Covers the foundational building blocks of cybersecurity. You will learn the CIA triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability), non-repudiation, authentication and authorization (AAA), and zero trust architecture. This domain also covers control types — preventive, detective, corrective, compensating, and directive — and cryptographic fundamentals including PKI, hashing, digital signatures, and encryption algorithms.

The second largest domain. Covers threat actors — nation-states, hacktivists, insider threats, organized crime — and their motivations. You will study attack types including malware, phishing, social engineering, SQL injection, buffer overflow, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Vulnerability management including CVEs, CVSS scoring, patch management, and penetration testing methodologies are also tested here.

Covers how to design and implement secure environments. Topics include on-premises vs. cloud vs. hybrid architectures, infrastructure as code (IaC), microservices, containerization, and serverless computing. You will learn secure network design using VLANs, DMZs, and network segmentation. Data protection methods including DLP, data classification, and encryption at rest and in transit are covered in depth.

The largest domain and the most operationally focused. Covers identity and access management (IAM), MFA, SSO, privileged access management (PAM), and endpoint detection and response (EDR/XDR). You will study firewall configuration, IDS/IPS, DNS filtering, and SIEM tools. Incident response processes — from preparation through recovery — are tested in detail, along with digital forensics, threat hunting, and log analysis.

Covers governance, risk, and compliance (GRC). Topics include security policies, standards, procedures, risk assessments, business impact analysis (BIA), and third-party risk management. You will learn about data privacy regulations, audit processes, security awareness training, and frameworks including NIST, ISO 27001, and SOC 2.