Get a Networking Certification First

The Telecommunications and Network Security domain is the most comprehensive domain tested on the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) exam. Although its purpose is to test your security knowledge, you must have a complete understanding of telecommunications and networking basics. For this reason, we strongly advise that you earn a networking certification, such as the CompTIA Network+ or the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), before attempting the CISSP exam. (For more information on these certifications, see www.comptia.org and www.cisco.com , respectively.) An additional benefit is that you then have another valuable technical certification in high demand within the computer industry.

If you already have one of these certifications, you should find most of the information in the Telecommunications and Network Security domain to be very basic. In this case, a quick review that focuses on security concepts (particularly methods of attack) should be sufficient for this domain. We dedicate Chapter 5 of this book to the Telecommunications and Network Security domain.

If you haven’t taken a computer-based examination before, getting a networking certification first will also help familiarize you with the testing center location and environment, as well as the general format of computer-based exams. You can take a generic practice computer-based exam to get used to how they work, at www.pearsonvue.com or a CISSP practice computer-based exam at www.dummies.com/go/cisspfd4e .