The GSEC Prep Guide: Mastering SANS GIAC Security Essentials [Paperback]

Mike Chapple (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0764539329 | ISBN-13: 978-0764539329

* SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) has trained and certified more than 156,000 security professionals.
* This book is the cost-friendly alternative to the $450 SANS materials and $1200 SANS courses, providing more and better information for $60.
* SANS is widely known and well-respected, with sponsors, educators and advisors from prestigious government agencies (FBI), corporations, and universities (Carnegie Mellon) around the world.
* A companion CD contains the Boson test engine packed with review questions.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Your in-depth study guide for the SANS GIAC Security Essentials exam

Congratulations! Your decision to pursue the GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC) is the first step toward increased marketability and success in your career, and this book offers an economical source of vital information to help you prepare. You will gain a thorough understanding of security concepts and policies, ways to assess and manage risk, appropriate incident response, and much more. You’ll study at your own pace and then test your comprehension with the hundreds of review questions on the accompanying CD-ROM. It’s like having an instructor at your side 24 hours a day.

You’ll learn how to:

• Understand the CIA triad, the DAD triad, and the evolution of the security industry
• Examine the pros and cons of various authentication systems
• Assess threats and vulnerabilities and recognize levels of risk
• Respond to the unique security issues of both Windows® and Unix® systems
• Recognize common hacker tools and be able to take protective action
• Identify appropriate security devices to protect against various risks
• Choose the most effective security policy for your organization
• Implement cryptography and other protective devices
• Comprehend how information warfare affects security measures

The CD-ROM contains a Boson-powered Wiley test engine, featuring hundreds of randomly selected test questions to help you review and benchmark your progress.

About the Author

Mike Chapple, CISSP, GCFW, MCSE, is a computer/network security expert with more than seven years of experience in the public and private sectors. He has served as an information security researcher with the National Security Agency, developing cutting-edge network intrusion detection systems and as a computer security officer with the U.S. Air Force. He now oversees enterprise-wide security initiatives as Chief Information Officer for the Brand Institute, a Miami-based marketing consultancy.

Mike holds a M.S. degree in computer science with a concentration in trusted and secure information systems from the University of  Idaho and a B.S. degree in computer science from the University of Notre Dame. His professional credentials include the CISSP, GCFW, TICSA, CCSA, MCSE, MCDBA, and CCNA certifications. His other books include the CISSP Study Guide (Sybex), the TICSA Training Guide (Que Certification), and the Designing Directory Services Lab Manual (Course Technology).

Product Details

• Paperback: 474 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (June 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764539329
• ISBN-13: 978-0764539329
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,389,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, but not enough to attempt the exams, August 8, 2003

By 

Stephen Northcutt (Kauai, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The GSEC Prep Guide: Mastering SANS GIAC Security Essentials (Paperback)

The Wiley book is well laid out and the writing is crisp and clear. Mike has a gift to explain a topic well in the minimum number of words and I hope he continues to write on information technology topics and I look forward to his future books.

I had to give the book a low score, two stars, because it fails to meet its purpose. It purports to be a preparation guide for the GIAC GSEC exam series. I wanted to evaluate the book to be sure the content can prepare students for the exam and in my opinion, it is not adequate for that task.

Since the book is useful at an outline level for reviewing the material, I will focus this review on the areas where I believe it falls drastically short in preparing you for the exams. MS Windows Security accounts for 1/7 of the GSEC exam. Sadly, the coverage in the book is apparently based on a very old version of the course. The best advice I can give you is read the course description for day 5 on the web and buy a good, up to date Windows 2000/XP book or two.

There is no coverage in the Prep Guide of the cookbook (hands on) material which is testable as of July 2003 students and beyond. There are hands on questions for every tool that is covered by the cookbook in the exam bank.

The wireless section, appendix B, is testable. I did not see coverage of wireless in the book.

The author speaks authoritatively from time to time about the nature or content of the exam. It is may be dangerous to do this. The exam is dynamically generated. Questions are pulled from subject buckets from an enormous bank of questions. No two exams are ever alike.

Finally, it is important to remember that the GSEC day books are over 2,000 pages and the Hands On cookbook is several hundred pages as well. It is impossible to fully cover that much material in 480 pages, even with a gifted author.

Stephen Northcutt - Director GIAC

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No real bang for your buck, November 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The GSEC Prep Guide: Mastering SANS GIAC Security Essentials (Paperback)

I spent a few hours looking through this book at a local bookstore only to come away quite disappointed.
The information contained in this book won't come close to replacing the SANS GIAC course material, nor is it a text I would recommend as a supplement to anyone's study efforts.
The information contained in the book is not only in the GIAC course, but can also be obtained freely on the internet with little effort.
The GIAC certifications focus heavily on hands-on exposure and experience and this is reflected in the testing. This book doesn't take the student to the level of understanding needed to attempt the exams for the GSEC certification.
One must also consider the fact that the GSEC certification is not a stagnant course, the course is always being reviewed and updated to keep it relevant, and if you buy the full online course the GIAC materials are made available to students when updated during their certification period.
It really is unfortunate that this book doesn't deliver what it implies. It brings back memories of the plethora of low value MCSE texts that hit the market when that certification was believed to be the hot ticket to a job. They scraped the surface, but didn't really prepare you to sit in front of a machine and do the job.
If you only want to challenge the certification spend the money on the GIAC texts, not only are they directly applicable to the material tested, they are an excellent future reference.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More like a Pre Study Guide, February 9, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The GSEC Prep Guide: Mastering SANS GIAC Security Essentials (Paperback)

This is a good book to use if you have never had any experience with security. It's kind of like a GSEC for Dummies. Read this book, and then take the SANS course, and use their materials to prepare for the exam. The SANS course is such an amazing program that really teaches you everything you need to know to not only create the company security policy, but how to set everything up and manage it. Logical and Hands on.