Cisco CyberOps Associate CBROPS 200-201 Official Cert Guide, 1st edition

Published by Cisco Press (December 29, 2020) © 2021

  • Omar Santos Best-selling Cisco Press author, expert trainer, and Principal Engineer at Cisco (PSIRT)

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Cisco CyberOps Associate CBROPS 200-201 Official Cert Guide presents you with an organised test-preparation routine using proven series elements and techniques. Do I Know This Already? quizzes open each chapter and enable you to decide how much time you need to spend on each section. Exam topic lists make referencing easy. Chapter-ending Exam Preparation Tasks help you drill on key concepts you must know thoroughly.

  • Master Cisco CyberOps Associate CBROPS 200-201 exam topics
  • Assess your knowledge with chapter-opening quizzes
  • Review key concepts with exam preparation tasks
  • Practice with realistic exam questions in the practice test software

Cisco CyberOps Associate CBROPS 200-201 Official Cert Guide from Cisco Press enables you to succeed on the exam the first time and is the only self-study resource approved by Cisco. Leading Cisco technology expert Omar Santos shares preparation hints and test-taking tips, helping you identify areas of weakness and improve both your conceptual knowledge and hands-on skills.
This complete study package includes

  • A test-preparation routine proven to help you pass the exam
  • Do I Know This Already? quizzes, which enable you to decide how much time you need to spend on each section
  • Chapter-ending exercises, which help you drill on key concepts you must know thoroughly
  • The powerful Pearson Test Prep Practice Test software, with two full exams comprised of well-reviewed, exam-realistic questions, customization options, and detailed performance reports
  • A video mentoring lesson from the authors Complete Video Course
  • A final preparation chapter, which guides you through tools and resources to help you craft your review and test-taking strategies
  • Study plan suggestions and templates to help you organise and optimise your study time


