practice exam almost everyday, my building confidence, speed, and endurance. In addition to the Udemy and Cloud Academy course practice tests, WhizLabs also offers a nice variety of practice exams that align with the AWS Certified Security — Specialty syllabus.

There are also great resources from AWS that should not be overlooked.

AWS White Papers

1. AWS Security Best Practices
2. AWS Well-Architected Framework
3. Architecting for the Cloud: AWS Best Practices
4. Backup and Recovery Approaches Using AWS

AWS FAQs

1. AWS Identity and Access Management
2. AWS Key Management Service
3. How Amazon DynamoDB use AWS KMS
4. How Amazon EBS use AWS KMS
5. How Amazon RDS use AWS KMS
6. How Amazon S3 use AWS KMS
7. Amazon S3 SSE-C Customer-Provided Encryption Keys
8. AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) Concepts
9. AWS KMS Concepts — Developer Guide
10. KMS Cryptographic Details
11. KMS Concepts

More AWS Resources

1. Encryption and Key Management in AWS
2. AWS re:Invent 2017: IAM Policy Ninja (SID314)
3. AWS Advanced Security Best Practices
4. Introducing AWS Key Management Service Custom Key Store

Tutorials Dojo

I found the cheat sheets at Tutorials Dojo to be helpful to hammer home areas of weakness discovered while taking practice exams.

Take the Exam

Once you have reviewed all of the resources and consistently nailed the practice exams of course there is one last step.

I wish you the best of luck on your exam!

Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash

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