SSCP Systems Security Certified Practitioner All-in-One Exam Guide

Using Controls, Safeguards, and Countermeasures

Chapter 7 provided information on risk and explained that risk is the probability of a threat exploiting a vulnerability, and Chapter 8 presented information on performing vulnerability assessments to detect vulnerabilities. Both chapters mentioned that risk is mitigated by implementing controls. This chapter digs into the details of controls.

The terms controls, safeguards, and countermeasures are often used interchangeably. In essence, they are means, methods, actions, techniques, processes, procedures, or devices that reduce the vulnerability of a system or the possibility of a threat exploiting a vulnerability in a system. In this chapter, I’ve used the term controls, but the terms safeguards ...