CCSK
Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge · Cloud Security Alliance
The CCSK proves you know the Cloud Security Alliance’s guidance on cloud security: shared responsibility, governance, identity, workloads, data, applications and incident response. It is respected as a solid, vendor-neutral foundation, and ISC2 accepts it to waive one year of the experience required for the CCSP. Its strength is an affordable, open-book, lifetime certificate; its limit is that it validates knowledge, not experience.
- Exam
- Version 5 (available since 16 July 2024): 60 multiple-choice questions in 120 minutes, online and open book, pass mark 80%.
- Exam price
- $445One exam token gives two attempts, to be used within two years of purchase.
- Required experience
- None required.
- Validity and maintenance
- No expiry: the CCSK certificate is valid for life, with no maintenance fee.
- Format
- Multiple choice
Who is it for?
IT and security professionals starting in cloud security, auditors and consultants who assess cloud environments, and future CCSP candidates.
Domains covered
- Cloud computing concepts and architectures
- Cloud governance, risk, audit and compliance
- Organisation management
- Identity and access management
- Security monitoring
- Infrastructure and networking
- Workload security
- Data security
- Application security
- Incident response, resilience and related technologies
Belinda’s take
Information checked on 2 October 2026 against the official site. Prices exclude tax and training, and may change.
The certification names mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners. KrakenShield is not affiliated with any certification body and does not reproduce any exam question.
