Study materials for CISSP.

atomiser · 20 Jun 2008 at 18:19

Hi there,

I'm aware that I may need to purchase additional materials on a domain by domain basis, but to get me started I would like to get some suggestions for good overall CISSP training materials. As a starter for ten I'm looking at the following books:

Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK (Isc2 Press) (Isc2 Press) by Harold Tipton and Kevin Henry (Hardcover - 14 Nov 2006)

CISSP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, 4th Ed. (All-in-One) by Shon Harris (Hardcover - 1 Dec 2007)

I would be grateful for any additional recommendations people can make.

Many thanks.

ricky1981 · 20 Jun 2008 at 18:30

I used just those 2 and passed first time. The Shon Harris book is much much more readable so I only used the official one for areas I didn't grasp completely. It's also worth checking out www.cccure.org as there are lots of user contributed practice questions on there.

If you have the necessary experience then you shouldn't really need any materials other than those but if you are struggling with any areas then drop a post in here and I'll be glad to help

atomiser · 20 Jun 2008 at 20:15

nice one, thanks for your reply! work are providing funding for the material so i figured i may as well have both - i noticed the shon harris book had slightly more favourable reviews but also figured it made sense to buy a book written by the people who devised the cert! thanks for your offer of help too, much appreciated!

ricky1981 · 20 Jun 2008 at 20:23

no worries

I really really would not recommend reading the official one from cover to cover as you'll wonder how they made IT security quite so dull!

The only part I remember Shon Harris being a bit weak on was the TCP/IP model as opposed to the OSI model but I have an older version so that might have improved.

Good luck with the studying!

atomiser · 20 Jun 2008 at 20:26

yeah i recall other reviews of the official one saying it was a bit on the dull side, and that shon harris made it a bit more entertaining!

i'm a techie through and through so tcp/ip isn't a problem for me, currently working as a firewall administrator so i would hope i know my stuff (!), i'm mainly looking at the cissp as a means of broadening my outlook.

i dont currently meet the minimum work experience levels to actually call myself a cissp, but i still think its a good idea to get into the swing of things.

can i ask, how do you go about keeping your credits up?

ricky1981 · 20 Jun 2008 at 20:29

I think they tightened up the requirements but you can offset a couple of years by having a degree and if you do decide you are in a rush then you can do Security+ which will be a cakewalk after the CISSP.

I did an MCSE course so that ran up about 80 credits, got more for self studying for my CISA (now that really is a dull area) and reading a few books on IT governance. It's actually fairly easy to get points, it's just a case of making sure to keep a record in case they ask you to prove them.

atomiser · 20 Jun 2008 at 21:55

yeah i think they have increased it from four to five years experience in at least two of the domains? i've only just gone past two years so i've a long way to go - but even being an associate would be a good step forward for me! i'll probably try and get the security+ along the way.