CCSK
Certification Training.

The Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge, from the Cloud Security Alliance, is a vendor-neutral credential covering how to secure cloud services regardless of which provider runs them. It is written for security, IT, audit and GRC professionals who need a shared vocabulary and framework for cloud risk, rather than for engineers configuring one platform.

Sixty multiple-choice questions in 120 minutes, open book, taken online through CSA. The passing score is 80 percent. Your exam token includes two attempts, which is unusual and worth knowing before you sit: if the first attempt does not go your way, the second is already paid for.

v5 aligns the exam with CSA Security Guidance v5 and reorganizes the material into twelve domains: cloud computing concepts and architectures, cloud governance, risk, audit and compliance, organization management, identity and access management, security monitoring, infrastructure and networking, cloud workload security, data security, application security, incident response and resilience, and related technologies and strategies. Zero Trust and generative AI are new areas of coverage.

Foundation is the two-day instructor-led course and covers everything the exam tests. Plus is the same instruction plus a third day of guided, hands-on labs in AWS, working through the domains against a real environment. If you will implement cloud controls, take Plus. If your job is governance, audit or oversight, Foundation is usually enough.

Yes. Both courses include the CCSK v5 exam token, which CSA otherwise sells for $445 and which carries two attempts, and Training Camp adds a free retake on top. The exam is not a separate purchase.

No. CSA does not require renewal or continuing education for the CCSK. The exam token you receive is valid for two years, so plan to use your attempts within that window.

CCSK is knowledge-based, open book, vendor-neutral and has no experience requirement, so it is the faster route to a recognized cloud security credential. ISC2's CCSP is a professional certification: a proctored exam and five years of experience, three of them in information security and one in a CCSP domain. ISC2 accepts the CCSK in place of one year of that experience. Many people take CCSK first and CCSP once they have the years behind them.

Some familiarity with how cloud services are bought and run helps, but the exam does not test hands-on skill in any one platform and neither does the Foundation course. The Plus labs run in AWS and are guided step by step, so you do not need prior AWS experience to follow them.