Customer Reviews

CISSP for Dummies

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For you to understand my rather positive rating of this book, I feel that I must describe the context of my decision to read it. I'm a pretty experienced software developer (10+ years, network engineer (2 years), & solution architect (5 years), who recently accepted a position of Security Director for a large corporation. To educate myself for my new role I searched for good, well rounded books on the subject. I found CISSP books very attractive as they provide a structured 20,000 foot view of information security. I chose CISSP for dummies as my first book so I could get this high level view as quickly as possible.

The good:
The book satisfied my objective. It was indeed a quick read... at least as far as CISSP books go. The 320 or so pages with a big font & white-space allow one to read this book in a small fraction of the time it takes to read the official ISC guide or Shon Harris's book (though both of these provide a more complete & accurate education). The author does a good job hitting the subject at a high level with clear text. I especially like the way this book wraps up business continuity planning.

The bad:
Don't rely on this book to prepare yourself for the CISSP exam. After finishing this book I scored >80%, or high enough to make one think you could pass the test. After reading Shon's book (CISSP Certification All-In-One) I realized I really didn't know that much yet. I have since earned my CISSP & don't think the dummies book alone would have been enough for me.

Everyone knows that the CISSP exam is not for dummies, but don't let the title of this book put you off. It was great as a review/final cram before I took the exam. I think it would make an excellent first read, too. I studied using The CISSP Prep Guide and an online study group and then bought this book on the recommendation of someone in my study group. There is a chapter for each of the ten domains. There are no frills here, but the coverage is accurate, balanced, and matched pretty closely what I found on the exam. I particularly appreciated the study tools on the CD-ROM. The flash cards were pure genius. I was able to download them to my Palm, and I quizzed myself in the car all the way to the testing location. I definitely got my money's worth out of this book and highly recommend it to others sitting or considering sitting for the CISSP exam.

I just took the CISSP exam this week and wanted to come back and give my thoughts on this book. I was fairly disappointed in the lack of detail that this book provided, and wouldn't recommend it as your single study resource. In my opinion, this book lacks the amount of detail that the average person would need to get their CISSP certification. I used two resouces while studying for the exam. (this one and The CISSP Prep Guide) I thought the prep guide was better written and I also liked the advanced question and answer sections that that book has. If I was starting over again, I wouldn't use CISSP for Dummies as one of my study resources.

The first thing that impressed me about the book was the wealth of information in it. I was really impressed with the networking section. It was a very good and had a complete look at networking from the physical all the way up.

This book did a really good job of going through each of the domains and I feel it is one of the better books out there for prepping for the CISSP test.

I just recieved word last week I passed my CISSP exam, and I used this book among others to study for it. Let me give you a little background: I've been in IT for 10 years, starting as phone support, and moved on to desktop support, LAN administration, Exchange administrator, and eventually became my company's ISSO, then moved on to become an Information Assurance (Security) Engineer on one of our larger programs. Consequently, I had real world experience in many of the domains already.

Despite this, I think if I had only read this book, I would have failed the test. It is an excellent starter, since you can sit down and read it cover to cover in a day (plenty of white space, large font etc.) and you will get a good outline of the ten domains. But it just doesn't go into enough detail to keep you from getting tripped up on the test. A Section that is particularly lacking is cryptography. I don't think a single question on the test would have been answered from the knowlege I gained in that section.

The CD-Rom practice test is also too easy. I finished the book, took the 260 question test immediately afterwards, and scored ~95%. I then went online to the cccure.org website quizzer (which I highly recommend) and scored a 65% on their test!

Bottom line, if some one else has it, borrow it for your first read, it won't hurt and is a good way to get started, just don't stop there!

A book I highly reccomend is the CISSP prep guide by Krutz

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047126802X/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_6/103-8873493-6496642?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

The advanced questions at the end of each chapter are excellent. Remember, (ISC)2 jealously guards the actual test questions, and changes them all the time, so brain dumps are a waste in my humble opinion, but this book closely matches the conceptual depth and breadth you need to be confident of passing the exam.

This book is jam packed with valuable exam-specific material. I think this book is great for a first review of the material as well as a last minute cram before the exam. I bought the Prep Guide too, but, so far, I've found the information here extremely compact, accurate, and digestible. By the way, the CD is a God-send-- in addition to the test engine, the authors included a very practical set of flash cards with at least 300 sample test questions and answers (supplied on separate cards) that you can print or even download to your PDA. This is just genius and alone worth the price of the book.

I sat for and passed the CISSP test in January 2006. I used the following resources to help in passing the CISSP:

Shon Harris - All-in-One - 3rd Edition - 30%
Official ISC Guide to the CISSP Exam - 15%
Kurtz - CISSP Prep Guide - Gold Edition - 10%
CISSP for Dummies - 5%
Cccure.org - 25%
Other resources - 15%

"CISSP for Dummies" by Miller is a decent tool at preparing for the exam. I had thought this book would be a great cram book (if possible for the CISSP), where the `core' topics would be documented. After referencing the book, I do not feel this to be true and stopped referring to the book after the first few chapters. I did not find any typos or editorial mistakes, so while I do not think the book is necessarily wrong, I just do not feel it is nearly enough to pass the CISSP. Everything found in "CISSP for Dummies" can be found in other books/material. Please see my other reviews to see how I rated other books that I used to help pass the CISSP.

I give this book 3 pings out of 5:
!!..!

CISSP -- Certified Information Systems Security Professional

After reading this book you can't be considered a Dummy any more. Nor, however, do I think you'll be ready to call yourself a Professional.

The real strength of this book is that is is so simple, so well written, so complete in its subject coverage that giving it a quick read will give you the overall view of where you want to be when you are ready to call yourself a Professional. This book is also quite inexpensive when compared with some of the other exam preparation guides, and especially when compared to some of the classes offered either in person or on CD.

The book is organized about like you would expect with a separate chapter on each of the ten domains that are covered on the exam. There are a number of other useful security certifications such as those put out by Check Point, Cisco and others. He covers each of these to the point of at least letting you know what they are, i.e. the Check Point certifications cover the use of the Check Point Firewall products. The book is supplied with a CD that includes additional sample testing and other materials.

Recommendation: Read this book first for an overall view, then study one of the harder books.

This is a very good high level overview to the CISSP material. Although it does not go into much depth on any particular topic, it does provide the broad road map of what to expect. This should not be your only CISSP resource but it can be a valuable addition to your study materials.

What I have found most effective is to read about one of the 10 domains in this book followed by Shon Harris's "All in One CISSP Exam Guide" and then the "Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP Exam". Starting with this book and understanding the material at a high level helps to focus in the other books on where to skim or read more closely. Using all three books is essential because some topics are only covered in one book or another.

An added bonus of using three sources is they all have practice questions at the end of chapter and on the CD-ROM for over 2,000 total combined practice questions.

I just got the email, I passed! CISSP for Dummies is concise, easy to read, and tells you *exactly* what to study and concentrate on for the Exam.
I also read the Wiley book, boring and full of gramatical errors, some of them were really confusing.
Along with the Flash Cards and Boson tests, the Dummies book is worth every penny! I could not have passed without it.
I would recommend the Wiley test exam questions (separate book), they helped a great deal too.