Varun's Semi-Random Ramblings

I just got an email from ISC2 telling me that I am CISSP certified. Yay!

CISSP stands for Certified Information Systems Security Professional and is one of the most popular and renowned certificates in the information security arena. In practical terms the CISSP makes me much more attractive for clients and future employers.

I took my CISSP exam in the middle of April, got the exam results a week later, got Karthik to endorse me (thanks Karthik!), sent in my endorsement document and voila! – 3 days and I am CISSP certified. I am impressed the speed and clarity with which ISC2 has conducted everything beginning from the application till the the final certification.

CISSP covers 10 information security domains. I had worked in about 6-7 of these in various projects over the past 5 years of my professional career and that made it easier for me to be prepared for the CISSP exam. Just before the exam I studied for about 7-8 days, took a few mock tests, read through some summary notes and that was enough for me to clear the exam. To be honest the CISSP exam is not as difficult as it is made out to be. If you do have a lot of professional experience in the information security domain and spend some time doing some solid studies you are set to comfortably clear the exam.

I used the following resources for the exam:

• Official ISC2 Guide to the CISSP CBK
• CCCure.org resources
• FreePracticeTests.org (via CCCure.org)
• Group study with my Shelton colleagues (when I was there a few months ago) – Thanks guys!
• Chapter-end summaries from CISSP Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Fourth Edition

Next Targets – ISSAP sometime in the next 4 months and CISM in December 2009.

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