GSEC Study Materials

[Paul Sebastian Ziegler <psz () observed de>]

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Hi list,

I am planning to take the GSEC certification. This mail is not supposed
to start a discussion on whether GSEC, CISSP or CCSP/whatever is
good/better/best for a specific position/career/company. Those
discussions have roamed this list on a regular basis. However for
various reasons I decided to try GSEC.

Now I am not willing to enroll in the official training courses. Mostly
because I do not have the 2200$ laying around the charge for the
materials _only_.
I read the list of subjects covered in the test and I must say that most
of them don't really scare me. I know the stuff I work with and that
covers about 75% of the exam. However some other parts could become
quite nasty. For example I do not have in-depth knowledge of
windows-systems. This is why I am looking for materials for self-study
that are _affordable_. Of course it would be possible to simply look up
all the subjects individually as well.

Now I am asking for your opinions and experiences.

While googling I found two books on the GSEC:
SANS GIAC Certification: Security Essentials Toolkit
and
The GSEC Prep Guide: Mastering SANS GIAC Security Essentials

Does anyone own those books? What were your experiences? Are they any good?
They both seem a little outdated to me. However I could be wrong.
Are there any other books I should know about?

All input is welcome. If you have taken GSEC or will take it soon and
prepared for it please lay your experiences on me.
Did you study with the course? If so, was it absolutely necessary?
Did you study alone? If so, what materials did you use, what books,
whitepapers, websites, repositories,etc. Did you find it easy to come up
with all the information? How hard is the test for someone who has been
working with security for a couple of years?

Those are only a few of the questions on my mind right now.

All help and input would be greatly appreciated

Many Greetings
Paul
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