SSCP/CISSP/Security+/blah Which One??!!

silken_solitude

Hey,

I have a BSc degree and I'm a developer interested in IS Security. I have 1 year of development experience and 1 year of general IT experience from odd IT jobs at school and co-ops.

I'm confused with the various certifications available. I understand what they are for (kinda) but I'm confused about what weight they have on a resume AND the reputation behind it.

CISSP seems too much for me as I'm almost a fresher.
SSCP and Security+... which one? Is ISC better recognised than CompTIA in this field?
Or should I be looking at some other certification all together.

I just know I'd love to get into Security consulting. I want a cert that counts on my resume. As for the info it gives me, I'm not too too concerned since I know I'm interested enough in the field to dig deeper. Oh, and price isn't a factor as my company will sponsor me.

Any ideas would help!

dynamik

Security+ is the place to start. It won't do much on it's own, but it provides a general overview of security. You need one year of full-time security work for the SSCP and five for the CISSP (you can drop up to two years with other education and certs).

What type of consulting do you want to do. There are many other security certifications as well. Microsoft has security specializations for their MCSA/MCSE tracks, Cisco has CCSP and CCIE: Security as well as other security specializations, CWSP is for wireless, C|EH and CHFI for penetration testing and forensics. Sun and RedHat offer security certifications for their products. There's quite a bit you can do.

If you're really interested in security, go read all the threads in that forum. You will gain a much deeper understanding of the certifications and security in general; keatron has some real gems in there.

JDMurray

Security+ can get your foot in the door of an InfoSec job and actually help in getting other certifications. Many InfoSec job reqs list "Must have at least one security certification," and Security+ is almost always on the list (along with CISSP, SSCP, CISA, CISM, and GSEC). Several IT certifications actually require you to have the Security+ cert as a prerequisite, most notably the MCSE+Security and the HIPAA CHSS. As dynamik basically stated, Security+ is a very good first-step to an InfoSec career.

silken_solitude

JDMurray wrote:

Security+ is almost always on the list

Thanks for the quick respnse. Guess going with Security+ iwont be a waste so I can start there and then broaden out from there.

Thanks again!

mog27

And this site has some really good technotes for security+. A lot of people here rave about it.