OK. So I pulled the trigger on the SANS Security Leadership Essentials for Managers Course and today was day one.
They had a nice welcome (for those of us who came in early enough) and focused on things to maximize the training and make it a pleasant experience with a short focus on computer configuration for those in Labs that required it. My course did not, but I took the advice not to trust neighboring wireless services not provided by SANS or the hotel and not to log in as an admin for general web surfing or email.
Off to the course...
So far the instructor is well experienced and knowledgable. As warned in the welcome, the material is like drinking from a firehose. I've taken a CISSP bootcamp hosted by my company. Comparatively, I'd say the SANS course covers a lot of the same material, but is more like drinking from a firehose that is not open full blast. Instead the firetruck presents you the rest of the water in a swimming pool for you to drink later in the form of the books that you should further read and re-read.
The pace is good. There is emphasis on specific topics that we should highlight and scrutinize further. Information density is easily absorbable.
I brought up the topic of creating an index of the books. The instructor pointed to the course syllabus as "the index". True, it covers the modules and gives you a range of pages in the books, but does not pinpoint individual topics or terms. It is recommended to write page numbers next to some of the syllabus topics as we go.
The instructor did mention that one of his students had created a highly detailed index in Excel with greater granularity of information and pagination. He then showed us the format of the spreadsheet index that was created - about 61 pages. I think, the headers used were; TOPIC, Book/Page, Comments (I think there was another column between page and comments, but I forget what it was)
I took this as an opportunity to exclaim "Hey! Can I get a copy of that?" He admitted that the index in its current form is already out of date as the course material had changed, but is still in the ballpark - ie, TCP/IP might currently be on page 54 instead of page 49. He said a SANS staffer will set up a mail list for those who would like a copy and we can opt out of being on the visible CC list if we do not want to share our email addresses with the rest of the class. -- Rewards come to those who ask? It may or may not be useful, but I could use it to build my own index.
The instructors own experience with taking the test - you will still need to KNOW the material. There is just not enough time to simply go to the index during the exam for every question.
You also get some graphic materials when you take the course- such as a huge, poster-sized fold-out reference guide that you can also take into the exam.
Other differences I've noticed so far between CISSP and GSLC - there is a definite emphasis on the material from a management point of view vs. the technical aspects in the CISSP. But the material is still very technical.
In the current course we covered classes and types of fire, but I did not see much emphasis on fire suppression types as I had seen in the CISSP prep.
Also we covered Halon, but no details on the Montreal Protocol and how we can still use existing Halon, but new Halon systems are not allowed or re-filled unless the Halon comes from a recycled source.
But then, maybe I have not yet read deep into the material provided yet. They just gave me the swimming pool today!
Also, I'm currently reading "Counterhack: Reloaded" by Ed Skoudis with Tom Liston. It's an easy read that compliments the course material.
A fellow student in the class had mentioned another book he got off the internet - one of those "Guaranteed to pass the GSLC" brain ****. The instructor had reviewed the book and related that the contents were way off and contained a lot of false and inaccurate information.
So far, I like the course!
I'm not normally a coffee drinker. So far today, I've had 4 cups of coffee, a diet Mountain Dew, and a Coke (provided during the breaks). Other snacks included huge muffins, cookies, some fruit. If you want anything healthier, they point to the GNC Health Food store down the block.
