As our own CTO, Eric Skeens goes after his CISSP, he has decided to document every step of the journey to better shed light for IT nerds and executives. For those wondering how to get your CISSP, resources available, and how to get it, check back on this page often to see his progress!
Full Transcript
Eric Skeens Transcript (verbatim):
This month, I will be embarking on an eight-month journey to study for my CISSP. I’ve been wanting to complete my CISSP in the security space for about two years.
If you’re not familiar with the CISSP, it’s eight domains within the security space, everything from cybersecurity and physical security, and it touches less on being an operator and more on policy and framework within the security space. It stands for Certified Information Systems Security Professional. That’s the jumping-off point within the security space for your certifications and starting down that path.
Some of you may know I’ve wanted to do this for the last two years and some of you know that I did start that process roughly about two years ago. I’ve gotten through a few of the domains, but it was haphazardly through the domains and not in a very focused manner. And so with our organization, 3 Tree, we’re always trying to sharpen the saw and setting our foundation appropriately as we focus on bringing disruptors and differentiators to the enterprise market.
We always need to make sure that we’re sharpening the saw on a regular basis. We’re all avid readers. So from a reading perspective, great, but the certification component, making sure that we’re setting that standard and keeping up with that bar from an education perspective. Always harping on continuing education, always trying to improve and be better.
With that said, the tools that I’m going to be leveraging to go through that study has been recommended to me by my pops, who has been in the security space for close to 30 years and has a CISSP certification for the last 15, and continues to keep that certification up.
I was recommended to use this all-in-one book, his exam guide and it continues to change obviously, with the domains changing. The last change was from 10 domains. Now, condensing it down to eight domains, but this specific guide was recommended, Shon Harris. If you’re not familiar with Shon Harris, very well known within the security space.
And then in addition, I’ll be leveraging an application called Cybrary. They’ve got a lot of tools that you can use for getting the CISSP, but also just in general.
On top of that, you always need everything that you need in order to study. For me, it is coffee, a Hi-Ball, which is an energy drink or sparkling energy water. (Thank you, Aaron Crotty.) And then my notebook, as well as a headset to listen to some music, to essentially tune out the world. I’ve got three noisy children, and every so often I need to tune out the world and that’s how I do it.
Now, I need your help as I’m embarking on this journey. I ask and I invite everybody that’s watching this video that you keep me accountable through this process. I’ll be documenting the process through video, as well as through articles going through each domain each month. Obviously I picked eight months because there are eight domains.
As I go through this, I ask that you provide me feedback, provide me [with] any questions that you have in regard to security-related items as we go through this journey. Also, if there are any recommendations. There are a lot of folks that I know on here that is potentially watching this, that you have your CISSP, you’ve been in the security space for a long time, and you may have recommendations on exactly how to study, what ways that helped you.
I would appreciate any assistance as we don’t do this in a bubble. We do this with the folks that we’ve gotten to know in our network. Appreciate everybody here, and I look forward to this journey!
Check Out Part 2 »
Eric Skeens is the co-founder of 3 Tree Tech in Portland. He is a platform-agnostic tech researcher that transitions siloed organizations into automated DevOps centric businesses. Message him right here.
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