WGU MSISA - Start Date 1-1-16

EnderWiggin

I think it's worth noting here that the Cryptography course is no longer included in the coursework for new students. It has been replaced by Cyberwarfare courses.

markulous

After a short break and my term starting up in July, I requested my CEH voucher. Hoping to take it in the next couple weeks. Matt Walker's guide has been great.

EnderWiggin

Nice, good luck!

c5rookie

For those currently enrolled in the MSISA program, I want to say best of luck to you all! I finished up in 2014, and with the course changes it sounds like they still struggle with uCertify and TaskStream. I didn't touch uCertify and just read through other material like Shon Harris' CISSP guide, SkillSoft (if your company has access), and cybrary. I personally had more trouble getting tasks kicked back in TaskStream for non-IT courses. The capstone what I really enjoyed, taking a topic and building out a solution to a potential problem. Now I'm slowly working on the ultra expensive GSE. Maybe I'll slide in the OSCP as well since it's another acronym on my to-do certification list.

markulous

EnderWiggin wrote: »

Nice, good luck!

Thanks! I got it scheduled for next Saturday, the 13th. Hopefully I can get through Matt Walker's book by then. I'm fairly confident though with the practice tests I've seen. Seems like half the questions are common sense security questions.

markulous

Passed!

Not sure what my score was as it doesn't tell you, but a pass is a pass. Wasn't too crazy hard.

CEH is valid for 2 years right?

EnderWiggin

Nice, congratulations! Now time to roll all that studying into the CHFI, which is even easier. CEH is good for three years, I believe

markulous

Yep, I don't think it'll be too tough. I'm aiming for a month from now

EnderWiggin

Dang, that's a long time. All you need is a week with the study guide, and you'll be all set

markulous

Just a week that's it? And just using the study guide WGU gives ?

EnderWiggin

Yeah, just a week. You already studied for the CEH, so you have all that knowledge (which is actually probably enough to pass alone, really), and the WGU study guide covers pretty much everything specific to forensics that'll come up on the test

markulous

Passed CHFI. 89%. You were definitely right, Ender. Study guide is all that's needed after passing the CEH. There were a couple terms I wasn't sure of that wasn't covered but definitely more than good enough to pass.

EnderWiggin

Awesome, congratulations! Four more months on your term, plenty of time to finish up your degree!

markulous

I'll probably have at least 2 classes left for next term. 4 classes in 4 months is pretty ambitious unless my next job has a lot of downtime.

markulous

On a side note. For security jobs does it seem like the CHFI is worth putting on my resume? I usually limit it to about 6 certs. I can either expand it to 8 or take my VCP off. So I'd show Ceh, chfi, CCNA, CCNA security, security+, linux+

EnderWiggin

Well, you can create some downtime at your current job, and plow through a course real quick before they realize no work is getting done



The VCP is definitely more valuable overall. Any job that uses VMWare will love that one. The CHFI is more along the lines of a cert that you need to bring up yourself once you're in the interview.

What I do is try to keep the certs of a particular organization all in one line. Especially CompTIA, because their certs all have such short names, they all fit in one line. That way, I minimize the number of lines I have in the section, but it gets all of my certs out there

markulous

If I get an offer letter then I'll probably try to squeeze in some school at work.

True, maybe I should expand it a little. I have a table on my resume that has 6 cells that I list my certs, I may be able to squeeze more in there.

usman4673

Guys,
i have been interested in MA CSIA track as well. How many courses have OA? Is CEH easy? How much time do you recommend for atudying CEH and GCFI? Which course has been toughest so far?

TranceSoulBrother

Crypto, Ethical Hacking and Network Forensics are the ones with proctored exams. The rest are papers that you submit for grading, to include the capstone
CEH and CHFI are easy if you dedicate enough time for them, usually bout a month each for me, with the understanding that your experience plays a role in the matter.

PJ_Sneakers

Cryptography got removed and replaced with Cyberwarfare. I am in it, and the assignments are just destroying my morale. It's a new class, and I'm sure these are growing pains. The assignments are not really technically difficult, just so tedious and monotonous that I'm having a hard time concentrating on it. The actual course content is fairly interesting, but the essays do not tie the information together very well IMO.

I wrapped up my bachelors at WGU in under five months. I've been on this course for two.

markulous

CEH and CHFI weren't hard. If you have security experience/knowledge, I wouldn't dedicate more than a month to the CEH and maybe a week to the CHFI.

Hardest classes have been Cyberlaw and Disaster Recovery, but not because of the material or difficulty in writing the paper, it's the friggin graders. It's just really annoying what they expect.

PJ_Sneakers

markulous wrote: »

CEH and CHFI weren't hard. If you have security experience/knowledge, I wouldn't dedicate more than a month to the CEH and maybe a week to the CHFI.

Hardest classes have been Cyberlaw and Disaster Recovery, but not because of the material or difficulty in writing the paper, it's the friggin graders. It's just really annoying what they expect.

Great, I can't wait.......

usman4673

PJ_Sneakers wrote: »

Cryptography got removed and replaced with Cyberwarfare. I am in it, and the assignments are just destroying my morale. It's a new class, and I'm sure these are growing pains. The assignments are not really technically difficult, just so tedious and monotonous that I'm having a hard time concentrating on it. The actual course content is fairly interesting, but the essays do not tie the information together very well IMO.

