CISSP For Dummies [Paperback]

I just got the email, I passed! CISSP for Dummies is concise, easy to read, and tells you *exactly* what to study and concentrate on for the Exam.
I also read the Wiley book, boring and full of gramatical errors, some of them were really confusing.
Along with the Flash Cards and Boson tests, the Dummies book is worth every penny! I could not have passed without it.
I would recommend the Wiley test exam questions (separate book), they helped a great deal too.

The CISSP exam is certainly not for dummies, but if you are interested in this book, you already know that. This book on it's own does not cover the 10 CBK domains sufficiently to pass the CISSP exam with any degree of confidence - but the authors DO tell you so at the very beginning.

This book can be useful as a first, concise read to give you an overview of the CISSP exam, but you definetly want to follow up with either the "All In One Exam Guide" or the "Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CISSP CBK".

So if you decide to get the book in this context, please be aware of a few deficiencies that still exist:

1.) Some of the material in the book is somewhat dated. For example: the author portraits the MD5 hash algorithm as "strong, fast and resilient", while it is in fact, today, broken and deprecated.

2.) There are some factual errors. An example: "role-based access control" is described in Chapter 4 as a form of "discretionary access control". The CBK says the opposite!

3.) Some topics are handled inconsistantly or way too superficial. For example, the authors tell you in chapter 6, that ECB, CBC, CFB and OFB are "four modes of DES". The explanations of the four operation modes are almost comical in their lack of facts and some important information is missing, like the fact that ECB can leave recognizable patterns even in the encrypted data. Only the authors know why they don't even mention the fact that the same operation modes are also used in AES.

4.) While the book claims that the tests on the CD are configurable, they are in fact not.

My facit: get this book to find out if CISSP is right for you or as a first, easy read. Do NOT rely on this book for your actual exam preparation and do expect quite a number of errors to exist in this book. If you are already committed to the CISSP exam or have sufficient prior experience, save the money.

This book was actually not detailed enough to cover the exam. Your money would be best put to on the new offiical ISC2 CISSP Exam guide.