GIAC Gold Research Paper

Has anyone written SANS GIAC Research Paper. How is the process? How do you pick the topic? I am planning to write one but so far can't seem to decide what topic to pick. Is cybersecurity experience required to write the research paper. Any help would be great.

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SteveLavoie

What would you be your goal to write one? To reach GSE?

peacock_6633

SteveLavoie said:

What would you be your goal to write one? To reach GSE?

I am planning to write GSEC research paper to get gold certification and also to get in depth knowledge on the topic that I'll write on.

JDMurray

How much do you have to pay SANS these days to write a paper that they publish in their reading room?

peacock_6633

cost is $419 for helping with writing, getting an advisor etc.

SteveLavoie

There is not much value writing a Gold paper unless the bragging right (and even then). At least if you intent to get GIAC GSE, you will save money doing so:

So each Gold paper would permit you to save a SANS class so about 8K$+expense economy per class.

GSEC, GCIH, GCIA with two Gold
GSEC, GCIH, GCIA with one Gold and one substitute*
GSEC, GCIH, GCIA with no Gold and two substitutes*

Otherwise, I would do some research on my own, and build a talk that I could present to some local security conference. It would be better time investment and better networking (in the people sense of networking).

peacock_6633

Is GIAC GSE worth going for? Personally I like writing and being new in this field I think it will also give me some confidence when talking about my research paper in interviews.

JDMurray

The GSE certification itself is far more valuable than any papers you would write for the SANS Reading Room. If I had the time/money for the GSE, I'd take five SANS courses and get five GIAC certs prior to going for the GSE. My published writings will have more credibility after I have the GSE as a credential rather than before.

quogue66

I wrote two research papers as part of the MSISE program. I had absolutely no idea what topics to choose. I met with Johannes and he gave me a long list of topics to choose from. In the end I didn't use any of them. I'm not sure if he shares the list with folks outside of the MSISE program.

peacock_6633

quogue66 said:

I wrote two research papers as part of the MSISE program. I had absolutely no idea what topics to choose. I met with Johannes and he gave me a long list of topics to choose from. In the end I didn't use any of them. I'm not sure if he shares the list with folks outside of the MSISE program.

What was your process of researching for the paper? Also how many hours approx. did you end up spending on each paper? I have to submit an abstract for approval prior to getting an advisor

quogue66

I would estimate that I spent around 150-200 hours per research paper. That includes the time spent building systems, conducting the experiments, researching tools, writing the papers, etc. There was a form I had to submit to get approval for my topic. I had to explain the problem that I was trying to solve, the impact it has on the security industry, and a high level overview of my research. As far as the research goes, I looked up a lot of tools online and then tested them out in my lab environment.

peacock_6633

quogue66 said:

I would estimate that I spent around 150-200 hours per research paper. That includes the time spent building systems, conducting the experiments, researching tools, writing the papers, etc. There was a form I had to submit to get approval for my topic. I had to explain the problem that I was trying to solve, the impact it has on the security industry, and a high level overview of my research. As far as the research goes, I looked up a lot of tools online and then tested them out in my lab environment.

Thanks for that info. Do all research papers require a practical component of testing in the lab?

quogue66

I don't think it's a requirement but it is a requirement that your paper focuses on new research. You can't pick a topic and then use information from books and other research papers to prove your point. Take a look at the papers in the SANS Reading Room to get a better idea.

SteveLavoie

JDMurray said:

The GSE certification itself is far more valuable than any papers you would write for the SANS Reading Room. If I had the time/money for the GSE, I'd take five SANS courses and get five GIAC certs prior to going for the GSE. My published writings will have more credibility after I have the GSE as a credential rather than before.

Sure.. I would do the same.. but writing 2 paper to save 20K$ could be a nice alternative for some.