  • Authoritative coverage of every Understanding Cisco Cybersecurity Operations Fundamentals (200-201 CBROPS) exam topic, with all the context and practical examples you need to succeed
  • Logical, well-organized, and practical coverage of “defending and guarding the castle”: security concepts, monitoring, host-based analysis, network intrusion analysis, and policies/procedures
  • For the consolidated exam you must pass to earn your Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate credential
  • Includes realistic practice tests, plus extensive proven features to help you review more efficiently
  • By one of the world's leading experts in Cisco security technologies
Introduction xxvi
Chapter 1 Cybersecurity Fundamentals 2
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 3
Foundation Topics 8
Introduction to Cybersecurity 8
    Cybersecurity vs. Information Security (Infosec) 8
    The NIST Cybersecurity Framework 9
    Additional NIST Guidance and Documents 9
    The International Organization for Standardization 10
Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Exploits 10
    What Is a Threat? 10
    What Is a Vulnerability? 11
    What Is an Exploit? 13
    Risk, Assets, Threats, and Vulnerabilities 15
    Threat Actors 17
    Threat Intelligence 17
    Threat Intelligence Platform 19
    Vulnerabilities, Exploits, and Exploit Kits 20
    SQL Injection 21
    HTML Injection 22
    Command Injection 22
    Authentication-Based Vulnerabilities 22
    Cross-Site Scripting 25
    Cross-Site Request Forgery 27
    Cookie Manipulation Attacks 27
    Race Conditions 27
    Unprotected APIs 27
    Return-to-LibC Attacks and Buffer Overflows 28
    OWASP Top 10 29
    Security Vulnerabilities in Open-Source Software 29
Network Security Systems 30
    Traditional Firewalls 30
    Firewalls in the Data Center 42
    Virtual Firewalls 44
    Deep Packet Inspection 44
    Next-Generation Firewalls 45
Intrusion Detection Systems and Intrusion Prevention Systems 46
    Pattern Matching and Stateful Pattern-Matching Recognition 47
    Protocol Analysis 48
    Heuristic-Based Analysis 49
    Anomaly-Based Analysis 49
    Global Threat Correlation Capabilities 50
    Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention Systems 50
    Firepower Management Center 50
Advanced Malware Protection 50
    AMP for Endpoints 50
    AMP for Networks 53
Web Security Appliance 54
Email Security Appliance 58
Cisco Security Management Appliance 60
Cisco Identity Services Engine 60
Security Cloud-Based Solutions 62
    Cisco Cloud Email Security 62
    Cisco AMP Threat Grid 62
    Umbrella (OpenDNS) 63
    Stealthwatch Cloud 63
    CloudLock 64
Cisco NetFlow 64
Data Loss Prevention 65
The Principles of the Defense-in-Depth Strategy 66
Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability: The CIA Triad 69
    Confidentiality 69
    Integrity 70
    Availability 70
Risk and Risk Analysis 70
Personally Identifiable Information and Protected Health Information 72
    PII 72
    PHI 72
Principle of Least Privilege and Separation of Duties 73
    Principle of Least Privilege 73
    Separation of Duties 73
Security Operations Centers 74
Playbooks, Runbooks, and Runbook Automation 75
Digital Forensics 76
Exam Preparation Tasks 78
Chapter 2 Introduction to Cloud Computing and Cloud Security 82
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 82
Foundation Topics 84
Cloud Computing and the Cloud Service Models 84
Cloud Security Responsibility Models 86
    Patch Management in the Cloud 88
    Security Assessment in the Cloud 88
DevOps, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), and DevSecOps 88
    The Agile Methodology 89
    DevOps 90
    CI/CD Pipelines 90
    The Serverless Buzzword 92
    A Quick Introduction to Containers and Docker 92
    Container Management and Orchestration 94
Understanding the Different Cloud Security Threats 95
    Cloud Computing Attacks 97
Exam Preparation Tasks 99
Chapter 3 Access Control Models 102
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 102
Foundation Topics 105
Information Security Principles 105
Subject and Object Definition 106
Access Control Fundamentals 107
    Identification 107
    Authentication 108
    Authorization 110
    Accounting 110
    Access Control Fundamentals: Summary 110
Access Control Process 111
    Asset Classification 112
    Asset Marking 113
    Access Control Policy 114
    Data Disposal 114
Information Security Roles and Responsibilities 115
Access Control Types 117
Access Control Models 119
    Discretionary Access Control 121
    Mandatory Access Control 122
    Role-Based Access Control 123
    Attribute-Based Access Control 125
Access Control Mechanisms 127
Identity and Access Control Implementation 129
    Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting Protocols 130
    Port-Based Access Control 135
    Network Access Control List and Firewalling 138
    Identity Management and Profiling 140
    Network Segmentation 141
    Intrusion Detection and Prevention 144
    Antivirus and Antimalware 148
Exam Preparation Tasks 149
Chapter 4 Types of Attacks and Vulnerabilities 152
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 152
Foundation Topics 154
Types of Attacks 154
    Reconnaissance Attacks 154
    Social Engineering 160
    Privilege Escalation Attacks 162
    Backdoors 163
    Buffer Overflows and Code Execution 163
    Man-in-the Middle Attacks 165
    Denial-of-Service Attacks 166
    Direct DDoS 166
    Botnets Participating in DDoS Attacks 167
    Reflected DDoS Attacks 167
    Attack Methods for Data Exfiltration 168
    ARP Cache Poisoning 169
    Spoofing Attacks 170
    Route Manipulation Attacks 171
