Overview of the role

Provide first line cyber security support.

Details of standard

Occupation summary

This occupation is found in all sectors where information is held digitally and where that information is an asset that needs to be protected including but not limited to finance, retail, telecoms, health, media, manufacturing and local authorities.

The broad purpose of the occupation is to provide first line cyber security support. This requires individuals to monitor and detect potential security threats and escalate as necessary and to support secure and uninterrupted business operations of an organisation through the implementation of cyber security mechanisms and the application of cyber security procedures and controls. To contribute to the delivery of a security culture across an organisation, understanding vulnerabilities and threats and supporting the development of an organisation's cyber security maturity. To apply procedures and controls to maintain security and control of an organisation, and process security requests ensuring confidentiality, integrity and availability of information stored digitally.

In their daily work, an employee in this occupation interacts with a wide range of stakeholders including colleagues, managers, customers and internal and external suppliers. They would typically work as a member of a team; this may be office based or virtual. The employee will interact with, and influence colleagues and will have working level contact with customers, suppliers and partners in their capacity as an individual contributor.

An employee in this occupation will be responsible for supporting a cyber security function (frequently a Security Operations Centre or Network Operations Centre) working under supervision. The employee will be conducting specific cyber security tasks to defined procedures and standards. Specific cyber security mechanisms and controls that an individual would be required to implement would include: patching software, installing software updates, implementing access control, configuring firewalls, security incident and event management tools (SIEM) tools and protection tools (Anti-virus, Anti-malware, Anti-spam). They will be responsible for their own activities with other resources made available to them as required. As directed, the employee will engage with specific cyber security events. The employee will be expected to work with internal and external stakeholders under general direction. They will use discretion in identifying and responding to complex issues and assignments and will usually receive specific instructions and will have work reviewed at frequent milestones. They will be expected to determine when issues should be escalated to a higher level.

Typical job titles include:

Access control administrator Cyber security administrator Incident response technician Junior information security analyst Junior penetration tester Junior security analyst Junior security operations centre (soc) analyst Junior threat and risk analyst

Occupation duties

Duty KSBs

Duty 1 Apply procedures and controls to maintain security and control of an organisation.

K1 K2 K3 K4 K7 K29

S1 S2 S21 S22

B2 B4

Duty 2 Contribute to the production and development of security culture across an organisation including assisting with the promotion of cyber security awareness programmes, monitoring the effectiveness of cyber security awareness programmes, promoting an effective cyber security culture

K4 K5 K6 K7 K25 K29 K30

S3 S4 S21 S22

B5 B6

Duty 3 Process cyber security helpdesk requests ensuring confidentiality, integrity and availability of digital information, meeting relevant legal and regulatory requirements for example access control requests.

K4 K7 K8 K22 K26

S1 S5 S21 S22

B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6

Duty 4 Conduct the installation and maintenance of technical security controls in accordance with relevant procedures and standards.

K1 K3 K8 K9

S1 S2 S6 S21 S22

B1 B2 B4

Duty 5 Monitor, identify, report and escalate information security incidents and events in accordance with relevant procedures and standards.

K1 K2 K7 K10 K17 K19

S1 S7 S8 S21 S22

B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6

Duty 6 Administer cryptographic and certificate management activities in accordance with relevant procedures and standards.

K3 K9

S1 S2 S6

B1 B2 B4

Duty 7 Conduct regular review of access rights to digital information assets in accordance with relevant procedures and standards.

K1 K2 K3 K11 K12

S1 S2 S9

B1 B2 B4

Duty 8 Maintain an asset register of controlled environments in accordance with relevant policies, procedures and standards.

K1 K2 K3 K12

S1 S10

B1 B2 B4

Duty 9 Assist with backup and recovery processes in accordance with relevant policies, procedures and standards.

K1 K2 K3 K13 K15

S1 S6

B1 B2 B4

Duty 10 Contribute to documenting the scope and evaluating the results of vulnerability assessments in accordance with management requirements.

K1 K2 K14 K15 K16 K17 K18

S1 S11 S12

B1 B2 B4 B5 B6

Duty 11 Contribute to risk assessments and escalate where appropriate in accordance with relevant procedures and standards.

K1 K2 K4 K19 K20 K27

S1 S14 S15 S21 S22

B1 B2 B4 B5

Duty 12 Contribute to routine threat intelligence gathering tasks.

K1 K2 K4 K16

S1 S13

B1 B2 B4 B5

Duty 13 Document incident and event information and incident, exception and management reports in accordance with relevant policies, procedures and standards.

