Certified: The ISC2 CSSLP Audio Course

Dr. Jason Edwards
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This audio-only CSSLP prep course is built for busy security professionals who want to study anywhere, without a screen. Across 70 tightly focused episodes, you’ll walk the full Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional exam blueprint, from requirements and architecture to implementation, testing, operations, and supply chain risk. Each episode is structured as a guided journey: clear concepts, concrete examples, pitfalls to avoid, and quick mental rehearsals you can follow along with in real time. You’ll hear practical takes on exam strategy, secure design principles, SDLC integration, threat modeling, metrics, documentation, incident response, and more, all in plain language. Recap checkpoints, glossary episodes, and acronym refreshers reinforce what you’ve learned so it sticks when you sit for the exam. Whether you’re commuting, at the gym, or in between meetings, this podcast turns small pockets of time into steady progress toward your CSSLP.

  1. EPISODE 1

    Episode 1 — Confidently Navigate the CSSLP Exam Blueprint

    The CSSLP exam blueprint is the definitive source that determines what will be tested, how deeply each topic is covered, and how much each domain contributes to your final score. This episode explains how the domains are organized, what kinds of activities and responsibilities sit under each one, and why the domain weightings should drive your study priorities. Core concepts such as secure requirements, architecture, implementation, testing, operations, and supply chain security are framed not as isolated chapters, but as connected capabilities that the exam expects you to understand across the full software lifecycle. By translating dense outline language into practical responsibilities, the discussion helps you see the blueprint as a structured map rather than a long, intimidating list. Turning that map into a working study plan requires deliberate choices about sequence, emphasis, and repetition. Examples walk through grouping related objectives into weekly themes, aligning those themes with your current strengths, and reserving extra time for heavily weighted domains that feel less familiar. Guidance is provided on building a small set of tracking tools, such as a domain progress grid or a checklist of objectives you can restate in your own words, so your preparation stays tied directly to blueprint entries. The episode also explores how to use the blueprint to design quick review sessions and self-check questions that mirror exam phrasing, not just general knowledge quizzes. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

    13 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    Episode 2 — Demystify Policies, Scoring, and Timing Strategies

    Exam policies, scoring rules, and time limits shape how you experience every question on the CSSLP, so understanding them in detail is as important as knowing the domains themselves. This episode explains what the testing environment typically looks like, which behaviors are allowed or prohibited, how identification and check-in work, and how breaks and test center rules can affect your concentration. Scaled scoring and domain weighting are broken down into plain language so you understand what the passing standard represents and why performance can feel different across sections. The relationship between raw performance, scaled scores, and the official pass mark is clarified to remove common myths about “safe” numbers of missed questions. Strategic timing and decision habits grow naturally from that foundation. Practical examples walk through distributing your time across the total number of questions, deciding when to commit to an answer, and when to flag an item for later review without losing momentum. Techniques such as a two-pass approach, structured elimination of clearly wrong options, and quick recognition of “trap” wording are discussed in a way that aligns with the scenario style used on the CSSLP. Attention is also given to managing mental energy: small resets, breathing, and avoiding fixation on a single confusing question all support better judgment across the full exam window. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

    14 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    Episode 3 — Adopt a Practical Audio-Only Study Plan

    Preparing for the CSSLP while juggling work and personal responsibilities demands a study plan that fits into the day without sacrificing structure. This episode focuses on building an audio-first plan that treats short listening windows as serious learning opportunities rather than background noise. The discussion begins with setting realistic weekly goals, mapping them to specific domains and blueprint objectives, and then breaking those goals into focused audio sessions. Key learning modes such as initial exposure, spaced review, and active recall are introduced in simple terms so you understand why just “hearing” material is not enough. Concrete methods for making audio sessions active and exam-relevant are explored in depth. Sample routines show how to pause after a concept, restate it in your own words, answer a quick self-check question aloud, or create a miniature scenario that tests whether you really understood the idea. Strategies for interleaving domains, tracking which objectives were covered during the week, and quickly revisiting weak areas help you maintain balance over time. Guidance is also provided for adapting the plan during busy periods without abandoning progress, so preparation continues even when schedules shift. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

    10 min

  4. EPISODE 4

    Episode 4 — Master Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability and Resiliency

    Confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resiliency form the core lens through which secure software decisions are evaluated on the CSSLP exam. This episode revisits each term with precise, exam-ready definitions and connects them directly to software behaviors, from how data is stored and transmitted to how services respond during component failures. Confidentiality is framed as controlled disclosure, integrity as trustworthy and unaltered state, availability as timely and reliable access, and resiliency as the capacity to absorb disruption without losing control or important information. Attention is given to how these principles show up in requirements language and architecture descriptions that you are expected to interpret correctly. Exam scenarios often revolve around tradeoffs among these four principles, and the discussion uses concrete examples to illustrate those tensions. Design choices such as adding strong encryption, introducing additional validation checks, or implementing strict fail-closed behaviors are analyzed in terms of how they support one principle while pressuring another. Sample reasoning patterns demonstrate how to decide which principle should dominate in a given context, such as safety-critical systems, customer-facing portals, or regulatory reporting platforms. Short mental checklists help you read questions and quickly identify which principle is truly at stake, improving your chances of selecting the best answer among several plausible controls. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

    15 min

  5. EPISODE 5

    Episode 5 — Operationalize Authentication, Authorization, Accounting and Governance