    Password Attacks 171
    Wireless Attacks 172
Types of Vulnerabilities 172
Exam Preparation Tasks 174
Chapter 5 Fundamentals of Cryptography and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) 178
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 178
Foundation Topics 182
Cryptography 182
    Ciphers and Keys 182
    Keys 183
    Key Management 183
Block and Stream Ciphers 183
    Block Ciphers 184
    Stream Ciphers 184
Symmetric and Asymmetric Algorithms 184
    Symmetric Algorithms 184
    Asymmetric Algorithms 185
    Elliptic Curve 186
    Quantum Cryptography 187
    More Encryption Types 187
Hashes 189
    Hashed Message Authentication Code 191
Digital Signatures 192
    Digital Signatures in Action 192
Next-Generation Encryption Protocols 195
IPsec and SSL/TLS 196
    IPsec 196
    Secure Sockets Layer and Transport Layer Security 196
    SSH 198
Fundamentals of PKI 199
    Public and Private Key Pairs 199
    RSA Algorithm, the Keys, and Digital Certificates 199
    Certificate Authorities 200
Root and Identity Certificates 202
    Root Certificate 202
    Identity Certificates 204
    X.500 and X.509v3 204
    Authenticating and Enrolling with the CA 205
    Public Key Cryptography Standards 206
    Simple Certificate Enrollment Protocol 206
Revoking Digital Certificates 207
Using Digital Certificates 207
    PKI Topologies 208
    Cross-Certifying CAs 208
Exam Preparation Tasks 209
Chapter 6 Introduction to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) 212
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 212
Foundation Topics 214
What Are VPNs? 214
Site-to-Site vs. Remote-Access VPNs 215
An Overview of IPsec 216
    IKEv1 Phase 1 217
    IKEv1 Phase 2 220
    IKEv2 222
SSL VPNs 225
    SSL VPN Design Considerations 227
Exam Preparation Tasks 229
Chapter 7 Introduction to Security Operations Management 232
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 232
Foundation Topics 235
Introduction to Identity and Access Management 235
    Phases of the Identity and Access Life Cycle 235
    Password Management 236
    Directory Management 241
    Single Sign-On 243
    Federated SSO 246
Security Events and Log Management 251
    Log Collection, Analysis, and Disposal 251
    Security Information and Event Manager 255
    Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) 257
    SOC Case Management (Ticketing) Systems 257
Asset Management 257
    Asset Inventory 258
    Asset Ownership 259
    Asset Acceptable Use and Return Policies 259
    Asset Classification 260
    Asset Labeling 260
    Asset and Information Handling 260
    Media Management 260
Introduction to Enterprise Mobility Management 261
    Mobile Device Management 263
Configuration and Change Management 268
    Configuration Management 268
    Change Management 270
Vulnerability Management 273
    Vulnerability Identification 273
    Vulnerability Analysis and Prioritization 282
    Vulnerability Remediation 286
Patch Management 287
Exam Preparation Tasks 291
Chapter 8 Fundamentals of Intrusion Analysis 294
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 294
Foundation Topics 299
Introduction to Incident Response 299
The Incident Response Plan 301
The Incident Response Process 302
    The Preparation Phase 302
    The Detection and Analysis Phase 302
    Containment, Eradication, and Recovery 303
    Post-Incident Activity (Postmortem) 304
Information Sharing and Coordination 304
Incident Response Team Structure 307
    Computer Security Incident Response Teams 307
    Product Security Incident Response Teams 309
    National CSIRTs and Computer Emergency Response Teams 314
    Coordination Centers 315
    Incident Response Providers and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) 315
Common Artifact Elements and Sources of Security Events 316
    The 5-Tuple 317
    File Hashes 320
    Tips on Building Your Own Lab 321
    False Positives, False Negatives, True Positives, and True Negatives 326
Understanding Regular Expressions 327
Protocols, Protocol Headers, and Intrusion Analysis 330
How to Map Security Event Types to Source Technologies 333
Exam Preparation Tasks 335
Chapter 9 Introduction to Digital Forensics 338
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 338
Foundation Topics 341
Introduction to Digital Forensics 341
The Role of Attribution in a Cybersecurity Investigation 342
The Use of Digital Evidence 342
    Defining Digital Forensic Evidence 343
    Understanding Best, Corroborating, and Indirect or Circumstantial Evidence 343
    Collecting Evidence from Endpoints and Servers 344
    Using Encryption 345
    Analyzing Metadata 345
    Analyzing Deleted Files 346
    Collecting Evidence from Mobile Devices 346
    Collecting Evidence from Network Infrastructure Devices 346
Evidentiary Chain of Custody 348
Reverse Engineering 351
Fundamentals of Microsoft Windows Forensics 353
    Processes, Threads, and Services 353
    Memory Management 356
    Windows Registry 357
    The Windows File System 359
    FAT 360
    NTFS 361
Fundamentals of Linux Forensics 362
    Linux Processes 362
    Ext4 366
    Journaling 366
    Linux MBR and Swap File System 366
Exam Preparation Tasks 367
Chapter 10 Network Infrastructure Device Telemetry and Analysis 370
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 370
Foundation Topics 373
Network Infrastructure Logs 373
    Network Time Protocol and Why It Is Important 374
    Configuring Syslog in a Cisco Router or Switch 376
Traditional Firewall Logs 378
    Console Logging 378
    Terminal Logging 379
    ASDM Logging 379
    Email Logging 379
    Syslog Server Logging 379
    SNMP Trap Logging 379
    Buffered Logging 379
    Configuring Logging on the Cisco ASA 379
