Education: 2011

I just wanted to make a quick post about my studies for this year.  I plan on taking a few courses and certification exams this year, like any other year really. I have been slowly preparing to be a better security and IT professional for my company and for myself.  There is a lot of great information out there to learn if anyone is willing to put in the time and energy.  Anyway, so far, I have taken two exams already.  The first, OSCP, was very exciting, informative, fun and difficult.  I will include a review about it in a later post which it definitely deserves.  The next exam was the CASP exam which is targeted to be the next "level" from the Security+ exam.  It was a free beta exam so I figured why not.  It was a little difficult since it hit on topics I have not researched before.  It still just seems like a waste of time compare to an exam like the OSCP which is more hands-on.

The remaining two exams for this year are the OSCE and CCNA.  The OSCE is the next course of the OffSec group after the OSCP.  I must say, I am dying to take this course.  I know it can take me to that next stage of offensive security such as evading anti-virus, attacking web applications, buffer overflows with staged exploits and writing in assembly language.  It will be a painfully exciting time I am sure.  Finally, I will take the CCNA exam.  I have put this off for years now.  I just want to get it out of the way to be honest.  I am just having a hard time getting my hands on either the Cisco IOSs' or the Cisco hardware.  The hardware would cost more than the exam.  I tried to go the cheaper route by using the cisco emulator GNS3.  Of course, you need to be able to get a copy of the IOS.  FAIL.  I do not have access to the IOSs' yet.  Legally anyway.  I will end up just buying the hardware.  If you see late night flashes of light and power surges going in your neighborhood, it is probably because I live near you.  I have seen some good deals on ebay and ciscokits.com.  Oh, before I forget, I am also practicing programming in python. It seems to be great when you want to do network programming.  I am just using homework assignments from computer science courses on the Internet to practice.  It seems to be working.  I will post as I go along.  Good Night...


OSCP: Offensive Security Certified Professional
OSCE: Offensive Security Certified Expert
CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate
CASP: CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner
OSWP: Offensive Security Wireless Professional
GPEN: GIAC Certified Penetration Tester