    Authentication, authorization, and accounting provide the backbone for identity-aware security in software systems, and governance ensures those mechanisms are defined and enforced in a controlled way. This episode defines each of these functions clearly, explaining how they work together to answer who is accessing the system, what they can do, and which actions are being recorded. Access control models such as role-based and attribute-based access control are discussed with attention to exam-relevant ideas like least privilege, separation of duties, and policy centralization. The governance layer is introduced as the set of processes and structures that keep these mechanisms coherent across applications, projects, and environments. Realistic examples are used to illustrate how these concepts appear in CSSLP-style questions and in day-to-day practice. Scenarios such as granting temporary elevated access, managing contractor accounts, handling service identities, and revoking privileges when roles change are examined from both a design and oversight perspective. The importance of high-quality logs, clear approval flows, and periodic access reviews is highlighted, along with the types of evidence an assessor would expect to see when verifying control effectiveness. Common pitfalls such as privilege creep, shared accounts, and inconsistent enforcement between systems are called out, and guidance is given on how to recognize stronger answer choices that address root causes rather than symptoms. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

    13 min

  6. EPISODE 6

    Episode 6 — Apply Proven Secure Design Principles in Practice

    Secure design principles provide a stable foundation for decisions across every CSSLP domain, and many exam questions quietly assume you can recognize and apply them under time pressure. This episode focuses on principles such as least privilege, defense in depth, secure defaults, fail securely, separation of duties, complete mediation, and minimizing attack surface, explaining what each means in the language of system behavior rather than abstract slogans. Examples tie these ideas to everyday design choices like which services may talk to each other, how much data a component should see, and how errors are handled when systems fail. Attention is given to how the exam often embeds these principles inside architectural diagrams, requirement statements, or design tradeoffs, expecting you to spot where a principle is being upheld, ignored, or misapplied. Applying these principles consistently requires being able to reason about tradeoffs without losing the original intent behind the rule. Scenario-style explanations walk through situations such as choosing between multiple identity store designs, deciding where to terminate TLS, or evaluating whether a proposed exception to least privilege is truly justified. The discussion also highlights how to distinguish strong from weak answer options by asking which principle is best satisfied and whether the control addresses root causes rather than surface symptoms. By the end, you will be more comfortable using these principles as a checklist for evaluating designs, implementation patterns, and operational decisions in both exam and real-world contexts. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

    13 min

  7. EPISODE 7

    Episode 7 — Manage Security Within Common SDLC Methodologies

    Secure practices must integrate naturally into the software development lifecycle methodologies that organizations actually use, and the CSSLP exam tests your ability to adapt security activities to those different models. This episode lays out how security expectations map into classic waterfall, iterative, agile, and DevOps approaches, focusing on where requirements, design reviews, threat modeling, testing, and risk decisions fit. You will hear how the same control concept, such as code review or security testing, can appear at different times and with different emphasis depending on the lifecycle model. The discussion clarifies which artifacts are typically produced at each stage and how exam questions may describe project rhythms like sprints, release trains, or formal phase gates. Concrete examples then illustrate how to embed security into these lifecycles without blocking delivery or relying on unrealistic processes. Situations such as adding security user stories into agile backlogs, defining “done” criteria that include security checks, inserting risk sign-offs into waterfall design phases, and wiring DevOps pipelines to run automated security tests are explored from an exam perspective. You will learn how to recognize answer choices that respect the underlying methodology while still meeting security and compliance objectives, and how to avoid options that bolt on controls in ways that are unlikely to sustain in practice. This helps you select responses that feel realistic to a development team while still satisfying CSSLP expectations for traceability, verification, and governance across the lifecycle. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

    13 min

  8. EPISODE 8

    Episode 8 — Build Security Standards and Organization-Wide Awareness

    Consistent security behavior across teams depends on more than individual expertise; it rests on clear standards and a shared understanding of why they matter. This episode introduces the idea of security standards as concrete, testable expressions of policy that translate broad goals into specific expectations for configurations, coding practices, and operational behavior. You will hear how standards differ from policies and guidelines, how they support compliance and audit readiness, and how they align with CSSLP topics such as secure configuration, access control, and privacy requirements. The role of organization-wide awareness programs is also explained, emphasizing how they reinforce standards through training, communication, and day-to-day reminders. Examples then show how standards and awareness interact in practice, such as a password standard that is backed by training about phishing and credential reuse, or a secure coding standard reinforced by brown-bag sessions and code review checklists. The episode discusses how exam questions may present situations where standards exist but are not followed, or where awareness efforts are generic and fail to connect with specific risks, and asks you to choose actions that improve both clarity and adoption. Best practices for tailoring messages to different audiences, measuring whether awareness is changing behavior, and feeding lessons learned from incidents back into standards are outlined, all in a way that helps you distinguish strong governance answers from superficial ones. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.

    12 min
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About

This audio-only CSSLP prep course is built for busy security professionals who want to study anywhere, without a screen. Across 70 tightly focused episodes, you’ll walk the full Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional exam blueprint, from requirements and architecture to implementation, testing, operations, and supply chain risk. Each episode is structured as a guided journey: clear concepts, concrete examples, pitfalls to avoid, and quick mental rehearsals you can follow along with in real time. You’ll hear practical takes on exam strategy, secure design principles, SDLC integration, threat modeling, metrics, documentation, incident response, and more, all in plain language. Recap checkpoints, glossary episodes, and acronym refreshers reinforce what you’ve learned so it sticks when you sit for the exam. Whether you’re commuting, at the gym, or in between meetings, this podcast turns small pockets of time into steady progress toward your CSSLP.

Information

  • Creator
    Dr. Jason Edwards
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    71
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © @ 2025 - Bare Metal Cyber