{"id":26577,"date":"2026-10-06T09:42:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T09:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/?p=26577"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T09:42:22","slug":"cisco-350-701-scor-v2-0-what-the-current-exam-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/cisco-350-701-scor-v2-0-what-the-current-exam-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cisco 350-701 SCOR v2.0: What the Current Exam Covers"},"content":{"rendered":"

350-701 SCOR changed materially in 2026. Cisco’s current live blueprint is Implementing and Operating Cisco Security Core Technologies v2.0<\/strong>, which launched on August 27, 2026. Candidates using older v1.0 or v1.1 material need to update their notes because Secure Service Edge is now its own domain, AI\/LLM security appears explicitly, and the modern course includes Cisco Secure Access, Duo, Splunk, XDR and newer cloud\/workload topics.<\/p>\n

The current 350-701 SCOR<\/a> exam is 120 minutes, offered in English and Japanese, and costs USD 400 or Cisco Learning Credits at the published U.S. price. Passing earns Cisco Certified Specialist \u2013 Security Core and satisfies the core-exam requirement for CCNP Security and CCIE Security. Cisco lists no formal prerequisite, though strong networking and security fundamentals are recommended.<\/p>\n

Security Concepts is 20%<\/h3>\n

The first domain covers threats across on-premises, hybrid and cloud environments; vulnerabilities such as OWASP classes, SQL injection, path traversal and missing encryption; CVE\/CVSS prioritization; AI\/LLM vulnerabilities; social-engineering defenses; cryptography; VPN deployment types; security intelligence; Zero Trust; SAFE; and interpreting Python\/API scripts.<\/p>\n

The current blueprint expands cryptographic context to modern protocols and post-quantum cryptography concepts, while AI\/LLM topics include prompt injection, system-prompt leakage, vector\/embedding weaknesses and supply-chain concerns.<\/p>\n

Network Security is the largest domain at 25%<\/h3>\n

This domain combines architecture, infrastructure hardening and Cisco Secure Firewall operation. Candidates should understand intrusion-prevention\/firewall deployment models, security monitoring\/telemetry, Layer 2 protections, segmentation using VLANs or SGTs, device-management models, CIS benchmarks, AAA troubleshooting and secure network management.<\/p>\n

The blueprint also includes configuring Cisco Secure Firewall access-control policy, AVC, URL filtering, malware protection and intrusion prevention, plus site-to-site and remote-access VPN and VPN tunnel troubleshooting.<\/p>\n

Layer 2 and management-plane security are explicit<\/h3>\n

Current objectives name DHCP snooping, Dynamic ARP Inspection, storm control and defenses against MAC, ARP, VLAN-hopping, STP and rogue-DHCP attacks. Device hardening includes management-plane choices, CIS benchmarks and secure protocols such as SNMPv3, NetConf, RestConf, APIs, secure syslog and authenticated NTP.<\/p>\n

AAA for device and network access includes TACACS+ and RADIUS troubleshooting, which means candidates should be able to distinguish authentication, authorization, accounting and fallback\/reachability problems.<\/p>\n

Cloud Security accounts for 15%<\/h3>\n

Cloud objectives cover shared responsibility, public\/private\/hybrid\/community models, NIST SaaS\/PaaS\/IaaS, cloud security frameworks, policy management, CASB, network\/application\/data security, Cisco Multicloud Defense, Cisco Secure Workload and cloud logging into Splunk.<\/p>\n

Application\/workload security now explicitly includes eBPF, while DevSecOps includes Infrastructure as Code security, CI\/CD pipelines, container orchestration and secure software development.<\/p>\n

Secure Service Edge is a new 10% domain<\/h3>\n

The v2.0 blueprint separates SSE\/SASE into its own section. Candidates should describe Secure Service Edge and Secure Access Service Edge, configure Cisco Secure Access Secure Internet Access and Secure Private Access, understand DLP and AI guardrails, and interpret Cisco Secure Access Investigate scores and indicators.<\/p>\n

This reflects the shift from traditional perimeter-only security toward cloud-delivered controls for remote users, branch users, SaaS, internet access and private applications.<\/p>\n

Endpoint Protection and Detection is 15%<\/h3>\n

This domain covers EPP and EDR, MDM\/asset inventory, endpoint posture assessment, Cisco Secure Client, Cisco Secure Malware Analytics, Secure Endpoint antimalware, interpretation of malware-detection events and Cisco Security Email Threat Defense.<\/p>\n

The current role expects candidates to understand endpoint trust and ongoing detection rather than seeing endpoints as passive clients behind a network firewall.<\/p>\n

