Nice forum, thinking of taking the security+ exam soon???

Mikey Palmice

Hey guys, this is my first post here, glad I came across this forum, seems very informative. I don't work in IT, I work for Verizon, and they pay educational expenses. Over the last few years I have been taking IT courses and getting certifications though. I have obtained my A+, Network+, and CCNA certifications and was thinking of taking the Security+ as well. I will most likely take a course on it, being it is free for me as long as I pass. How does the test differ from the ccna and net+ as far as content and difficulty. I have not worked in the field, other than installing equipement on the ISP side at verizon. All my knowledge, or lack there of is from classes and books, not much real world experience other than a home network and my PC's.
Is it a good cert to pick up, and if so, will i struggle with it, being I don't have any "real world" experience?? thanks for your time, look foward to chatting with you guys some more

RussS

Welcome Mikey

I have not done CCNA so I can not comment on that. As far as Comptia goes Sec+ is definitely their most difficult exam to date.
The biggest problem is the way they have decided to cover as many areas as possible and try to be generic. This has lead to many different viwes on what is the correct definition of a few different subjects.

Webmaster

I haven't done the Sec+ exam, but am prepared for it. I'd say it is somewhere in between Net+ and CCNA, more closely to the latter. The passing score for CCNA is a bit higher, and there is a lot more detail to know 'and' the CCNA exam tests actual skills, not just a bunch of security related theory of which CompTIA thinks it applies to a basic Security cert.
However, some may find the Sec+ difficult because CompTIA thinks they can make their cert more difficult, hence valuable, by wording the questions in such a way it stops making sense, while Cisco questions are rather straight-forward facts.

pandimus

Yeah.. SEC+ bites the big one regarding wording.. Generally speaking.. most people take more than one try. took me three to finally get it..

seek

I agree with the previous posts..its all about the wording.

I found the CCNA a breeze since it was based on logic and RL commands. Fix routing..set up a VLAN..

Security+ was heavy into wording easy questions in a way that you start to panic

Im still buged about "What is a granular form of access control?" If I told my team to set that up..they put a foot up my @ss.

If you want to learn RL skills..best to set up a little lab with 2003 Server/XP and a firewall. I got the MS book "Implementing and Administering Security in a Windows Server 2003 Network" and its has lots of good examples. Not much use being able to describe Phase 2 of IPSec, AH and ESP in tunnel mode..if you cant make a simple connection with the software.

Seek

pmann

Seek,

NTFS is a 'granular' access control. Youre right that CompTIA use this kind of stupid wording throughout, the question should have been something like "What is an access control mechanism that permits individuals or groups access to specific files, folders or resources?

I assume by granular they mean how specific the access control can actually be (i.e. how big the grains are, or some similar bs....)

Mikey Palmice

oh, ok, thanks for the info guys. I may be taking a security+ class starting next week.

seek

Thanks Pman

Never fails after exam I see the term Granular used like 2 times in this MS book too.

Seek

ICreateLoops

Sec+ is definetly a test that will sneak up on you. Nothing like A+ or Net+. One thing about Sec+ is, the passing score is high so even if you do get a good score, it may not be high enough to get the cert.

Alien

One thing about Sec+ is, the passing score is high so even if you do get a good score, it may not be high enough to get the cert.

Thats sounds so scary and fatefully real. Finished SYBEX and laughed at meself. Think i'll push it off for awhile since workload's too heavy. I'm switching the energy to A+ meaning i'll demote meself to the A+ chatroom. I'll be back Pros.