Security+ Domain #5: Risk Management

Introduction

From the prospective of the CompTIA Security+ certification exam, Risk Management is indeed huge. This article will detail the objectives of the Risk Management section of the Security+ certification exam. This article should not be solely used as a review resource but rather should be used as a brief refresher. For further information and guidance regarding all sections of the Security+ exam, please refer to the InfoSec Security+ Training Course and Infosec Security+ Boot Camp which can be found at here and here respectively.

Risk Management Outline

The following subtopics can be expected to be tested in the Risk Management section of the Security+ exam:

1. Importance of policies, plans, and procedures related to organizational security
2. Business impact analysis concepts
3. Risk management processes and concepts
4. Scenario-based incident response procedures
5. Basic concepts of forensics
6. Disaster recovery and continuity of operation concepts
7. Compare and contrast various types of controls
8. Scenario-based data security and privacy practices

Importance of Policies, Plans, and Procedures Related to Organizational Security

The broad-based approach taken by this subtopic indicates that it is all-encompassing and will most likely appear throughout Risk Management. Successful candidates will focus on an organization’s standard operating procedure, agreement types (such as BPA, SLA, etc.), personnel management, and general security policies (such as social media and personal email policies.

Of these, personnel management is the most in-depth and will probably be covered the most. Candidates should be able to explain mandatory vacation, job rotation, separation of duties, clean desk policy, background checks, exit interviews, and role-based awareness training. Role-based awareness training can include anyone from a basic user to a system administrator.

Business Impact Analysis

Candidates are expected to explain business impact analysis. Those preparing will want to focus on Recovery Time Objective (RTO)/Recovery Point Objective (RPO), Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time (Read more...)