Network Access, Visibility and Enforcement is 15%<\/h3>\n

The final domain covers identity management, guest services, profiling, posture, BYOD, device compliance, application control, 802.1X and MAB with Cisco ISE, Change of Authorization, exfiltration techniques, telemetry, AI\/ML-assisted XDR\/SIEM\/SOAR visibility, Cisco Duo and Splunk-based orchestration.<\/p>\n

The breadth is deliberate: modern network access combines identity, device state, policy and continuous visibility rather than one-time authentication.<\/p>\n

Cisco ISE and Duo anchor identity-driven access<\/h3>\n

ISE objectives include wired\/wireless network-access control using 802.1X, MAB and CoA, while Duo is described through MFA, Device Trust, health checks, Adaptive Access, SSO, Trust Monitor and Cisco Identity Intelligence. These controls fit Zero Trust by making access decisions from identity and device context.<\/p>\n

A Zero Trust concept<\/a> is useful when studied as an architectural principle rather than one Cisco product.<\/p>\n

Splunk and Cisco XDR now have visible blueprint roles<\/h3>\n

SCOR v2.0 expects candidates to understand security analytics and response across telemetry, SIEM\/SOAR and XDR. Splunk can ingest and analyze data, while Cisco XDR provides cross-domain correlation, prioritization, investigation and coordinated response across integrated controls.<\/p>\n

The current Cisco training path includes dedicated modules on Splunk\/security analytics, SOC automation\/SOAR and XDR, reinforcing that visibility and response are core security-engineering skills.<\/p>\n

SCOR v2.0 is a current security-platform exam, not an old firewall test<\/h3>\n

The SCOR certification context<\/a> remains important, but final preparation must match v2.0. The blueprint now spans modern threat\/AI concepts, network security, cloud workloads, SSE\/SASE, endpoint\/email defense, identity-driven access and SOC visibility.<\/p>\n

The v2.0 transition is more than a naming refresh. Cisco U. explicitly marked the new exam launch for August 27, 2026 and published updated training in September 2026. The live blueprint reorganizes modern security around cloud-delivered access, AI-aware threat concepts, newer cryptographic protocols, endpoint trust and integrated analytics. Any final study plan should therefore treat v1.1 materials as partial background rather than the current authority.<\/p>\n

Security Concepts begins with attacker behavior across on-premises, hybrid and cloud environments because modern incidents rarely stay inside one perimeter. Phishing can lead to credential theft, those credentials can access SaaS or cloud APIs, malware can run on endpoints and lateral movement can reach internal networks. The domain wants candidates to see these paths as connected rather than separate threat lists.<\/p>\n

Vulnerability prioritization now explicitly references CVE and CVSS. A CVE identifies a published vulnerability, while CVSS provides technical severity scoring. Professional prioritization still depends on asset exposure, exploitability and business context. SCOR v2.0 therefore links vulnerability taxonomy with practical control decisions rather than requiring candidates to memorize arbitrary CVE numbers.<\/p>\n

AI\/LLM vulnerability content is one of the clearest v2.0 additions. Prompt injection can manipulate model behavior through untrusted input, system-prompt leakage can expose hidden instructions, vector\/embedding systems can create new data or retrieval weaknesses, and AI supply chains can introduce dependency risk. The blueprint expects conceptual recognition and defensive thinking, not model-red-team exploit development.<\/p>\n

Cryptography has also been modernized. In addition to hashing, symmetric\/asymmetric encryption, PKI and IPsec, the outline names SSL\/TLS, QUIC, MASQUE and post-quantum cryptography. Candidates should understand what security property or trust mechanism each concept supports, and why protocols evolve as performance and cryptographic threats change.<\/p>\n

VPN deployment types extend beyond one IPsec tunnel. The blueprint names virtual tunnel interfaces, standards-based IPsec, SSL VPN, DMVPN, FlexVPN and GETVPN. The goal is to recognize where site-to-site, remote-access, scalable hub-and-spoke or group-encryption designs fit rather than reproduce detailed configurations for every technology.<\/p>\n

Security intelligence authoring, sharing and consumption links threat research with controls. Indicators, detection content or intelligence feeds are useful when they can be trusted, normalized and applied to decisions. Poor-quality intelligence can create noise or block legitimate activity, so provenance and operational context matter.<\/p>\n

Zero Trust and Cisco SAFE now sit directly in the conceptual domain. Zero Trust emphasizes continuously evaluated access rather than network-location trust, while SAFE is a Cisco architectural approach for placing controls across business and technology domains. These concepts explain why identity, device posture, segmentation and telemetry appear throughout the rest of the exam.<\/p>\n

