GCIH/GSEC Study Materials

hiranncs

Hi Everyone,

I am really interested in taking the GCIH or GSEC exam in the next year. I am CISSP certified and really worried that i might be flunking my GCIH/GSEC exam without the actual course materials. I cannot afford to go for the mad expensive SANS courses. 

Does anyone have it? Please advice. 

Thanks for your help. Really Appreciate it. 

markmorow

It's unclear what you are asking for but I doubt anyone will just give you their books/study materials. I also doubt you'd pass. I'd recommend you look into doing the Work Study program that drops the cost of the class significantly. It wont let me post a link in here for some reason but on their site it's under "Live Training" 

Danielm7

Right, no one is going to hand you their materials. Also, you're aware that each attempt at either of those exams is $1899, right?

TechGromit

If you want the course materials bad enough there always Ebay, for around $750.  

IaHawk

https://www.sans.org/about/faq

Can I transfer my self study or online course materials to another student?

You cannot transfer, share or give your self study material to another person. The following is noted when you access your course material through your account.

"Important Notice: By accessing the SANS GIAC online course material, practice tests, exams, and related files, the student agrees to the following.

I understand that my license to use SANS electronic course materials is exclusively for my individual professional development. I will not transfer nor will I allow others to use the course materials or the test questions. I will not use any part of this material for teaching others nor will I incorporate it, nor allow it to be incorporated, in any other training materials or publications, electronic or print, without prior specific written consent of the SANS Institute."

TechGromit

Yea, we discussed this before, the grey area is if your the purchaser, are you really legally liable for a clause you never saw till after you made the purchase?  All the liability is on the seller, chances are the seller is a former student of a SANS course whose employer paid for the course, they do not hold any certifications that could get revoked, so there is no down side to them if they sell the course materials. They could get sued by SANS, but chances of that are slim.  

COBOL_DOS_ERA

As IanHawk and TechGromit pointed out that it's against SANS policy of sharing any kind of proprietary information without their explicit permission. I doubt that SANS will do that except for some research purpose. You can always buy those books in ebay.
 or 
You could also use these books for the GCIH exam preparation. Read these books few times, and create an index out of them. This index will help you to pass the exam.

Blue Team Handbook: Incident Response Edition: A condensed field guide for the Cyber Security Incident Responder.

Incident Response & Computer Forensics, Third Edition ( Read twice, and create an index)
Jason T. Luttgens

Counter Hack Reloaded: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Attacks and Effective Defenses (2nd Edition)
Skoudis, Edward ( Read this book at least 3 times, and create an index of the books)

Hacking Exposed 7: Network Security Secrets and Solutions
McClure, Stuart ( Read  twice, and create an Index)

hiranncs

@promethuschow. 
Thanks for the List. Have you taken the GIAC GCIH exam? Did you use these books?

Yes. Unfortunately my company is not paying for the course and i already applied for the Work Study Program. (No Positive Reply from SANS yet). All the forums state that the questions that appear in the exam are concentrated from the books issued by SANS. 

COBOL_DOS_ERA

No, actually I'm going to take vLive GCIH class from January. As for those lists you could actually used them for GCIH preparation. Once, you think you are ready for the actual exam, buy a GCIH practice exam and see how is your  performance in the test, and adjust/edit your index accordingly.


As for work study program, you are actually competing with SANS Master's program enrollees and many others who are actually inline before you. TE has some great info regarding Work Study program. I myself, was in the waiting list twice, never materialized. As for the SANS books, I will not  make any comments, except that ebay is there, so is Amazon, so a friends who actually could lend a book ;-).

TechGromit

promethuschow said:

No, actually I'm going to take vLive GCIH class from January.

I think there is some confusion here, there is no such with as a GCIH class by SANS, it doesn't exist. SANS does teach a course called "SEC504: Hacker Tools, Techniques, Exploits, and Incident Handling", if you want the certification based on this course it's a GIAC exam called the GCIH. This is no such thing called the GCIH course book or study book by SANS. 

cshkuru

Every SANS class publishes a syllabus.  If you are motivated you can track down most of the material.  Also all the classes I have taken have used huge amounts of freely available material in the course booklets.  Again this can be tracked down if you want to.  Some of the webinars associated with a class will even mention the source material. The reason to take the classes is the personal knowledge the instructors pass on, not any real secret sauce contained in the course booklets if you are willing to skip that you can build up study material.

bigdogz

@TechGromit

hiranncs that the classes have versions.

@hiranncs  you should not buy the material through some 3rd party because it is dated and they have records of who went to which class. The GIAC exams are open book. If you have the wrong book, you may answer the question(s) incorrectly. As @cshkuru stated there is material out there.
Those who have purchased other books to supplement their knowledge can pass the exam. It is rare but these folks really know the subject matter and have been in the field for some time.