Certified social engineering prevention specialist

Certified Social Engineering Prevention Specialist (CSEPS) refers to both an individual Mitnick Security Consulting certification and a broader professional certification program.

The CSEPS program currently offers one type of certification. To attain this certification, a candidate must attend a CSEPS training course and pass the exam proctored at completion.

The training program focuses primarily on how Social Engineering works through the use of numerous case histories and a detailed breakdown of the psychological principles related to influence. It more specifically focuses on how a malicious hacker or information thief uses Social Engineering and/or Pretexting to obtain illicit access to computer systems by duping employees, and what can be done to minimize social engineering based attacks in an organization.[citation needed]

The course and exam costs approximately US$2300.00 per person. The course is two days in length. The exams takes between 1 and 2 hours to complete and consists of between 50-90 multiple choice questions and an essay section dealing with specific actions taken to prevent Social Engineering in a proposed scenario.[citation needed]

The exam was first designed by Kevin Mitnick and Alexis Kasperavičius in 2004, with assistance from various experts in the psychology field.[1]

In 2020 Mitnick partnered with security awareness training firm KnowBe4 and the CSEPS course material and components became the basis of the KnowBe4 Social Engineering Security Awareness Training program.[2][3]

References

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  1. ^ Thomas, Benjamin D. (6 June 2005). "A Tale of Two Hackers". linuxsecurity.com. linuxsecurity.com. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  2. ^ KnowBe4. "Kevin Mitnick Partners With KnowBe4". prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved April 18, 2020.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Sjouwerman, Stu (July 16, 2020). "I hired an infamous hacker—and it was the best decision I ever made". FastCompany.com. Retrieved December 31, 2023.