Security Operations & Incident Response — Study Guide

A visual, exam-aligned study guide for the Security Operations & Incident Response certification. Five modules cover the SOC and SIEM, detection engineering and triage, the NIST incident-response lifecycle, the kill chain, ATT&CK and threat intelligence, and digital forensics, threat hunting and metrics — with Mermaid diagrams, comparison tables, worked examples, key takeaways and self-checks.

Key facts

• Course price: $195 (one-time payment)
• Field: Cybersecurity & Information Security
• Prepares for: Security Operations & Incident Response
• 5 modules · 15 lessons · about 4 hours of lessons
• Self-paced, online, illustrated lessons

Course outline

1. The SOC & the SIEM — How a Security Operations Center is structured and how a SIEM turns raw logs into detections.
   • Inside the SOC
   • How a SIEM Works
   • EDR, XDR & Log Sources
2. Detection Engineering & Triage — Building high-fidelity detections, then triaging alerts with enrichment and prioritization.
   • Detection Engineering & Tuning
   • Alert Triage Step by Step
   • Managing False Positives & Fatigue
3. The Incident Response Lifecycle — The NIST six-phase lifecycle from preparation through lessons learned, plus communication and escalation.
   • The NIST Lifecycle
   • Contain, Eradicate, Recover
   • Communication, Escalation & Lessons
4. Kill Chain, ATT&CK & Threat Intelligence — Modeling intrusions with the kill chain and ATT&CK, and operationalizing threat intel and IOCs.
   • The Cyber Kill Chain
   • MITRE ATT&CK for Detection
   • Threat Intelligence & IOCs
5. Forensics, Hunting & Metrics — Digital-forensics fundamentals, proactive threat hunting, vulnerability management and SOC metrics.
   • Digital Forensics Basics
   • Threat Hunting & Malware Concepts
   • Vulnerability Management & Metrics