Just finishing up week 1 of my GSEC recertification. It's actually been a lot of fun, but I find I'm being distracted once again by the "fun" parts of information security...penetration testing. I've been using BackTrack4 as an attack platform, and I'm really very pleased with all the tutorial and virtual labs set up by other pentesters to hone the craft. I'm planning to post more about pentesting and the tools I find useful in future posts, but for now I need to stay focussed on the GSEC so that I can get this exam over with soon.
I've developed a study regimen that breaks down the 6 books by number of pages needed to complete each book in a week, giving me a target exam date of November 6th. Based on week #1, this schedule is incredibly aggessive. I'm working at being better about *not* reading the stuff I know already and reading thoroughly the information I don't or am foggy on. For instance, I spent a good amount of time on decoding frames with tcpdump - it's something that, if you don't use it every day (or even every week) you are going to lose it quickly. I'm surprised how much I enjoy picking apart frames and packets in hex, though. The inner geek in me comes alive!
Lastly, the amount that I've lost since the last exam is prompting me to develop a personal improvement plan for myself that will include working through these labs as well as the CCNA labs a little bit each week. The intent is to keep my breadth of knowledge and then to focus in on more specific technologies as my career grows. Again, I hope to post more about my plans and lab scenarios more as the weeks unfold.
But tonight, I'm done for the week and going to bed. Tomorrow my twins turn 5 years old, and I intend to spend the evening doing important things, like playing Star Wars Legos and Playmobile Dinosaurs...
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