CompTIA Security X

This hands-on training prepares participants for the CompTIA SecurityX® certification exam and equips security professionals with the knowledge required to design, implement, and manage secure solutions in complex enterprise environments. The course explores security architecture, risk management, incident response, and emerging technologies including AI and cloud-based systems. Participants will benefit from a mix of theoretical instruction, real-world scenarios, and virtual lab practice.

Prerequisites

Participants should have five years of IT experience, ideally with some hands-on security.

Target audience

This course is ideal for:

• Experienced IT security professionals preparing for the CompTIA SecurityX® certification
• Security architects, engineers, and analysts responsible for enterprise risk and compliance
• IT teams operating across hybrid, cloud, and legacy infrastructures

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Design and implement resilient, secure system architectures across enterprise environments
• Manage governance, compliance, and threat modelling aligned to security frameworks
• Apply cryptographic and cloud security principles within secure deployment pipelines
• Monitor enterprise systems to detect threats and automate remediation
• Use threat intelligence, incident response, and root cause analysis in live scenarios
• Align enterprise security strategies with AI trends, Zero Trust, and modern compliance needs

Governance, risk, and compliance

• Security program documentation: policies, procedures, standards, and guidelines.
• Program management: training (phishing, security, privacy), communication, reporting, and RACI matrix.
• Frameworks: COBIT, ITIL, etc.
• Configuration management: asset life cycle, CMDB, and inventory.
• GRC tools: mapping, automation, and compliance tracking.
• Data governance: production, development, testing, and QA.
• Risk management: impact analysis, risk assessment (quantitative vs. qualitative), third-party risk, confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
• Threat modeling: actor characteristics, attack patterns, and frameworks (ATT&CK, CAPEC, STRIDE).
• Attack surface: architecture reviews, data flows, and trust boundaries.
• Compliance strategies: industry-specific standards (PCI DSS, ISO 27000).
• Security frameworks: NIST, CSF, CSA, and others.

Security architecture

• Cloud capabilities: CASB (API-based, proxy-based), shadow IT detection, shared responsibility model, CI/CD pipeline, Terraform, Ansible, container security, orchestration, and serverless workloads.
• Cloud data security: data exposure, leakage, remanence, insecure storage, and encryption keys.
• Cloud control strategies: proactive, detective, and preventative controls; customer-to-cloud connectivity, service integration, and continuous authorization.
• Network architecture: segmentation, micro segmentation, VPN, always-on VPN, and API integration.
• Security boundaries: asset identification, management, attestation, data perimeters, and secure zones.
• De-perimeterisation: SASE, SD-WAN, and software-defined networking.
• Zero trust concepts: defining subject-object relationships.

Security engineering

• Automation: scripting (PowerShell, Bash, Python), event triggers, IoC, cloud APIs, generative AI, containerization, patching, SOAR, and workflow automation.
• Vulnerability management: scanning, reporting, and SCAP (OVAL, XCCDF, CPE, CVE, CVSS).
• Advanced cryptography: PQC, key stretching, homomorphic encryption, forward secrecy, and hardware acceleration.
• Cryptographic use cases: data at rest, in transit, and in use; secure email, blockchain, privacy, compliance, and certificate-based authentication.
• Cryptographic techniques: tokenization, code signing, cryptographic erase, digital signatures, hashing, and symmetric/asymmetric cryptography.

Security operations

• Monitoring and data analysis: SIEM (event parsing, retention, false positives/negatives), aggregate analysis (correlation, prioritisation, trends), and behaviour baselines (network, systems, users).
• Vulnerabilities and attack surface: injection, XSS, insecure configurations, outdated software, and weak ciphers; mitigations include input validation, patching, encryption, and defence-in-depth.
• Threat hunting: internal intelligence (honeypots, UBA), external intelligence (OSINT, dark web, ISACs), TIPs, IoC sharing (STIX, TAXII), and rule-based languages (Sigma, YARA, Snort).
• Incident response: malware analysis (sandboxing, IoC extraction, code stylometry), reverse engineering, metadata analysis, data recovery, and root cause analysis.

Exams and assessments

This course prepares learners for the CompTIA SecurityX® (CVO-005) certification exam, taken post course, and included with your course booking.

• Exam format: Maximum of 90 multiple-choice and performance-based questions
• Duration: 165 minutes
• Grading: Pass/fail

Participants will also complete scenario-based labs, knowledge checks, and discussions to reinforce exam readiness. An exam voucher is included.

Hands-on learning

This course features:

• Guided labs to apply concepts in identity, network, and cloud security
• Real-world threat modelling, compliance, and automation tasks
• Group discussions on AI risks, Zero Trust, and governance practices
• Instructor-led simulations of incident response and malware forensics