The Python\/API objective is intentionally interpretive. Candidates should be able to read basic scripts that call security-appliance APIs and understand request\/response logic, authentication context and automation purpose. SCOR is not a Python-programming certification, but modern security engineers are expected to recognize how APIs automate configuration or operations.<\/p>\n

Network Security v2.0 emphasizes Layer 2 because local network trust can undermine higher-layer controls. DHCP snooping can establish trusted DHCP information, DAI can use that information to validate ARP, port security and storm control can limit local abuse, and segmentation through VLANs or security group tags reduces unnecessary reachability.<\/p>\n

The management-objective wording is also more explicit. Candidates should compare single-device versus multi-device management, in-band versus out-of-band approaches and on-premises versus cloud management such as Cisco Security Cloud Control. Centralized management improves consistency, but it becomes a privileged control plane that requires its own hardening and availability.<\/p>\n

CIS benchmarks appear as a hardening reference for devices such as Cisco Secure Firewall and IOS XE. At exam depth, the important idea is reducing unnecessary services, using secure protocols, protecting credentials and management interfaces, keeping software current and comparing configuration against recognized secure baselines.<\/p>\n

Secure Firewall is operational rather than purely descriptive. Candidates should be able to implement access-control policy with application visibility\/control, URL filtering, malware\/file policy and intrusion prevention. They should also configure VPN and troubleshoot tunnel establishment. This practical content justifies spending lab time on FTD rather than only reading architecture diagrams.<\/p>\n

Cloud Security’s Splunk objective is notable because the exam now expects candidates to understand how cloud security logs reach a central analytics platform. The focus is the data path\u2014collect, ingest, search, correlate\u2014rather than deep Splunk administration. Cloud controls become more useful when their telemetry contributes to centralized detection and investigation.<\/p>\n

eBPF appears as an application\/workload-security concept because modern cloud-native security increasingly observes kernel-level behavior with lower overhead and rich context. Candidates do not need to write eBPF programs, but should understand why this technology can provide workload\/process\/network visibility in Linux and container environments.<\/p>\n

DevSecOps content bridges security and software delivery. Infrastructure as Code introduces configuration at scale, CI\/CD creates automated delivery paths, container orchestration changes workload lifecycle, and secure software development moves controls earlier. The security engineer should know where policy, scanning, secrets and validation fit before production.<\/p>\n

Secure Service Edge’s DLP and AI guardrails show that modern web\/internet access policy is not only URL filtering. Organizations may need to detect sensitive-data movement and control how users interact with generative-AI services. Cisco Secure Access places these controls in a cloud-delivered access architecture.<\/p>\n

Endpoint posture and device management belong with EPP\/EDR because detection quality depends on knowing which devices exist and whether they meet security requirements. An unmanaged or unpatched device can be risky even before malware is detected. Posture information can also feed access decisions.<\/p>\n

Email Threat Defense appears because phishing and business-email compromise remain major identity-entry paths. Security teams need message visibility, analysis and remediation integrated with broader identity and endpoint signals. The exam’s inclusion of email security reflects how user-focused attacks cross product boundaries.<\/p>\n

The exfiltration objective in Domain 6 spans DNS tunneling, HTTPS, email, file-transfer protocols, messaging, NTP and cloud storage. The point is that legitimate protocols and services can carry unauthorized data. Detection therefore depends on context, baselines, identity and telemetry\u2014not simply blocking every protocol.<\/p>\n

Cisco’s current training adds Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Cloud, Splunk Enterprise Security and SOAR context alongside Cisco XDR. Candidates should know the conceptual roles: analytics\/search, SIEM, orchestration\/automation and cross-domain XDR correlation. Overlap exists, but each solves a different layer of SOC operations.<\/p>\n

Finally, recertification and program context matter. Passing SCOR earns the Security Core specialist credential, satisfies the CCNP Security core requirement when paired with a concentration exam and also meets the qualifying core requirement for CCIE Security. The certification itself is valid for three years under Cisco’s current program.<\/p>\n

Within the broader Cisco certification<\/a> path, the strongest candidate can explain how these technologies cooperate in one architecture and can configure or troubleshoot the specific technologies Cisco marks as operational objectives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

350-701 SCOR changed materially in 2026. Cisco’s current live blueprint is Implementing and Operating Cisco Security Core Technologies v2.0, which launched on August 27, 2026. Candidates using older v1.0 or v1.1 material need to update their notes because Secure Service Edge is now its own domain, AI\/LLM security appears explicitly, and the modern course includes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1648,1647],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26578,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26577\/revisions\/26578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.examlabs.com\/certification\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}