AWS Certified Security - Specialty

Exam cost

$300 USD

Questions · time · passing score

65 questions · 170 minutes · Pass: 750/1000

Prerequisites

Recommended: 3–5 years securing cloud solutions.

Estimated salary premium

Not established by comparable evidence

Renewal requirements

Not verified in this audit; confirm with issuer.

Difficulty

Not rated

Domains covered

• Detection (16%)
• Incident response (14%)
• Infrastructure security (18%)
• IAM (20%)
• Data protection (18%)
• Security foundations and governance (14%)

Where this credential fits

MyCyberPath career mappings are planning guidance, not universal employer requirements.

• Cloud Security Architect →
• Application Security →

Recent catalog changes

1. AWSexam update2026-10-29

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty: exam delivery. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

   What changed

   Before

   Pearson VUE testing center or online proctored

   After

   Not verified

2. AWSupdated2026-10-29

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty: vendor url. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

   What changed

   Before

   Not verified

   After

   https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/security-specialty-03/security-specialty-03.html

   Review source
3. AWSupdated2026-10-29

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty: salary premium low. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

   What changed

   Before

   37

   After

   Not verified

   Review source
4. AWSupdated2026-10-29

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty: cert url. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

   What changed

   Before

   https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-security-specialty/

   After

   https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/security-specialty-03/security-specialty-03.html

   Review source
5. AWSdomain change2026-10-29

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty: skills gained. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

   What changed

   Before

   ** Designing and implementing incident response plans · including credential invalidation · resource isolation · and playbook · development. · Detecting security threats and anomalies using AWS services like Security Hub · Macie · and GuardDuty. · Responding to compromised resources and workloads · including automating remediation and forensic data capture. · Designing and implementing monitoring and alerting for security events using CloudWatch and EventBridge. · Designing and implementing logging solutions · including configuring logging for services and applications · and managing · log lifecycles. · Designing and implementing security controls for edge services (e.g. · AWS WAF · CloudFront) against common attacks like · OWASP Top 10 and DDoS. · Designing and implementing network security controls (e.g. · security groups · network ACLs · VPC endpoints) and ensuring · data privacy. · Designing and implementing security controls for compute workloads · including hardened AMIs · vulnerability scanning · and · secure credential passing. · Designing · implementing · and troubleshooting authentication for AWS resources using federation · IAM Identity Center · and · MFA. · Designing · implementing · and troubleshooting authorization for AWS resources using various IAM policies · ABAC · and RBAC · strategies. · Designing and implementing controls for data in transit (e.g. · TLS · VPN) and data at rest (e.g. · encryption · S3 Object Lock). · Designing and implementing controls to manage the lifecycle of data at rest and protect credentials · secrets · and · cryptographic key materials. · Developing strategies to centrally deploy and manage AWS accounts · including AWS Organizations and Control Tower. · Implementing secure and consistent deployment strategies for cloud resources using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and · tagging. · Evaluating the compliance of AWS resources using services like AWS Config and Macie. · Identifying security gaps through architectural reviews and cost analysis using the AWS Well-Architected Framework. · Who It’s For · Security Architects · Security Engineers · Security Analysts · Cloud Security Professionals · Individuals responsible for securing AWS workloads

   After

   Detection (16%) · Incident response (14%) · Infrastructure security (18%) · IAM (20%) · Data protection (18%) · Security foundations and governance (14%)

   Review source
6. AWSexam update2026-10-29

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty: exam format. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

   What changed

   Before

   65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored), multiple choice and multiple response, 170 minutes, passing score 750 (on a scale of 100-1000).

   After

   SCS-C03: 65 questions (50 scored, 15 unscored); 170 minutes; passing score 750/1000. Includes multiple choice, multiple response, ordering and matching.

   Review source
7. AWSupdated2026-10-29

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty: renewal cost. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

   What changed

   Before

   Not publicly available. Recertification is achieved by passing the latest version of the exam, for which a 50% discount voucher is available in the AWS Certification Account.

   After

   Not verified

8. AWSupdated2026-10-29

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty: salary premium high. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

   What changed

   Before

   37

   After

   Not verified

   Review source
9. AWSupdated2026-10-29

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty: name. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

   What changed

   Before

   AWS Certified Security — Specialty

   After

   AWS Certified Security - Specialty

   Review source
10. AWSupdated2026-10-29

    AWS Certified Security - Specialty

    AWS Certified Security - Specialty: abbreviation. Recorded by the October catalog audit; review date, not necessarily the issuer effective date.

    What changed

    Before

    SCS-C02

    After

    AWS Security

    Review source

Sources and verification

• https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-certification/latest/security-specialty-03/security-specialty-03.html
• https://aws.amazon.com/certification/certified-security-specialty/