Passed GCIA

I started SEC503 in mid-January. It is one of the required courses for the SANS MSISE program and the GSE otherwise I probably would have taken some other courses first. The course was well taught and there was a lot of valuable information information in it regarding packet analysis and IDS tuning, rule writing, etc. There was also a lot of information that will not apply to the average person such as the use of tools such as bro and SiLK...or maybe they just haven't applied to me much. They are both interesting tools but unless you work as an IR consultant or you work for a small company that relies on open source free tools you probably won't use either of them. I found this course difficult to get excited about and therefore hard to get motivated for. It could be that it's just more appealing to me to reverse engineer malware or do pen testing. The actual exam turned out to be a lot easier than I expected. I finished with an hour to spare and scored a 90 so I'm happy with that. I have to take the 2nd test for the Cisco Cyber Ops CCNA in a couple weeks and then I'm hoping to take the GSE multiple choice test. I want to get it over with while this material is still fresh in my head. I don't plan on taking the lab portion until the end of next year.

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Comments

UnixGuy

Impressive Certs and goals!! Well done mate!

quogue66

Thank you.

TechGuru80

With all of your GIAC certs you are really gonna waste your time and energy on Cyber Ops? Come on...

E Double U

TechGuru80 wrote: »

With all of your GIAC certs you are really gonna waste your time and energy on Cyber Ops? Come on...

I was thinking the same. Still congratulations though!

quogue66

There are two reasons why I'm doing this. The first is because it was free. I signed up for it over a year ago. I don't want to waste a free resource. The second reason is to understand what the training/cert is about. When I interview people that have the cert I want to understand what to expect from them and know what they learned. I read the material from the first exam once and skimmed through it again the night before the test and passed it in 30 minutes. It is very high level. I hear the second part is a little deeper and you have to know how to write regex. I'm curious to see what is in the course so I know how I should regard the cert. A few other reasons...I'm moving soon and my home office will have more wall space. I need to fill it with something. I don't have any Cisco certs and I like the colors. It has the word cyber in it. People like that word.

TechGuru80

quogue66 wrote: »

A few other reasons...I'm moving soon and my home office will have more wall space. I need to fill it with something. I don't have any Cisco certs and I like the colors. It has the word cyber in it. People like that word.

Haha classic.

DAVIS NGUYEN

Congrats!

tboe

Congratz !!

gespenstern

Congrats! Good point on the dependency between overall success in a certain field/exam and how one feels interested about it. This sometimes results in weird situations when one easily does complicated exams but fails on easier ones.

wrickaz

Contrats! Wow so many giac certs.. Are you planning to retake them when they will expire?

quogue66

wrickaz wrote: »

Contrats! Wow so many giac certs.. Are you planning to retake them when they will expire?

I am hoping to take the GSE before I have to renew any of them. Worst case scenario I may have to renew one or two.

sunnyvalecalifornia

where did you get your GCIA training? Also, what materials did you use? I am planning to get the same, I already passed my CEH. thanks!

quogue66

sunnyvalecalifornia wrote: »

where did you get your GCIA training? Also, what materials did you use? I am planning to get the same, I already passed my CEH. thanks!

I took the SANS SEC503 course

sunnyvalecalifornia

did you do the classroom-based training? I felt like it is a bit expensive so I am thinking to do the self-paced if there is one. Would you think it is ideal?

quogue66

sunnyvalecalifornia wrote: »

did you do the classroom-based training? I felt like it is a bit expensive so I am thinking to do the self-paced if there is one. Would you think it is ideal?

There isn't really a self-paced option. SANS has on-demand courses but they are the same price as going to a live conference minus the travel costs.

[Deleted User]

Congrats! How do you like the SANS's masters program? I'm looking at it myself.

quogue66

kMastaFlash wrote: »

Congrats! How do you like the SANS's masters program? I'm looking at it myself.

The masters program is great. You definitely have to put in a lot of time and effort but it's worth it. The course work is primarily hands-on and updated constantly. The cost of a SANS course including exam is $3750 so you get a pretty substantial discount off the regular price.

Donklander

Gearing up to take this test in the next week or so.

Do they hit a certain portion harder than others? Like, go into the mechanics of Evasion or chaining Wireshark filters together to for something specific.

And also, my experience with SANS has been the labs/workbook, while great for learning, hasn't really mattered much on the test. Is that a similar situation here, since a day (and a book) is pretty much dedicated to scenarios and labs.

dextermcsa

Hi guys. Just graduated. I want to do GCIA but I don't have money to pay. I was fortunate that someone gave me his books to self-study. I am looking for someone to give me a copy of the CD/DVD. help, please. Thanks.

quogue66

So two things here....first off it's against SANS policy to share their copyrighted material. Second thing....they charge $1700 to take the exam if you haven't taken the course. That is a lot of money for an exam that you may not pass because your books are outdated and/or you don't have the course material.

dextermcsa

Yes, I heard they update their books quarterly !!! But they aren't new cyber security knowledge/theories every 3 months or so !!! I know about SANS policy, but there is no way I could spent 6k on a cert right now! Just need the CD/DVD, please.

quogue66

I think you'd have better luck finding the class material at a yard sale than going on a forum full of people that paid 6k to take a class and then studied and practiced for weeks or months to take the test, risking their certification to help you **** the system.