K1 K2 K10 K17 K18 K19 K20 K21

S7 S8 S16 S17 S19

B1 B2 B4

Duty 14 Contribute towards the production and review of cyber security policies, procedures, standards and guidelines drawing on their experience of applying policies for example - acceptable use, incident management, patching, anti-virus, bring your own device (BYOD), access control, social media, password, data handling and data classification, information technology asset disposal

K1 K2 K4 K7 K20 K23

S18 S21 S22

B1 B2 B4 B5 B6

Duty 15 Monitor cyber security compliance and provide relevant data to auditors if required by the auditor.

K1 K2 K4 K6 K21 K24 K25

S19 S20

B1 B4 B5 B6

Duty 16 Collaborate with people both internally and externally to support secure and uninterrupted business operations of an organisation.

K1 K2 K4 K23 K25 K26 K28 K30

S1 S2 S4 S21

B1 B3 B4 B5 B6

Duty 17 Practice continuous self-learning to keep up to date with industry trends and developments to enhance relevant skills and take responsibility for own professional development.

K4 K23 K24 K27

S22

B2 B3 B4 B7

Duty 18 Monitor and detect potential security threats and escalate in accordance with relevant procedures and standards.

K1 K16 K19 K26

S8 S13 S15 S22

B1 B2 B4


KSBs

Knowledge

K1: Principles of organisational information security governance and the components of an organisation's cyber security technical infrastructure including hardware, operating systems, networks, software and cloud Back to Duty

K2: Cyber security policies and standards based on an Information Security Management System (ISMS) Back to Duty

K3: Types of physical, procedural and technical controls Back to Duty

K4: Awareness of how current legislation relates to or impacts upon the occupation including Data Protection Act, Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, Human Rights Act, Computer Misuse Act, Freedom of Information Act, Official Secrets Act, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), Wireless and Telegraphy Act, professional body codes of conduct, ethical use of information assets Back to Duty

K5: Cyber security awareness and components of an effective security culture, different organisational structures and cultures, the importance of maintaining privacy and confidentiality of an organisation's information and the impact of a poor security culture Back to Duty

K6: Principles of cyber security compliance and compliance monitoring techniques Back to Duty

K7: Core terminology of cyber security – confidentiality, integrity, availability (the CIA triad), assurance, authenticity, identification, authentication, authorization, accountability, reliability, non-repudiation, access control Back to Duty

K8: Common security administrative operational tasks e.g. patching, software updates, access control, configuring a range of firewalls, security incident and event management tools (SIEM) and protection tools (Anti-virus, Anti-malware, Anti-spam) Back to Duty

K9: Cryptography, certificates and use of certificate management tools Back to Duty

K10: Processes for detecting, reporting, assessing, responding to, dealing with and learning from information security events Back to Duty

K11: Principles of identity and access management - authentication, authorisation and federation - and the inter-relationship between privacy and access rights and access control, and the types of access control, access control mechanisms and application control Back to Duty

K12: Types of digital information assets used in a controlled environment and the need to maintain an inventory of information assets used in a controlled environment and the need for and practice of secure information asset disposal Back to Duty

K13: Disaster prevention and recovery methods and the need for continuity of service planning and how an organisation might implement basic disaster prevention and recovery practices using conventional and incremental secure backup and recovery techniques and tools both onsite and offsite including geographic considerations Back to Duty

K14: Categories of cyber security vulnerabilities and common vulnerability exposures –software misconfiguration, sensitive data exposure, injection vulnerabilities, using components with known vulnerabilities, insufficient logging and monitoring, broken access control and authentication, security misconfiguration, incorrect cross-site validation Back to Duty

K15: Components of a vulnerability assessment scope and techniques to evaluate the results of a vulnerability assessment and provide recommendations based upon the evidence provided by the vulnerability assessment tools. The impact that vulnerabilities might have on an organisation and common vulnerability assessment tools and their strengths and weaknesses Back to Duty

K16: Threat sources and threat identification and network reconnaissance techniques and the impact that threats might have on an organisation Back to Duty

K17: Types of information security events – brute force attack, malware activity, suspicious user behaviour, suspicious device behaviour, unauthorized system changes Back to Duty

K18: Computer forensic principles – the importance of ensuring that evidence is not contaminated and maintaining the continuity of evidence without compromising it Back to Duty

K19: Standard information security event incident, exception and management reporting requirements and how to document incident and event information as part of a chain or evidence Back to Duty

K20: Common information security policies – acceptable use, incident management, patching, anti-virus, BYOD, access control, social media, password, data handling and data classification, IT asset disposal Back to Duty

K21: Cyber security audit requirements, procedures and plans, need to obtain and document evidence in an appropriate form for an internal or external auditor to review Back to Duty

K22: The significance of customer issues, problems, business value, brand awareness, cultural awareness/ diversity, accessibility, internal/ external audience, level of technical knowledge and profile in a business context Back to Duty