Syslog in Large-Scale Environments 381
    Splunk 381
    Graylog 381
    Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana (ELK) Stack 382
Next-Generation Firewall and Next-Generation IPS Logs 385
NetFlow Analysis 395
    What Is a Flow in NetFlow? 399
    The NetFlow Cache 400
    NetFlow Versions 401
    IPFIX 402
    IPFIX Architecture 403
    IPFIX Mediators 404
    IPFIX Templates 404
    Commercial NetFlow Analysis Tools 404
    Big Data Analytics for Cybersecurity Network Telemetry 411
    Cisco Application Visibility and Control (AVC) 413
Network Packet Capture 414
    tcpdump 415
    Wireshark 417
Network Profiling 418
    Throughput 419
    Measuring Throughput 421
    Used Ports 423
    Session Duration 424
    Critical Asset Address Space 424
Exam Preparation Tasks 427
Chapter 11 Endpoint Telemetry and Analysis 430
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 430
Foundation Topics 435
Understanding Host Telemetry 435
    Logs from User Endpoints 435
    Logs from Servers 440
Host Profiling 441
    Listening Ports 441
    Logged-in Users/Service Accounts 445
    Running Processes 448
    Applications Identification 450
Analyzing Windows Endpoints 454
    Windows Processes and Threads 454
    Memory Allocation 456
    The Windows Registry 458
    Windows Management Instrumentation 460
    Handles 462
    Services 463
    Windows Event Logs 466
Linux and macOS Analysis 468
    Processes in Linux 468
    Forks 471
    Permissions 472
    Symlinks 479
    Daemons 480
    Linux-Based Syslog 481
    Apache Access Logs 484
    NGINX Logs 485
Endpoint Security Technologies 486
    Antimalware and Antivirus Software 486
    Host-Based Firewalls and Host-Based Intrusion Prevention 488
    Application-Level Whitelisting and Blacklisting 490
    System-Based Sandboxing 491
    Sandboxes in the Context of Incident Response 493
Exam Preparation Tasks 494
Chapter 12 Challenges in the Security Operations Center (SOC) 496
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 496
Foundation Topics 499
Security Monitoring Challenges in the SOC 499
    Security Monitoring and Encryption 500
    Security Monitoring and Network Address Translation 501
    Security Monitoring and Event Correlation Time Synchronization 502
    DNS Tunneling and Other Exfiltration Methods 502
    Security Monitoring and Tor 504
    Security Monitoring and Peer-to-Peer Communication 505
Additional Evasion and Obfuscation Techniques 506
    Resource Exhaustion 508
    Traffic Fragmentation 509
    Protocol-Level Misinterpretation 510
    Traffic Timing, Substitution, and Insertion 511
    Pivoting 512
Exam Preparation Tasks 517
Chapter 13 The Art of Data and Event Analysis 520
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 520
Foundation Topics 522
Normalizing Data 522
    Interpreting Common Data Values into a Universal Format 523
Using the 5-Tuple Correlation to Respond to Security Incidents 523
Using Retrospective Analysis and Identifying Malicious Files 525
    Identifying a Malicious File 526
Mapping Threat Intelligence with DNS and Other Artifacts 527
Using Deterministic Versus Probabilistic Analysis 527
Exam Preparation Tasks 528
Chapter 14 Classifying Intrusion Events into Categories 530
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 530
Foundation Topics 532
Diamond Model of Intrusion 532
Cyber Kill Chain Model 539
    Reconnaissance 540
    Weaponization 543
    Delivery 544
    Exploitation 545
    Installation 545
    Command and Control 546
    Action on Objectives 547
The Kill Chain vs. MITRE's ATT&CK 548
Exam Preparation Tasks 550
Chapter 15 Introduction to Threat Hunting 552
“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz 552
Foundation Topics 554
What Is Threat Hunting? 554
    Threat Hunting vs. Traditional SOC Operations vs. Vulnerability Management 555
The Threat-Hunting Process 556
    Threat-Hunting Maturity Levels 557
Threat Hunting and MITRE's ATT&CK 558
    Automated Adversarial Emulation 563
Threat-Hunting Case Study 567
Threat Hunting, Honeypots, Honeynets, and Active Defense 571
Exam Preparation Tasks 571
Chapter 16 Final Preparation 574
Hands-on Activities 574
Suggested Plan for Final Review and Study 574
Summary 575
Glossary of Key Terms 577
Appendix A Answers to the “Do I Know This Already?” Quizzes and Review Questions 592
Appendix B Understanding Cisco Cybersecurity Operations Fundamentals CBROPS 200-201 Exam Updates 614

Online Elements
Appendix C Study Planner
Glossary of Key Terms


9780136807834    TOC    10/13/2020

Omar Santos is an active member of the security community, where he leads several industrywide initiatives. His active role helps businesses, academic institutions, state and local law enforcement agencies, and other participants dedicated to increasing the security of the critical infrastructure. Omar is the chair of the OASIS Common Security Advisory Framework (CSAF) technical committee, the co-chair of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) Open Source Security working group, and the co-lead of the DEF CON Red Team Village.

Omar is the author of more than 20 books and video courses as well as numerous white papers, articles, and security configuration guidelines and best practices. Omar is a principal engineer of the Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT), where he mentors and leads engineers and incident managers during the investigation and resolution of security vulnerabilities.


Omar has been quoted by numerous media outlets, such as TheRegister, Wired, ZDNet, ThreatPost, CyberScoop, TechCrunch, Fortune Magazine, Ars Technica, and more. You can follow Omar on Twitter @santosomar.

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