Certificate of Cloud Security (CCSK) Review

The Certificate of Cloud Security (CCSK) is an exam focusing on cloud computing and security. The exam is administrated by the Cloud Security Alliance. I have not seen a great deal mentioned about this certification but I decided about a month ago I would study for it.
What I liked is that you do not need to buy any studying material the exam is based on two documents the CSA Guidance and the ENISA: Report both these documents are free to download from the CSA website and that's all you need!
The exam itself is open book and done on-line from anywhere the cost is $345 (£212) and is 90 minutes long with 60 questions to answer during the exam you can mark answers that your not sure about and go back to any question in the exam. There is a timer at the top of the page telling you time left and how many questions you have answered. You also get two attempts at the exam if needed. The pass mark is 80% which I think is quite high. 92% of the questions are from the CSA guidance document with the remaining 8% from the ENISA document.
To prepare for the exam I simply read both the documents a few times the exam itself was not as difficult as I expected as I had read that the pass rate including both attempts was only around 55% some of the questions you could simply cut and paste sections of the question and search within the pdf study guides for the answers but the majority that was not the case and due to the time constraints if you did not know the answers the guides would not help you.
Overall I would recommend this exam to anyone that is interested in cloud computing it contains some useful material and although I am not a big fan of on-line exams as anyone could sit the exam etc. I think for the cost and with a lack of cloud computing certifications aimed at the security field this is a reasonable certification to purse. It is worth noting that the cloud security alliance has teamed up with ISC2 and are working on releasing a new cloud security certification this year this will gain more coverage due to the ISC2 involvement and is worth keeping an eye out for as well.
What I liked is that you do not need to buy any studying material the exam is based on two documents the CSA Guidance and the ENISA: Report both these documents are free to download from the CSA website and that's all you need!
The exam itself is open book and done on-line from anywhere the cost is $345 (£212) and is 90 minutes long with 60 questions to answer during the exam you can mark answers that your not sure about and go back to any question in the exam. There is a timer at the top of the page telling you time left and how many questions you have answered. You also get two attempts at the exam if needed. The pass mark is 80% which I think is quite high. 92% of the questions are from the CSA guidance document with the remaining 8% from the ENISA document.
To prepare for the exam I simply read both the documents a few times the exam itself was not as difficult as I expected as I had read that the pass rate including both attempts was only around 55% some of the questions you could simply cut and paste sections of the question and search within the pdf study guides for the answers but the majority that was not the case and due to the time constraints if you did not know the answers the guides would not help you.
Overall I would recommend this exam to anyone that is interested in cloud computing it contains some useful material and although I am not a big fan of on-line exams as anyone could sit the exam etc. I think for the cost and with a lack of cloud computing certifications aimed at the security field this is a reasonable certification to purse. It is worth noting that the cloud security alliance has teamed up with ISC2 and are working on releasing a new cloud security certification this year this will gain more coverage due to the ISC2 involvement and is worth keeping an eye out for as well.
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Yep password with 92%
General impression:
Easier than I anticipated, candidates with some background in Cloud security can handle this if they gain sufficient familiarity with the guides provided.
Preparation for the exam
Resources used:
Primary: CCSK Guide V3.0, ENISA security & risk assessment guide, NIST 800-145
Additional: NIST Cloud Security Reference Architecture, NIST SP 500-292
Preparation approach:
I have a background in reviewing SaaS from a security perspective for the past 2+ years. Studied the primary resources once thoroughly over a month before the exam, created a mind map of relevant facts (glad to share the mind map if anyone is interested - send an email to <nathantsuri>AT<gmail>DOT<com>), reviewed recommendations and requirements sections for each domain the week before the exam.
Exam Logistics:
60 Qs in 90 min; gave me sufficient time to study each question, review answer choices, pick the closest one and in some cases search through the documents for confirmation when in doubt.
Good luck aspiring CCSK candidates!
Nathan Suri
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I am interested in your mind map for the CCSK exam. I am gearing up my second attempt, so you can assist me with providing your map would be a great help.
Congrats on the pass !!!
What did you use for study material... the newer documentation from CCSK?
I did however went through each document, and took the corresponding domains, and essentially cut and paste the answer to the domain in a document. As I was doing that, it was essentially like a review, so when I took the test, it was fairly easy.