CompTIA has released a new certification called the CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP). You can view the objectives for this certification here.
Looking over the objectives and the documentation about this exam, it’s clear that this is a at least a step above the CompTIA Security+ exam and it looks like a logical next step for people that have earned their Security+ certification and want to elevate their status. I recently finished up a book on the SSCP certification and the CASP is a step above the SSCP certification also.
I’m hesitant to say that the CASP will be on the same level as the CISSP certification, but the recommended requirements are high. CompTIA says that the “CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP) Certification is aimed at an IT security professional who has a minimum of 10 years experience in IT administration including at least 5 years of hands-on technical security experience.” In contrast, the CISSP requires a minimum of five years of experience in at least two of the ten domains.
An important distinction between CASP and CISSP though is that while the CISSP requires the experience and takes steps to verify candidates truly have the minimum experience, CompTIA only recommends that candidates have the experience.
The CASP exam has four domains:
- 1.0 Enterprise Security (40%)
- 2.0 Risk Management, Policy/Procedure and Legal (24%)
- 3.0 Research and Analysis (14%)
- 4.0 Integration of Computing, Communications, and Business Disciplines (22%)
I was lucky enough to take this exam back when it was in the beta stages, so it was free for me. If you want to take it now, the retail price is listed at $329 USD. If you’re working on your Security+ certification now, you may find this certification in your future.
Best of luck.
Darril Gibson
Update: I received an email on September 15th letting me know I passed the beta.
Will you be writing a book on the casp cert?
I don’t have a book, but I have been creating practice test questions for the CASP exam.
It’s not a full bank of practice test questions at the moment, but you can get some quality CASP practice test questions here:
Hi Darril,
First of all, I wanted to say thank you for all of your valuable information in your Sec+ book. With that as my primary study resource and using some CBT nugget videos by Keith Barker, I was able to pass my Sec+ the first time around. 🙂
I was wondering and really hoping you might be able to provide me with some insight on where/ what to study for taking the CompTIA CASP. I have scoured the web and a lot of Reddit Forums and was unable to find anything of value or highly recommended. I do hope that you will be releasing a study guide for this cert at some point.
Regards,
Andrew
Sorry. I don’t have any insight on good CASP materials.