Any opinions on CISSP Book with Darril Gibson as an author?

JockVSJock

I'm using Conrad's CISSP book to study with, however when I do exams on Transcender, I'm missing something because I'm still not scoring high enough.

Shon's book is out because of her style of writing and it too much material.

I see via Amazon that Darril Gibson has authored a CISSP and I really liked the work he did with his Security+ book. I do see that the book is 900 pages long, and reviews are pretty good, however I wanted to reach other to Techexam folks and get their opinion.

thanks

veritas_libertas

I've been wondering about this as well. I'm going to follow this thread.

JockVSJock

I went ahead and bought the book based on the recommendations on Amazon.

I'll post back a review here of what I think of the book later.

da_vato

If I am not mistaken you are referring to a book that he is a co-author of. As long as the other authors are as good as Darril at conveying ideas the book should be good.... the problem with co-authored books is each individuals writing style are usually fairly different. When I was learning C++ I had a book like that and thought some chapters were so confusing compared to others and not because of the material itself.

Darril Gibson in my opinion is the best information security writer out there but that book may not be as good as the combo you already have. I will be looking foward to reading your review of the book.

N2IT

Good luck on the CISSP! I look forward to your review.

LinuxRacr

This is the book that I'm actually going to get myself. I have the 5th edition of the Shon Harris book from 2010. I remember reading that book, and struggling to stay on course. Great reference book, but a little brutal. I used Darrill Gibson's book to pass the Security+ exam the same year, and if the Sybex book is anything like that one, I'm sold!

LinuxRacr

My book arrived yesterday. I'll keep everyone posted.

JockVSJock

I've read the first two chapters in this book for far which covers Access Control, and this is what I've noticed so far.

1. There isn't two pages of babble, which only has two sentences of real, actual content that I need to use for the test.

2. The domains are broken up across more chapters as well. Access Control is two chapters.

I've mainly used Conrad's book along with Transcender to study from. Because of this, seems like I'm understanding better what is in this book.

hylaab

I enjoyed reading this book, 900+ pages. I like the way they divided each domain into 2 chapters, except Physical Security. It is almost an extended version of Conrad book but with slightly more content and details.

jvrlopez

I'm over 300 pages into and have enjoyed it so far. Everything is written in a concise and straight forward manner and the material is all there. I don't get bored reading the material and all of the examples and real world scenarios come up at the right times to keep you engaged.

I went with this book given its length, my preference for Sybex products (used them on Sec+ and CCNA), and given how reputatble Darril has been on these forums.

Definetly recommend it.

JockVSJock

jvrlopez wrote: »

I'm over 300 pages into and have enjoyed it so far. Everything is written in a concise and straight forward manner and the material is all there. I don't get bored reading the material and all of the examples and real world scenarios come up at the right times to keep you engaged.

I went with this book given its length, my preference for Sybex products (used them on Sec+ and CCNA), and given how reputatble Darril has been on these forums.

Definetly recommend it.

I agree so far, especially the way it is written.

I don't know if I agree with all of the material being all there or not. Some of the questions on the Transcender exam for CISSP hasn't popped up in this material nor in Conrad's book. Between those three resources, I have 130 flash cards, just for that Access Control domain alone.

However Sybex does produce good books, I used their Linux+ when I sat for that exam.

Gorby

I also liked Darril's security + book, do you think it's enough for the exam or should I supplement with Conrad's book as well?

jvrlopez

I would compound it with something else just for oversight and another take on the domains.

It's a pretty quick read, minus the questions, answer key, and index, it's about 750 pages for the 10 domains.

blackberrycubed

any update on this book jock?

JockVSJock

blackberrycubed wrote: »

any update on this book jock?

So far I can tell you this.

There is no cd study guide with the book, you have to download it.

It is close to 900 pages.

Each domain is broken up over two chapters, which makes for a total of 19 chapters.

It reads well in my opinion and not struggling through two pages of fluff to find two sentences of key material.

I'm making more notes as I go along and will post them as time keeps ticking on.

sojourn

So it sort of sounds like it sits between the Conrad and Harris books in terms of verbosity? I find the Conrad book very concise, and the Harris book... well... I'm going to refund it.

JockVSJock

sojourn wrote: »

So it sort of sounds like it sits between the Conrad and Harris books in terms of verbosity? I find the Conrad book very concise, and the Harris book... well... I'm going to refund it.

IMO, Harris' work can't touch it.

Let's say it drills down a bit further then Conrad with the reading material, which Conrad seems more focused on terms. While I do like Conrad's book, I felt I didn't have the full picture. With the Sybex book, I'm starting to get that full picture.

jota1234

Can you please share the book's name and author ? Do you know if there is a PDF / kindle version available for it?

sojourn

A quick goog shows this is the book being discussed, co-authored by Darril Gibson.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/CISSP-Certified-Information-Security-Professional-ebook/dp/B008C55RLW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391014249&sr=1-1

blackberrycubed

I have read a few chapters from this book and it seems like a much better read.

impelse

I am reading this book and it is easy to read, I read the same chapter first with Conrad, Darril is a complement of some info that Conrad doesn't touch.

Now Sharon goes with more details and a lot of pages, but it is good, some examples and details give you the complete picture.

matai

I liked his Sec+ book a lot, just ordered his CISSP book.

NotHackingYou

Thanks for posting this. I really liked Darril's Security+ book and I am glad to see his CISSP book is well reviewed. I am planing to use it when I study for the CISSP.

AggressiveProgression

As I am currently pursuing the CISSP I agree that the Sybex book (Darril Gibson) is more detailed than Conrad's Books and therefore functions as a mid point between the AIO and Conrad books.

blackberrycubed

Jock when you planning on taking the exam ?

!nf0s3cure

I used he Sybex book back for my first attempt and was quiet surprised that at that time that it did not get much traction here. I found it to be very well written and very useful in its layout to assist with the preparation. As mentioned before because the topics are split in parts this gives a smaller foot print for learning and testing when compared with AIO and others.

sojourn

Some of the book is available for preview on Google Books.

I have read through a bit of it and I like it, I'll be picking it up.

CISSP: Certified Information Systems Security Professional Study Guide - James M. Stewart, Chapple, Darril Gibson - Google Books

sojourn

I've just bought this book on Kindle version. I've been working through the CCCure test questions, and there are concepts which are simply not even mentioned in the Eric Conrad book, eg specifics for OLTP, and I am finding it is too light on information regarding Databases.