security certification path

samiko

Hi guys

I have always been interested in network security, I am doing network support at the meoment and I would like to fire my way towards a security network engineer. I will be doing my CCNA in few weeks time and I wanted to know what is the path I need to take to become a security engineer?

I know its a silly questions but I wanted to hear the answer from professional people like you all.

Many thanks.

Webmaster

Not a silly question at all, but one that has become more common over the past couple of years. Since you are going for the CCNA, you may want to consider continuing with the CCSP (www.cisco.com/go/ccsp) which also results in several Cisco qualified specialist certs (firewall specialist, vpn specialist,etc). You may want to pick up Security+ first, to get the basics down. If you are more interested in penetration testing and security audits, you may want to look at the CEH certification. If you have one or more years of experience as a infosec pro, take a look at the ISC2. And if your employer or someone else pays for everything, take the SANS courses and exams. Others you may want to look at are checkpoint certs, TICSA, CWSP, and MCSA/MCSE with the security specialization.

Good luck with your research and your decision. In the end I think the best choice is to go with the ones of which you like the topics the most, i.o.w. the ones you are most interested in.

samiko

Thank you so much for the advice. To be honest I always liked Cisco CCNA course because it wasn't as straight forward and its always challenging. I did have a browse at the contents of the Ethical Hacking and Penetration programs offered which are really interesting to me.

I am not so keen on doing MCSE but might go for the MCSA. I will have to look at the Security+ program and might go for the CCSP or CISSP by ISC2. My company are paying for the exam fees and any resources I need for the exams I am not sure about training classes though.

There is so much to think about here. Even being an electronic and electrical engineer I have thought of methods to implement in order to enhance security on a normal machine.

This is a great forum and I think this will have so much impact on what i do in the future.

holysheetman

yeah definitely, to get a solid understanding of security as it relates to computers, start off with Security+, I found that while studying for this exam, it was the most interesting area of IT for me, which is why I am continuing on the security side. If you want to continue or, as stated above, try for the CEH, and like myself, I'm going for the CHFI and to be an LPT (Licensed Penetration Tester) eventually. Go here: http://eccouncil.org/312-50.htm if you want to learn more about that. Good luck in your studies!

Phil