Course Overview
AP Cybersecurity trains students in the field and aligns closely with standard first-year collegiate cybersecurity courses. Students explore defense-in-depth strategies and learn to address specific vulnerabilities, attacks, mitigations, and detection measures across a variety of domains, including physical spaces, computer networks, devices, applications, and data. Developed in partnership with college faculty and industry leaders, this yearlong course aligns with the NICE Workforce Framework.
Course and Exam Description
Course Resources
Course Content
The AP Cybersecurity course framework spirals three skill categories through the five units of the course. These three skills—Analyze Risk, Mitigate Risk, and Detect Attacks—are the themes that run throughout the course.
This course framework provides a clear and detailed description of the course requirements necessary for student success. The framework specifies what students must know, be able to do, and understand to qualify for college credit or placement.
The exam is weighted based on the skills students demonstrate as indicated in the table that follows.
| Skill Category | Exam Weighting |
|---|---|
| Skill Category 1: Analyze Risk | 25%–40% |
| Skill Category 2: Mitigate Risk | 25%–40% |
| Skill Category 3: Detect Attacks | 25%–40% |
Course Skills
The AP Cybersecurity course framework outlines course skills that are critical to a deep understanding and application of cybersecurity knowledge and practice. Students should develop and use these skills throughout the course.
| Skill Category 1 | Skill Category 2 | Skill Category 3 | Skill Category 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analyze Risk Evaluate risk to organizational assets. | Mitigate Risk Implement protective and deterrent security controls. | Detect Attacks Implement detection methods, monitor systems, and analyze evidence. | Collaborate Work with others and AI to accomplish a task. | |
| Communicating concepts Explain key cybersecurity concepts | 1.A Identify, with and without the support of AI, vulnerabilities, threats, and attack methods, and explain how they generate risk. | 2.A Identify security controls, and explain how they mitigate risks. | 3.A Identify methods for monitoring systems, and explain how they detect attacks. | 4.A Develop clear, shared team objectives related to a cybersecurity task. |
| Investigating problems Explore the parameters of a problem to plan for solutions | 1.B Determine ways adversaries exploit vulnerabilities to compromise an asset. | 2.B Determine layered security controls that address vulnerabilities. | 3.B Determine strategies and methods to detect attacks. | 4.B Determine clear roles and responsibilities for members of a team working to accomplish a cybersecurity task. |
| Assessing impacts Evaluate impact on systems | 1.C Evaluate, with and without the support of AI, the likelihood and impact of risks. | 2.C Evaluate, with and without the support of AI, the impact of protective risk-management strategies. | 3.C Evaluate the impact of threat detection methods. | 4.C Implement AI as a collaboration tool individually and as a group. |
| Enacting solutions Apply and communicate solutions | 1.D Document, with and without the support of AI, the likelihood and impact of risks. | 2.D Implement and log mitigations with and without the support of AI. | 3.D Detect and classify cyberattacks by analyzing digital evidence with and without the support of AI. | 4.D Complete assigned work to accomplish a collaborative cybersecurity task. |
AP and Higher Education
Higher education professionals play a key role in developing AP courses and exams, setting credit and placement policies, and scoring student work. The AP Higher Education section features information on recruitment and admission, advising and placement, and more.
This chart shows recommended scores for granting credit, and how much credit should be awarded, for each AP course. Colleges and universities are actively working with the AP Program to establish credit policies for AP Cybersecurity. The first set of credit policies will be released in spring 2026, with additional institutions added on a rolling basis.
AP Course and Exam Development
The AP Program is unique in its reliance on development committees for their initial and ongoing voice in course and exam development. These committees, made up of an equal number of college faculty and experienced secondary AP teachers from across the country, are essential to the preparation of AP course curricula and exams.