Considering Taking the CISSP? – Consider This!
I am a big fan of computer based training – I think the potential for this is enormous especially for organizations that are looking to train large numbers of their staff. One obvious advantage is the ability to scale easily across many employees and many sites. But another important and perhaps overlooked advantage is the ability to help students really gain confidence over the material, understand their weak spots, consider areas that they need to work on 
and finally prepare for any certification goals. They can also be used to simulate the real exam and provide results that can then feedback into a study plan.
Recently a close friend, Mano Paul, launched Express Certifications, a training and certification company focused on developing innovative testing and training solutions, one of which is the new training portal focused on the CISSP and the SSCP exams. This site is the Official (ISC)2 Practice Self Assessment provider and provides CISSP Practice Exams as well as SSCP Practice Exams. The main benefit this site provides is in helping you with gauging your readiness for the certification exam. One of the thing I like about it is that it targets not just the end result but also the preparation. The idea being you first assess yourself, figure out what areas you need to focus on, continue to work on those areas of weakness until you have perfected the material and then finally take the certification exam. And because the subscription to this site is not time limited, it allows you to prepare and give the exam at your own pace rather than allowing your preparatory material make the determination as to when you take the exam. One of the really cool things Mano has done with this site is to provide for rich reporting which can act as your personal study planner. Finally, it also simulates the experience of taking the real exam before you actually take it. Of course as you go through this entire process you can perform SWOT analysis and check your own personal readiness while watching all the time how you are trending
towards your final goals.
There's also benefits to larger organizations attempting to certify some or all of their employees. The main thing perhaps is the ability to judge whether your employees are ready for the certification exam before investing in the cost of the exam itself. Further, even without the certification goals, the ability to view the competence levels of your employees in the different domains of security is in itself a great benefit for security teams. Finally, it is very competitively priced allowing both individuals and organizations to sign up at relatively low cost. In fact they offer corporate and affiliate that could provide advantages if signing up in volumes.
In any case, I am pretty excited by this offering and apparently so is perhaps one of the most discerning clients – the Department of Defense (DoD) - it uses this training portal to assess the readiness of their information assurance personnel as part of the 8570.1 directive. Good luck Mano
J and good luck to all of you preparing for the CISSP / SSCP examinations. Hopefully this site can help with that endeavor.
For more details visit the site or use the contact information in the sidebar.
