Passed 642-501 SECUR

Well,

I just got back from the Test Center. I passed the CCSP 642-501 SECUR with 933 out of a possible 1000. I have to say this test was the easiest certification test I have ever taken. It was no comparison to the CCNA exam.

If someone is thinking about taking it please do so because its an easy way to renew your CCNA or a step towards the CCSP certification.

There were 57 Questions on the test. 2 Sims, 2 Drag and Drop, and 53 questions mostly choose two or three answers.

The only thing I really used to study was the CCSP Self Study - CCSP SECUR Exam Certification Guide from Cisco Press by Greg Bastien and Christian Abera Degu. I read it took the practice test from the book and answered all the written questions in the book (helped a lot).

Anyway this test and 3 more on the CCSP are going to be retired. last day to register is December 19th. I guess I am not going to put anything on here that was on the test since they are going to be retired (unless someone requests it.

A big THANK YOU to Techexams.net in particular Johan who has answered all my questions concerning the CCSP and for starting the InfoSecurity section

I will take the rest of the year of and start studying in the beginning of the new year.

Later,

Mike

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Webmaster

Congratulations Mike!

Have you decided yet on which ones you will take to complete CCSP?

determinedgerman

Thanks Johan,

I think here is what I am going to do starting in January. I already have the books for the SND and the CSVPN exams. So I am going to start reading the book for the SND and get some whitepapers together that I can study from.

Here is the sequence I want to take the exams in:

642-551 SND Securing Cisco Network Devices
642-511 CSVPN Cisco Secure Virtual Private Networks
642-522 SNPA Securing Networks with PIX and ASA
642-532 IPS Implementing Cisco Intrusion Prevention System

Webmaster

I have to say this test was the easiest certification test I have ever taken.

In that case I think you will find the SND exam to be not much harder, as there is a fair amount of overlap with SECUR. With your path you'll get a new cert for every exam after the SND exam. I think that's (the qualified specialist certs) a really great benifit of the CCSP cert, especially for those who are starting out in the security arena.

Are you planning on setting up a lab/rent a rack for the other exams?

determinedgerman

Johan,

I looked into those Specialist certifications and they are really interesting. I think you can get a total of 4 cert when you are done with the CCSP. I am not 100% sure on that though.

I am not going to set up a rack at my house because at my work we have a 10 million dollar lab set up in our building that is free for me to use. It has everything you can think of from Cisco, Nortel, Adtran and Extreme Networks. So buying my own rack would be a waste of money really since I can set it up and just VPN in from my house.

I think I am going for the SND next but I am not sure about that yet. But if you say that there is a lot of overlap then this is probably the one that I am going for. What do you think?

Webmaster

germangiant wrote:

I looked into those Specialist certifications and they are really interesting. I think you can get a total of 4 cert when you are done with the CCSP. I am not 100% sure on that though..

That's right, 4 including CCSP itself:

SND/SECUR + CSPFA/SNPA = Cisco Firewall Specialist
SND/SECUR + IPS/CSIDS = Cisco IPS Specialist/Cisco IDS Specialist
SND/SECUR + CSVPN = Cisco VPN Specialist

Those who take the HIPS exam instead of the CSVPN exam obviously don't get the VPN Specialist.

5 if you count the letter of recognition from Cisco that states you met the requirements (SND exam not necessary) for the NSA and CNSS INFOSEC certification:
www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/whats_new/infosec.html

I am not going to set up a rack at my house because at my work we have a 10 million dollar lab set up in our building that is free for me to use. It has everything you can think of from Cisco, Nortel, Adtran and Extreme Networks. So buying my own rack would be a waste of money really since I can set it up and just VPN in from my house.

Cool.

I think I am going for the SND next but I am not sure about that yet. But if you say that there is a lot of overlap then this is probably the one that I am going for. What do you think?

As you can see above, the SECUR or the SND exam is required for the qualified specialist certs, while the CCSP page at Cisco implies the SNRS is the replacement of SECUR. Since SECUR is going to retire, SND will be the foundation exam required for the specialist certs. Having said that, I don't understand why it is at the bottom of the list at www.cisco.com/go/ccsp page as it makes no sense taking it last. The SND covers the basics of network threats, mitigation techniques, cisco security portfolio, basics of VPNs on VPN 3000 concentrator, basics of firewall, basics of HIPS/IPS, router security, and IPsec. This is also the reason I decided to write TechNotes and practice questions for the SND first. But if you do go for the firewall, VPN, and IPS exams first, the SND should be a piece of cake after that.

determinedgerman

From what I am reading the it looks like that the SECUR exam has a lot in common with the SND as you stated earlier. I think I am going to brush up on the differences in the exam and then go ahead and take that one in the beginning of the new year.

clarv02

WIth this exam (642-501) being retired, I'll be taking the 642-502 in April. Does anyone have any feedback on this (the newer one) exam? I'm looking into taking a course from Global Knowledge prior to taking the exam.

Thanks!