I recently successfully completed the GIAC GCIH certification. This certification was an awesome experience and it helped me bolster my knowledge about several facets of IT Security.
If you are looking to learn more about:
- the incident response process,
- current tools used by cyber criminals,
- or defenses against common attacks occurring today,
then this certification and its material are right for you. I have taken a significant amount of certifications over the last few years (almost 20 in all), and I feel that this one was as beneficial to me from a technical standpoint as the CISSP was from a managerial standpoint.
The best part about this course is it isn’t just reading and memorization like a vast majority of certifications today. There are several labs incorporated into the content, and it all culminates with a mini CTF event once you have finished reading the material. This helps further strengthen your understanding of the material and how to apply it to real world scenarios.
Another great benefit of this course was the MP3s that were available for download. This allowed me to listen to material on my drive to and from work and at work during slow periods.
I also really enjoyed the emphasis and repetition of the incident handling process. It helped drive home what you should do in an incident and the appropriate responses to each of the attacks mentioned in the training.
While this certification is quite expensive, I feel it provides a significant return on investment. You can also sign up for the courses and their associated certifications on the sans.edu website at a discounted rate for up to two of their courses.
I am now eagerly anticipating the arrival of my books for my next GIAC certification, the GPEN. I will provide my thoughts on that certification sometime in the near future.