K23: Evolving cyber security issues in the digital world including the application to critical national infrastructure, communications technologies, the need for information assurance and governance, control systems and internet of things (IoT) devices Back to Duty

K24: Different learning techniques and the breadth and sources of knowledge and sources of verified information and data Back to Duty

K25: Importance of maintaining privacy and confidentiality of an organisations information and the impact of a poor security culture Back to Duty

K26: Concepts of service desk delivery and how to respond to requests for assistance received by a service desk and be able to describe different methods of escalation, when to escalate to a higher level where necessary and the need to communicate accurately and appropriately during an escalation Back to Duty

K27: Risk assessment, risk management and business impact analysis principles Back to Duty

K28: How their occupation fits into the wider digital landscape and any current or future regulatory requirements Back to Duty

K29: How to use data ethically and the implications for wider society, with respect to the use of data Back to Duty

K30: Roles within a multidisciplinary team and the interfaces with other areas of an organisation Back to Duty

Skills

S1: Follow information security procedures Back to Duty

S2: Maintain information security controls Back to Duty

S3: Develop information security training and awareness resources Back to Duty

S4: Monitor the effectiveness of information security training and awareness Back to Duty

S5: Handle and assess the validity of security requests from a range of internal and external stakeholders Back to Duty

S6: Follow technical procedures to install and maintain technical security controls Back to Duty

S7: Monitor and report information security events Back to Duty

S8: Recognise when and how to escalate information security events in accordance with relevant procedures and standards Back to Duty

S9: Review and modify access rights to digital information systems, services, devices or data Back to Duty

S10: Maintain an inventory of digital information systems, services, devices and data storage Back to Duty

S11: Scopes cyber security vulnerability assessments Back to Duty

S12: Evaluate the results of a cyber security vulnerability assessment Back to Duty

S13: Perform routine threat intelligence gathering tasks through consulting external sources Back to Duty

S14: Undertake digital information risk assessments Back to Duty

S15: Identify and categorise threats, vulnerabilities and risks in preparation for response or escalation Back to Duty

S16: Document cyber security event information whilst preserving evidence Back to Duty

S17: Draft information management reports using standard formats appropriate to the recipients Back to Duty

S18: Review and comment upon cyber security policies, procedures, standards and guidelines Back to Duty

S19: Perform cyber security compliance checks Back to Duty

S20: Translate audit requirements and collate relevant information from log files, incident reports and other data sources Back to Duty

S21: Communication skills to co-operate as part of a multi-functional, multi-disciplinary team using a range of technical and non-technical language to provide an effective interface between internal or external users and suppliers Back to Duty

S22: Keep up-to-date with legislation and industry standards related to the implementation of cyber security in an organisation Back to Duty

Behaviours

B1: Manage own time to meet deadlines and manage stakeholder expectations Back to Duty

B2: Work independently and take responsibility for own actions within the occupation Back to Duty

B3: Use own initiative Back to Duty

B4: A structured approach to the prioritisation of tasks Back to Duty

B5: Treat colleagues and external stakeholders fairly and with respect without bias or discrimination Back to Duty

B6: Act in accordance with occupation specific laws, regulations and professional standards and not accept instruction that is incompatible with any of these Back to Duty

B7: Review own development needs in order to keep up to date with evolution in technologies, trends and innovation using a range of sources Back to Duty


Qualifications

English and Maths

Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to taking the End-Point Assessment. For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement, the apprenticeship’s English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3. A British Sign Language (BSL) qualification is an alternative to the English qualification for those whose primary language is BSL.

Professional recognition

This standard aligns with the following professional recognition:

  • BCS - The Chartered Institute for IT for Associate BCS membership (AMBCS) and Professional
  • Registration for IT Technicians (RITTech) for
  • Chartered Institute for Information Security for / Accredited Affiliate


Additional details

Occupational Level:

3

Duration (months):

18

Review

this apprenticeship will be reviewed in accordance with our change request policy.

Status: Approved for delivery
Level: 3
Reference: ST0865
Version: 1.0
Date updated: 01/04/2021
Approved for delivery: 13 May 2020
Route: Digital
Typical duration to gateway: 18 months (this does not include EPA period)
Maximum funding: £11000
LARS Code: 559
EQA Provider: Ofqual
Employers involved in creating the standard: IBM, Qufaro, Cap Gemini, Fujitsu, Sandettie, Dimension Data, CyberCrowd, Forgerock, CompTIA, ABFoods Issured, Deloitte, Local Government Association, Global Knowledge

Version log

Version Change detail Earliest start date Latest start date Latest end date
1.0 Approved for delivery 13/05/2020 Not set Not set

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