New Amazon class certifies cloud pros in securing data on AWS

The AWS Certified Security - Specialty Exam could help tech professionals broaden their skills on the AWS platform.

• 0:00
• Fullscreen

Building a slide deck, pitch, or presentation? Here are the big takeaways:

• A new class from Amazon, the AWS Certified Security - Specialty Exam, will validate a cloud pro's ability to secure the AWS platform.
• Cloud skills are in high demand, but added security expertise could help set job seekers apart.

A new professional exam from Amazon Web Services (AWS) will help cloud experts validate their ability to secure data on the platform, according to a Monday blog post. The AWS Certified Security - Specialty Exam is now available to those who hold either an Associate or Cloud Practitioner certification from AWS.

As noted in the post, AWS recommends that those taking the exam have at least five years experience working in IT security and two years experience working on AWS workloads. The exam will deal with such topics as "incident response, logging and monitoring, infrastructure security, identity and access management, and data protection," the post said.

The exam consists of 65 multiple choice questions and will likely take 170 minutes to complete. The registration fee is $300. 

According to the post, once the exam is complete, the test taker will have a working knowledge or understanding of the following:

• Specialized data classifications on AWS
• AWS data protection mechanisms
• Data encryption methods and AWS mechanisms to implement them
• Secure Internet protocols and how to implement them on AWS
• AWS security services and features

Additionally, the post noted that those who pass the exam will have a competency in working with AWS security services in production, an understanding of security operations, and the "ability to make tradeoff decisions with regard to cost, security, and deployment complexity given a set of application requirements."

For those looking to prepare for the exam, the post recommends going to the AWS Training website and working on the Advanced Architecting on AWS and Security Operations on AWS trainings. Additional security trainings on AWS Security Fundamentals, Authentication and Authorization with AWS Identity and Access Management, AWS Shared Responsibility Model, and AWS Well-Architected Training are also helpful.

Additionally, compliance and securitywhitepapers will also help prepare would-be test takers.