ThomasCantrell.com Tech Blog

As I mentioned, I am studying for the CISSP. It’s been an enjoyable journey thus far of security topics.

One thing I’m noticing in my study is that there are two ways to work through this certification. The first is self-study. One studies through a text. My book is approximately 1200 pages. The second way is a training class. These classes cost about $4,000-$5,000 and take a week of time. However, after the intense “boot camp” you will be ready to take the test and get your certificate.

I started off thinking that I would self-study all my way to the CISSP. After all, I’m about 250 pages through my first read of the 1200 pages. However, even if I study well, I am beginning to see the value of taking the training class as well. The idea is that I would study all the material myself and use the training class as review. If my employeer will pay, then this is a great idea. If my employeer doesn’t pay, then I fear training classes be too expensive.

Certainly $4,000-$5,000 is expensive, but when you are like me thinking of 3-6 months of study, perhaps the course is worth it. Again, the goal is to at the end of the day not just get the certification, but to have a better picture of the security landscape.

I decided I needed to professionally further myself and I grabbed a copy of All in One CISSP by Shon Harris. After going through one of the twelve sections of the CISSP exam, I am convinced that CISSP is harder than I thought. However, I think it will be a road well worth it.

I thought it would be easy. After all, I have been going to security conferences and interacting with network security protocols and cryptography for the past three years. While I am pretty young in the security community, I figured if I could whip out an implementation of AES in a few minutes, I would be okay for this certification.

Then the book came in the mail, in a large box. The study guide for the test is approximately 1200 pages. At this moment I was struck with humility. While I may know a bit, I also have a lot to learn.

In the coming weeks, I will try to reflect on what I learn. Sometimes, I will not be able to reflect in full, as I work under NDA for my employeer and our customers.