Cisco CCST Cybersecurity Study Guide (100-160)

Preparing for the Cisco CCST Cybersecurity exam (100-160)? This is the complete study guide — six chapters covering all five official exam domains, written in plain language for entry-level candidates.

The real exam: about 40–50 questions in 50 minutes, US$125, entry level, no prerequisites. It rewards fast recognition of the right term, attack, defense, and next step — and this guide is built for exactly that kind of test.

What's inside:

• Chapter 1 — Essential Security Principles: the CIA triad, threats vs. vulnerabilities vs. exploits vs. risk, attack vectors, hardening, defense-in-depth, attacker types and motivations, the malware family, social engineering, man-in-the-middle, denial of service, IoT and insider threats, APTs, and the security code of ethics
• Chapter 2 — Access Management and Encryption: AAA and RADIUS, multifactor authentication, password policies; symmetric vs. asymmetric encryption, hashing, certificates and PKI, the three states of data, and the protocols that encrypt

Chapter 3 — Basic Network Security Concepts: TCP/IP protocol vulnerabilities (ARP poisoning, rogue DHCP, DNS spoofing and more), how addresses affect security, DMZs, segmentation, honeypots, proxies, IDS vs. IPS, securing a home/small-office wireless network, ACLs, firewalls, VPNs, and NAC

Chapter 4 — Endpoint Security Concepts: Windows, macOS, and Linux security, host firewalls, file permissions, privilege escalation, endpoint tools (netstat, nslookup, tcpdump), compliance checks, patch management, reading system logs, and the correct malware-removal order

Chapter 5 — Vulnerability Assessment and Risk Management: the vulnerability management lifecycle, scanning, CVE and CVSS, threat intelligence, the risk matrix, the four risk treatments, auditing, compliance, and frameworks

Chapter 6 — Incident Handling: the incident response lifecycle in order, classification and prioritization, monitoring and escalation, digital forensics (order of volatility, chain of custody), disaster recovery and business continuity, RTO and RPO

One honest note: Cisco does not publish percentage weights for the 100-160 domains, so no part of this guide claims one domain matters more than another. Treat every domain as testable, because it is.

Files included (1):

ccst-cybersecurity-study-guide.pdf — the complete 6-chapter guide (101 pages)

Want practice questions too? The Deluxe tier adds the full 500-question practice bank and the cheat sheets, plus license-key access to the online practice hub.

Independent study material. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Cisco.