The EC-Council 312-39 exam marks the initial step to becoming an important part of a Security Operations Center (SOC). It is a qualification test for the Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) certification and restructured to suit SOC analysts across the two popular tiers (Tier I & Tier II). All in all, this test will help you perform better and achieve more in entry and mid-level job roles as far as SOC teams are involved. In particular, the following groups may benefit from this training:

• Baseline-level cybersecurity specialists;
• Cybersecurity analysts;
• SOC analysts;
• Any individual looking to become a SOC analyst.

What’s Leading Certification Path?

As detailed above, passing the EC-Council 312-39 exam will qualify you for the aforementioned Certified SOC Analyst (CSA) certificate. This is a detailed certification path that emphasizes the skills and concepts needed to build a lasting career through continuous knowledge enhancement and training using the best study materials. This track suits all IT specialists who are keen to contribute to a SOC team and know their stuff in this field. With the rapid expansion of the security landscape, building exceptional SOC teams is becoming every organization’s biggest priority as the focus shifts to actively responding to security incidents instead of simply recognizing them. Thus, getting this certificate will easily turn you into a first-line “soldier” tasked with warning the team members of potential security attacks and mitigating the same if necessary.

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

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:

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 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.