Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional Certification (GICSP)
Deliver interdisciplinary assurance across IT and OT environments, positioning yourself as the go-to expert for securing industrial systems.
The Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP) certification validates a practitioner’s capability to achieve security throughout the industrial control systems lifecycle, bridging expertise in IT, engineering, and cyber security. GICSP is a vendor-neutral, practitioner-focused certification, and its holders are a diverse set of professionals who engineer or support control systems and share responsibility for the security of these environments.
Areas Covered
- Industrial control system components, purposes, deployments, significant drivers, and constraints
- Control system attack surfaces, methods, and tools
- Control system approaches to system and network defense architectures and techniques
- Incident-response skills in a control system environment
- Governance models and resources for industrial cybersecurity professionals
Who is GICSP for?
- ICS IT practitioners (includes operational technology support)
- ICS security analysts (includes operational technology security)
- Security engineers
- Industry managers and professionals
- Vendors
CyberLive: Real labs. Real tools. Real skills.
CyberLive is a hands-on exam format that replaces traditional multiple-choice testing with performance-based challenges in realistic lab environments to validate real-world capability.
Virtual Machines:
Full-scale lab systems that behave like physical computers: install, attack, defend, and run services.
Real Security Tools:
Exact tools used by professionals every day including all the quirks and challenges
Authentic Code:
Real code, real exploits, real impacts
Exam Format
- 1 proctored exam
- 82 questions
- 3 hours
- Minimum passing score of 71%
Note: GIAC periodically reviews and may update certification specifications to ensure fairness, validity, and reliability. Using a psychometric standard-setting study, GIAC has set the passing score for the GICSP exam at 71% for all candidates who receive the exam version released on or after November 19th, 2018.
To confirm the exam format and passing score that apply to your specific attempt, please refer to the Certification Information section of your GIAC account: https://exams.giac.org/pages/attempts.
Certification Delivery
GIAC certification attempts will be activated in your GIAC account after your application has been approved and according to the terms of your purchase. Details on delivery will be provided along with your registration confirmation upon payment. You will receive an email notification when your certification attempt has been activated in your account. You will have 120 days from the date of activation to complete your certification attempt.
NOTE: All GIAC Certification exams are web-based and required to be proctored. There are two proctoring options: remote proctoring through ProctorU, and onsite proctoring through PearsonVUE. Click here for more information.
Exam Certification Objectives & Outcome Statements
- Hardening & Protecting EndpointsThe candidate will be able to describe how to implement endpoint security software along with hardening and patching, to secure the Windows and Unix style operating systems commonly found in an ICS environment.
- ICS Components & ArchitectureThe candidate will be able to categorize assets that comprise Purdue Reference Architecture levels zero through three and describe how they can be implemented in a securable architecture. The candidate will also be able to summarize the use of levels and zones in defining a secure ICS architecture, as well as the devices deployed at each level and zone.
- ICS Overview & ConceptsThe candidate will be able to summarize the function of high-level ICS processes as well as ICS roles and responsibilities. The candidate will also be able to compare and contrast high-level differences between ICS and IT, including physical security considerations.
- ICS Program & Policy DevelopmentThe candidate will be able to summarize the steps and best practices used in building a security program and creating enforceable security policies for an ICS.
- Intelligence Gathering & Threat ModelingThe candidate will be able to determine the threat landscape of an ICS and high-level concepts of threat modeling.
- PERA Level 0 & 1 Technology Overview and CompromiseThe candidate will be able to describe level 0 and level 1 devices and technologies and summarize how those devices and technologies are targeted and attacked.
- PERA Level 2 & 3 Technology Overview and CompromiseThe candidate will be able to describe level 2 and level 3 devices and technologies and summarize how those devices and technologies are targeted and attacked.
- Protocols, Communications, & CompromisesThe candidate will be able to describe the basic structures, protocols, and defense of communications within an ICS and summarize how they can be compromised. This includes TCP/IP as well as ICS specific protocols. The candidate will also be able to, at a basic level, describe the cryptography used to protect communications.
- Risk Based Disaster Recovery & Incident ResponseThe candidate will be able to describe how risk is measured and how it can be used to inform disaster recovery and incident response.
- Wireless Technologies & CompromisesThe candidate will be able to summarize the different wireless communication technologies used in an ICS, how they are targeted, and how they can be defended.
Practice Tests
- Practice exams are a simulation of the real exam, allowing you to become familiar with the test engine and style of questions
- Practice exams can serve as a gauge to determine if your preparation methods are sufficient
- The bank of practice questions is limited, so you may encounter the same question on multiple practice tests
- Practice exams never include actual exam questions
- Purchase a GICSP practice test here
Other Resources
- Training is available in a variety of modalities including live training and OnDemand
- Practical work experience can help ensure that you have mastered the skills necessary for certification
- College level courses or self-paced study through other programs or materials may meet the needs for mastery
- Understand the procedure to contest exam results