CompTIA
Entry
CompTIA Security+
Vendor-neutral proof of core security administration skills, tested partly through performance-based tasks and mapped by CompTIA to DoD 8140 work roles
- Exam
- $439
- Study
- 3-6 months
Skill
Security Monitoring
Security Monitoring watches your environment 24/7 for threats and anomalies. You'll use SIEM tools, analyze alerts, and respond to incidents.
Operations
Learning path
Master SIEM platforms, learn log analysis, practice alert triage.
Career relevance
Core for SOC analysts, security engineers, threat hunters.
Practice projects
Build a home SIEM
Install Wazuh or Security Onion, forward logs from two lab machines and build a view of failed sign-ins and newly installed services.
What you'll have: A working SIEM and a walkthrough of what it collects.
Test what your SIEM can see
Snapshot your lab VMs, run a handful of Atomic Red Team tests and check which ones your SIEM records and alerts on. Some tests change the system, so restore the snapshot afterwards.
What you'll have: A coverage list showing what you can and can't detect.
Certifications teaching Security Monitoring
Entry1
Intermediate2
CompTIA
Intermediate
CompTIA Cybersecurity Analyst+
Tests a security analyst's ability to detect threats, prioritize vulnerabilities and handle incidents using real tool output, now on the CS0-004 exam
- Exam
- $439
- Study
- 3-6 months
GIAC
Intermediate
GIAC Certified Incident Handler
Proves you can detect, contain and investigate attacks by understanding the tools behind them, with hands-on CyberLive tasks in live virtual machines
- Exam
- $999
- Study
- 4-6 months