I wrapped up my bachelors at WGU in under five months. I've been on this course for two.

@ PJ_Sneakers: What a bummer . Now you are scaring me. Cant imagine to be tucked on the 1st course for 2 months. Do you have your own progress thread? I dont mind writing but the way you all have been sharing your experiences, its the crapstream which is the biggest roadblock, not the writing itself.

usman4673

markulous wrote: »

CEH and CHFI weren't hard. If you have security experience/knowledge, I wouldn't dedicate more than a month to the CEH and maybe a week to the CHFI.

Hardest classes have been Cyberlaw and Disaster Recovery, but not because of the material or difficulty in writing the paper, it's the friggin graders. It's just really annoying what they expect.

Thanks for your feedback. I am more heavily into networking (routing/switching) and have been doing it for the last 8+ years now. Is CEH mostly about utilizing tools or theory/policies or a successor to something like CompTIA A+?

PJ_Sneakers

I should make a progress thread. I'll go start one and stop hijacking Mark's stuff lol!

Don't be scared. I'm just super busy. The writing is not very hard if you know the material. It is usually cut & dry, and graders go by the rubrics. I just have been working on school between 11pm and 1am, and make stupid fatigue-based mistakes.

When I'm able to dedicate awake hours I knock out like 5 or 6 pages at a time.

plopbangcrash

Disaster Recovery is a terribly put together class considering how long it has been around.

TranceSoulBrother

After graduating from the program and reading other people's opinion, I had a mind to apply to be a course designer or mentor with WGU as an adjunct/part time person but the university doesn't allow concurrent employment.
Considering how long the courses have been in effect, and how many students go through and how often they ask for feedback, it is frustrating that they take this long to improve their material

markulous

usman4673 wrote: »

Thanks for your feedback. I am more heavily into networking (routing/switching) and have been doing it for the last 8+ years now. Is CEH mostly about utilizing tools or theory/policies or a successor to something like CompTIA A+?

There's questions about nmap, so you will want to be at least somewhat familiar with it, but otherwise it's like a slightly upgraded Security+ IMO.

plopbangcrash wrote: »

Disaster Recovery is a terribly put together class considering how long it has been around.

Absolutely. It's so redundant and they want you to get way to detailed on some of it. If I'm putting together a powerpoint presentation for my director and C-level guys, I don't need to be so granular. They want hard hitting facts and numbers. If they don't know what a backup is or how to search Google, then they shouldn't be where they are at.

usman4673

@Markulous:

if you dont mind recommending a study path for prospective CSIA candidates like me, i am sure, many can benefit.

1) can you list all the 10 courses with easy to most difficult?
2) Besides the difficulty level, can you recommend the sequence to take them so one can go smoothly and make the most of one term?
3) i know, time required to spend on a course depends on ones experience, prior knowledge, and on how many quality hours one can dedicate per day or a week. Some ppl like working everyday utilizing whatever small sessions they can utilize, some like to wait and dedicate 1-2 long days of 6-8 hours and finish it once. But if we ignore experience/prior knowledge, how much time in hours do you say you invested or would recommend others per course?
4) since Cyberware has replaced crypto, it means students now have two OA, everything else is performance/writing.

I)Which course material do you suggest is the must-do for one to pass CEHv9? MAatt Walker ALL-in-one? Just a cd or a book or something else? Was CEH all MCQs or are there any drag and drops and lab simulations like Cisco exams?

II) and which material do you recommend for Forensic exam?

III) On the 8 writing courses, does one have to read all the study material recommended to complete the writing tasks of Capstream or can one copy the rubric to word and just target the specific sections and then fill the paras under rubric and submit for pass?

IV) I think one should try to complete at least 19 credit hours including CEH in the first term. This means 5 3-CU and one 4-CU CEHv9.What should be the first 3 courses to set the sail smoothly? Try to finish the first 3 in the first two months, then take one more 3-CU wroting and then start CEH in the beginning of 4th month. Use 4th & 5th for CEH and then the last 6th month for another 3-CU writing? Can you recommend these 5 writing courses in sequence? Which ones should be the first 3 and the subsequent 4th and 5th?

i think first term is the defining term. It is this term which will make or break ones dream of achieving MS. Thats why i want to plan it well.

I dont want to hi-jack your progress thread but felt many ppl are thinking the same and ppl like you can mentor.

markulous

1. I haven't completed them all, I still have a few more, so I can't really lay them out from easy to difficult. Especially considering I'm in the MSISA and not cybersecurity.

2. For me, I think I did it in a good order. Emerging Technologies, Risk Management, Cyberlaw, Cryptography, CEH, CHFI, Disaster Recovery, Vulnerability Assessment, Security Policies, Capstone.

3. I guess it would depend on the course. Some I completed less than 10 hours of study time, others I spent a solid 30-40.

4. I. Yes, Matt Walker's book is more than good enough. Follow along with that and the free tools it recommends and you'll pass.
II. Use the guide that comes with WGU. Study it for a week and you're set, assuming you've passed the CEH.
III. No. Half of the material is dry and isn't necessary. For example, in DR, they give you IBM whitepapers. I look for my own sources/material.
IV. See above for order.