You can see it againUnder pressure people bring back shapes and positions long after the wording has gone.
Picture superiority · Shepard 1967, Standing 1973
GIAC (SANS)GIAC Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional
The GIAC Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP) certification validates your ability to secure industrial control systems across IT and OT environments. It bridges expertise in IT, engineering, and cybersecurity, preparing you to protect critical infrastructure throughout the ICS lifecycle. This vendor-neutral, practitioner-focused credential is ideal for professionals who engineer or support control systems and share responsibility for their security.
Exam formatMultiple choice, proctored exam
Duration180 minutes
DeliveryGIAC
Passing score71%
Free questions448
Content last reviewed 30 July 2026 · Up to date
The certification
What GIAC Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional proves, and what it asks of you
What this certification covers, who it is written for, and what the exam itself looks like on the day.
3domains
10objectives
70concepts
What it is
What this certification is
What it validates, who it is written for, and the experience it assumes.
About this certification
The GIAC Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional (GICSP) certification validates a practitioner's capability to achieve security throughout the industrial control systems lifecycle, bridging expertise in IT, engineering, and cyber security. It is a vendor-neutral, practitioner-focused certification designed for professionals who engineer or support control systems and share responsibility for the security of these environments.
GICSP holders are a diverse set of professionals, including ICS IT practitioners, security analysts, security engineers, and industry managers. The certification covers industrial control system components, attack surfaces, defense architectures, incident response, and governance models, ensuring certified professionals can deliver interdisciplinary assurance across IT and OT environments.
Who it’s for
The GICSP certification is designed for professionals who engineer or support control systems and share responsibility for the security of industrial environments. This includes ICS IT practitioners (including operational technology support), ICS security analysts (including operational technology security), security engineers, industry managers, and vendors. If you work at the intersection of IT and OT, securing industrial control systems, this certification validates your ability to protect critical infrastructure throughout the ICS lifecycle.
Recommended experience
Practical work experience in industrial control systems or related security roles is recommended to ensure mastery of the skills necessary for certification. Hands-on experience with ICS/SCADA environments; Understanding of IT and OT convergence; Familiarity with control system components and architectures; Experience with security principles applied to industrial environments
The syllabus
What you’ll learn
Every domain and objective GIAC (SANS) measures, with the weight they carry on the exam.
The official GIAC (SANS) exam outline · checked 30 July 2026 · See the source
ICS Fundamentals and Architecture
- ICS Components & Architecture
- ICS Overview & Concepts
- PERA Level 0 & 1 Technology Overview and Compromise
- PERA Level 2 & 3 Technology Overview and Compromise
Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Compromises
- Intelligence Gathering & Threat Modeling
- Protocols, Communications, & Compromises
- Wireless Technologies & Compromises
Security Management and Response
- Hardening & Protecting Endpoints
- ICS Program & Policy Development
- Risk Based Disaster Recovery & Incident Response
On the day
The exam itself
Everything GIAC (SANS) publishes about sitting it, and nothing we inferred.
Prerequisites
No mandatory prerequisites — this certification has no required predecessor exam or credential.
CertificationGIAC Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional
Exam formatMultiple choice, proctored exam
Duration180 minutes
Questions82 questions
Passing score71%
DeliveryGIAC
LanguagesEnglish
Certification levelProfessional
After you pass
Where this credential goes next
The path GIAC (SANS) lays out, how the credential is kept, and where to book.
Step-by-step path to GIAC Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional
Credential earnedGIAC Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional Professional level certification Renewal and maintenance
GIAC certifications must be renewed every four years by earning 36 CPE credits or retaking the exam. Stay current with the latest technologies and maintain your certification.
Learn more about renewal requirements Lifecycle status
This certification is currently active and available. GIAC (SANS) maintains this certification to validate current skills and industry relevance.
Exam status: ActiveMaintained by GIAC (SANS)
Exam registration
Register for the exam through GIAC, GIAC (SANS)’s authorized testing partner.
Schedule your examVisit the official GIAC (SANS) certification page for exam policies and requirements.
View the official pageYour coach
And when you are serious, your coach Pip takes over
Your coach in the app reads what you have answered with the book closed and tells you one thing to do tonight. It will not count an answer you gave with the page open, and it will tell you when you are not ready.
See how the coach worksBefore you book
Questions people ask
How does the GICSP exam relate to the GIAC Security Professional (GSP) or GIAC Security Expert (GSE) portfolio certifications?
GICSP is a Practitioner certification that can be counted toward the GIAC Security Professional (GSP) portfolio, which requires any three Practitioner certifications and any two Applied Knowledge certifications. It can also contribute to the GIAC Security Expert (GSE) portfolio, which requires any six Practitioner certifications and any four Applied Knowledge certifications.
Is the GICSP exam hands-on or lab-based?
The GICSP exam is a proctored, multiple-choice exam. It does not include a hands-on lab component. However, GIAC offers CyberLive exams for other certifications that use virtual machines and real security tools.
What is the retake policy if I fail the GICSP exam?
GIAC does not publicly specify a retake policy for the GICSP exam. For details on retake policies, refer to your GIAC account or contact GIAC support.
