GIAC Roadmap

SephStorm

I'm slightly confused by the GIAC exam roadmap. The GIAC Security Certification Roadmap I'm looking at the security admin track.

Is GIAC suggesting that people take the GCFW and GCIA before the GCIH? It seems to me that those exams require a lot more time and knowledge than the GCIH...

What order would you guy suggest someone take the exams?

JDMurray

Is there an implied order in taking the GCIA and GCIH? GCIA is for Intrusion Analysis and GCIH is for Incident Handing, so they are two different things. The SANS System Administration Training Curriculum lists neither of these certs. The baseline for the System Admin track seems to be the GSEC, GCED, GCWIN, and GCUX. After that, you choose the GIAC Security Admin certs you need.

SephStorm

Interesting. I hadnt seen the curriculum's before. Im kind of torn, (as always) because I am interested in defending systems and of course penetration testing. I've always been interested in the GCED... But I have the GCIH material, and I feel pretty confident with the arch of the material, I just need to dive into the details.

JDMurray

So you are a Blue Team (defensive) kind of guy who is interested in what it's like on the Red Team's (offensive) side of the fence. That's perfectly natural.

It looks like GCED (SANS SEC501) is a recommended prerequisite to GCIH (SANS SEC504) and GCIA (SANS SEC503), so the GCED covers stuff you haven't done yet. You could take SEC501 as a prep for GPEN (SEC560).

SephStorm

Thanks, that helps.