To achieve the desired success, it is expedient to gain competence in the exam topics. This means that the first place to start your preparation is to go through these domains. The details of the sections covered in the certification test are enumerated below:

• Improved Incident Detection with Threat Intelligence: 8%

  It requires that the examinees learn the skills in using the threat intelligence fundamental concepts and various threat intelligence sources from where intelligence can be gotten. It also covers their understanding of the necessity of SOC driven by threat intelligence and the ways to develop threat intelligence strategies. The potential candidates should also develop an insight of various threat intelligence platforms.

• Security Operations & Management: 5%

  It requires that the applicants have a good understanding of the SOC fundamentals and know how to describe the components of SOC, which includes people, processes, as well as technology. The individuals should also understand the process of implementing SOC.

• Incident Response: 29%

  It focuses on one’s knowledge of different incident response process phases. Also, it covers the ways to respond to different network security incidents, application security incidents, email security incidents, insider incidents, and malware incidents.

• Incident Detection with SIEM (Security Information & Event Management): 26%

  It evaluates your understanding of the fundamental concepts of SIEM, SIEM deployment, and handling alert triaging & analysis concept. It also covers the skills and ability to explain various SIEM solutions as well as various use case examples for application-level, host-level, and network-level incident detection.

• Understanding Attack Methodology, Cyber Threats, and IoCs: 11%

  It covers the students’ skills in explaining the terms of cyberattacks and threats. Besides that, you will need to have some understanding of network-level attacks, host-level attacks, network-level attacks, indicators of compromise, as well as application-level attacks, among others.

• Incidents, Logging, and Events: 21%

  It requires that the test takers possess the relevant skills in describing local & centralized logging concepts. It also covers their understanding of the fundamentals of incidents, logging, and events.

Reference: https://www.eccouncil.org/programs/certified-soc-analyst-csa/

What Should You Know about This Exam?

The CSA evaluation can be scheduled and taken at designated ECC Exam Centers. It has a seat time of 3 hours and presents a maximum of 100 questions. Like most of the EC-Council exams, candidates are not allowed to take the CSA test unless they meet the age requirement, which is set at 18 years across both genders. Also, it is worth reminding that the vendor has all the rights to revoke your certification if you are involved in exam malpractices or you violate your agreement.

The EC-Council 312-39 exam is designed to evaluate and validate the extensive knowledge and skills of the candidates in the job tasks associated with the SOC Analyst role. This test is the first step towards becoming an active player in the security operations center. The potential individuals for the exam demonstrate the in-demand and trending technical skills in carrying out the entry-level and mid-level operations. The students will be measured based on their expertise in log correlation and management, advanced incident detection, SIEM deployment, incident detection, incident response, and management of different SOC processes.