How soon will I receive my GICSP exam results?
GIAC does not publicly specify the exact timing for score reporting. You can check your GIAC account for score availability after your exam attempt.
What job roles does the GICSP certification map to?
The GICSP certification is designed for ICS IT practitioners, ICS security analysts, security engineers, industry managers, and vendors who engineer or support control systems and share responsibility for the security of these environments.
Can I recertify GICSP by passing a different GIAC exam?
GIAC certifications can be renewed by retaking the same exam or by earning 36 CPE credits over four years. Passing a different GIAC exam does not automatically renew GICSP unless it is part of a portfolio certification that co-terminates, such as GSP or GSE.
Are there regional differences in GICSP exam delivery?
GIAC offers two proctoring options: remote proctoring through ProctorU and onsite proctoring through PearsonVUE. Availability may vary by region, and you should check your GIAC account for specific delivery options in your area.
Information freshness · Content last reviewed on 2026-07-30 Up to date
Practice free questions 448 questions, free, no account needed.
The curriculum
The whole exam, mapped and written
Every domain, every objective, and every concept GIAC (SANS) measures — each one written out.
3domains
10objectives
70concepts
94free pages
The domains, and what sits inside them
Every objective below is a page you can open and practise now, without an account.
The official GIAC (SANS) exam outline · checked 30 July 2026 · See the source
1ICS Fundamentals and Architecture177 questions
2Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Compromises122 questions
Not a table of contents
Every line on this map already opens
In front of every objective the practice pages are already there, free and without an account. This is one objective, opened.
ICS Components & Architecture11 pagesOpen →
Free in front of it
53 questions on this objective, five to a page. Every range above is a real page, open now, with no account.
Reading the map is not the same as knowing the ground
The curriculum tells you what is on the exam. Proving you know it is a different job — and it is the one the closed-book run does.
Free questions
448 questions. No account, no card.
The whole bank is open. 5 questions to a page, every answer explained, and a discussion thread on each one.
448questions
94pages
10objectives
Freealways
Browse by domain
Every objective, and every page range, is a link — so you can pick up exactly where you left off.
1ICS Fundamentals and Architecture177 questions
2Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Compromises122 questions
3Security Management and Response149 questions
What a practice page gives you
1Five to a page
Short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
2Every answer explained
Not only which one is right — why the others are wrong.
3A discussion on each
Ask, answer, and vote. Every question has its own thread.
A question, and the idea behind it
Every question comes from a concept
These are not trivia. Each one is written against a concept in the book, so when you get one wrong there is somewhere to go and find out why.
The visual book
See it once. Carry it into the exam.
The pages shown here come from our AI-900 book — an example of how each concept is written in plain language and, where the idea needs one, drawn as a full page you can take in at a glance.
70concepts
448free questions
Why a picture, and not another paragraph
Three reasons, and each one is a real finding rather than a slogan.
You can see it againThe whole idea at onceWhere it starts, what happens in the middle, what comes out, and the mistake to avoid.
Multimedia principle · MayerThe look-alikes sit togetherThe pairs the exam tests are drawn side by side, so the difference is seen, not told.
Dual coding · PaivioWhat one page is made of
You are never asked to read a poster here — only to see how one is built. After that, every other page is legible at a glance.
1A numbered strip on top
The idea as a sequence, followed with a finger before a word is read.
2Panels for the parts
What it is, how the machine learns it, when it is the right tool.
3The trap, framed
The distinction the exam tests, given its own box instead of buried in prose.
4One line at the bottom
The sentence to carry into the exam room.
Open book, on purpose
Answer it with the picture beside you
This is the part that teaches. The illustration and the written explanation stay where they are while you work, so a scenario stops being a memory test and becomes something you can simply look at.
It teaches · it does not count
A smartphone uses AI to unlock when the owner looks at the camera. Which AI capability is being used?
AImage classification
BFacial recognition
COptical character recognition
DObject detection
Look at the five steps. Detect finds a face, align straightens it, encode turns it into numbers, search compares it with a stored face, and decide answers one question: is this the same person? Classification would only say “a face”. Detection would only draw a box. Neither decides whose.
Then the page shuts, and it starts counting
The same questions come back with the book closed — that run is the one that counts. After it, your coach picks one thing for tonight, sized to the time you have, and brings pages back before you lose them.
Testing effect · Roediger & Karpicke 2006 · spacing effect · Cepeda et al. 2006
Official resources
Straight from GIAC (SANS)
Where the exam is defined, scheduled and scored.
1official link
70concepts mapped
The source
GIAC (SANS)’s own pages
We link to them rather than repeat them, so nothing here goes stale behind them.
Checked against the source
Every objective on the official GIAC (SANS) outline already has questions here
We build from the official skills outline, not from a summary of it — 10 objectives, 70 concepts written under them, and free questions against every one. When GIAC (SANS) changes the outline, this page changes with it.
10objectives on the outline→70concepts written→448free questions
An official page tells you what will be asked. It cannot tell you what you will get right.
That is the only question worth answering the night before, and no link answers it. You answer it by taking the questions with the book closed, and seeing what comes back.