RE: CISSP

["Gibson, Brian" <gibsonb () gruntal com>]

I would like to respond to two points made by you.  One is a nit pick and
the other is a general observation.

-----Original Message-----
From: robert_david_graham [mailto:robert_david_graham () yahoo com]
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 4:00 PM
To: 'robert_david_graham'; ark () eltex ru; 'David Hawley'
Cc: firewall-wizards () nfr com
Subject: RE: [fw-wiz] CISSP

<snip>
 (Every layer of the OSI
Model is end-to-end, for appropriate ends and appropriate services).</snip>

I would say that Layers 1 and 2 do not include end to end connectivity.
They are not carried from Host to Host necessarily so I would say that they
are NOT end to end.

I think that you can generally categorize Security professionals into 3
basic groups.  Hackers, Design Engineers(for lack of a better term), and
Policy Wonks.

You would certainly appear to fall under the Hacker category from what you
have posted.  For you a CISSP would not be generally valuable.  Design
Engineers could gather some value from a CISSP because the CISSP, as a
program and not a certification, would allow them to understand policy
issues and procedures that they often overlook.  Policy Wonks are the guys
who would most benefit from CISSPs.  

Although I have not taken the CISSP cert I have looked over the questions
and it really isn't very techinical, relatively speaking.  Certainly nothing
compared to a CCIE. I think virtually any Hacker or Design Engineer could
answer those questions fairly easily.  However it is pretty deep in policy
and procedure stuff which for most hands on guys is at best tangental to
their jobs.  

If you don't plan on being a Security Officer or Consultant I don't really
see there being a lot of value to it.  

Of course I could be wrong.





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