Data breaches and the number of cyber-attacks against individuals, businesses, and governments are breaking new records. The sophistication of threats has increased due to the increasing use of emerging technologies such as Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, 5G, and greater tactical coordination between hacker groups, state actors, and hackers. Your organization’s ability to quickly detect and respond to any data breach or security incident will make it less likely that it will have a severe impact on your data, reputation, revenue, and consumer trust. Incident response is key to managing the aftermath of an IT security failure or breach. It is important to have a plan of action before an incident occurs. This will help minimize the damage and reduce recovery time and costs. It includes creating a proactive response plan, testing for system vulnerabilities and resolving them, adhering strict security best practices and providing all incident response steps. This article will discuss the fourth domain of SSCP, Incident Response and Recovery. It also explains what you can expect from the SSCP exam.

Domains of SSCP

These are the seven SSCP domains:
Domain 1: Access Controls (16%)
Domain 2: Security Operations and Administration (15%)
Domain 3: Risk Identification Monitoring and Analysis (15%)
Domain 4: Incident Response and Recovery (13%).
Domain 5: Cryptography (10%)
Domain 6: Network and Communications Security (16%)
Domain 7: Systems and Application Security (15%)
Domain 4: Incident Response and Recovery
Domain 4 of SSCP certification exam consists of Incident Response and Recovery. The SSCP certification exam gives 13% weightage to the Incident Response and Recovery domains. This domain will cover incident handling techniques like investigations, reporting, escalation and digital forensics. It will also address the duties of a first responder. This includes incident scene protection, evidence collection, handling, and restoring the environment back to pre-event conditions. This area will also cover creating a business continuity and disaster recovery plan. Both of these plans must be used in the event that a disaster occurs. This domain will highlight the importance of testing plans and giving participants drills and exercises. These are the subtopics of Incident Response and Recovery.
Support incident lifecycle
Support forensic investigations by understanding and supporting them
Support and understand Business Continuity Plan activities (BCP) as well as Disaster Recovery Plan activities (DRP).

1. This subsection provides information about the incident response lifecycle. It includes the most effective methods as well as the phases involved in recovery and response. It covers incident response preparation, detection/analysis and the importance of post-event activities. Configuring security settings and testing applications for vulnerabilities are two examples of incident response preparation. This course will cover incident response frameworks. It will emphasize the importance planning and improvement in order to achieve better response outcomes. You will also learn how to analyze and document the breach and implement countermeasures.
2. This section will discuss digital forensic investigations, understanding them and supporting them. Digital forensics refers to the process of analyzing, preserving and interpreting evidence from a cybercrime or data breach. It will conduct forensic investigations, identify, gather, and acquire evidence, inspect, analyze, and present the results. Candidates for the SSCP need to be familiar with all phases of forensic investigations, understand them, and study them in order. It will also include live evidence, which can be dynamic as well as static evidence. It will include both criminal and civil beading.