Preface

This book aims to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the AWS Certified Security Specialty exam services. It includes sample architectures and case studies of those sample architectures so you can visualize how AWS services work. There are also plenty of hands-on exercises to try out in your own AWS account. You will find some very helpful use cases and anti-patterns presented for the different services in the book. It’s important to be aware of anti-patterns when preparing for an exam; an exam question may present a service as a potential solution, but that service may actually be an anti-pattern and should not be used. Knowing where a service fits best and where it doesn’t will help you choose the right answers in the exam.

Many certification books assume you will read them once, pass the test, and then place them on your bookshelf or pass them on to a colleague, and both their content and structure reflect this. In contrast, this book has been put together in such a way that you can hopefully use it as a reference guide in your duties as a security professional working in an AWS environment. You will find that extra information that may not necessarily appear in the exam has been added to the book. Once you pass the exam, you will be expected to be able to practically apply the topics you have learned about in the real world. The extra information in the book will help you tackle real-world, high-pressure security events, which can sometimes be harder than cracking the exam.