Customer Reviews

Mike Meyers’ Security+ Certification Passport

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Don't believe the glowing reviews. My thoughts are those were just the publisher or auther secretly promoting the book. The truth is this book grossly fails to cover the test objectives completely. I knew right from the start of the exam I was in trouble as the first two questions were nothing like what was covered in the book. Kerberos, Cryptography, Tunneling, and IPSec are just some of the areas this book fails to cover in enough detail. For example, something as simple as the port numbers for PPTP and L2TP weren't even mentioned in the book. Like another review, this book covered about 1/3 my test. I was able to answer another 1/3 of the test due to my 7 years of experience in the field, but even then I only scored 700 on the exam.

This book is more of an intro to network security principles than an actual study guide for the Sec+ exam. Buyer beware!

Content is brief and makes the exam sound easy. Practice exams are OK, but don't fall prey to the "online upgrade"... its BS, the extra $20 only gives you online access to the same questions that are on the CD... I did pass the test with a 860/900 so the book won't hurt, but I'd get some other ones as well...

A good bet for more practice questions would be ExamCram2's "Security+ Practice Questions". It is less than $20 and gives you the MeasureUp practice test CD that is $89 on their website...

This book is too brief and gives an illusion that security+ is a very easy test but in reality it is not. I have passed the test with no thanks to this book.

Take your security courses, then read your 800+ page
text book then the night before the Security+ Exam read this book. I found it to be exactly what I needed right before the exam. These types of cram books are great for cramming the facts into your head right before the exam.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in becoming Security+ certified.

I have taken the test twice now. First time i took it with no preperation and got a 640. I got the book, studied it and got a 760, both fails. I was getting in the 90's on both prep exams provided with the book. The two tests were extremely different and the Meyers book would have gotten me past the first test, but was almost no help for the second. It is a good book to for a beginner but not for an actual test prep.

I used this, exam cram and troytek test killer to pass the Security plus.

This was definitely the worst of the three. I saw many of the same concepts repeated several times. Now I know that repetition is important (chapter review), but I saw the same concepts taught as if they were new several times, in several different chapters.

My major problem was with the lack of difficulty of the questions. Now I know that CompTia is notorious for fairly difficult questions, but when I got 98% on the practice tests for this book, and 50% on the other tests, I knew that this book was doing an incorrect assesment of my abilities.

As always multiple sources of education - practical experience, course work and definitely multiple books are the key to certification.

Trevor Kay's recent most recent certification book is targeted at those attempting the CompTIA's Security +, described as an increasingly popular entry-level security exam.

As with all books in Mike Meyers' Passport Series, the underlying theme is not depth, but the focus is on what you need to know to past the exam. However, Trevor did organize the book well and you do come away with a good overview of what the info security field is composed off (and hopefully an exam pass!)

There are very few info-sec exams that focus on looking at everything in a wider perspective, identifying, touching on and bringing you up-to-speed with all the many sub info-security fields. That's what Security + is about, an overview, a something to start with, meaning of course entry level.

With that in mind, Trevor Kay's book comes true to its purpose. Covering topics such as:

General Security Concepts: Access Control and Authentication | Attacks, Malicious Code and Social Engineering

Communication Security: Remote Access | Web Security | Wireless Security
Infrastructure Security: Devices and Media Security | Security Topologies and Intrusion Detection | Understanding Security Baselines
Basics of Cryptography: Understating Algorithms | Key Management/ Certificate Lifecycle
Operational/ Organizational Security: Physical Security Issues | Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity | Policy Procedures and Privilege Management | Forensics, Risk Management, Education and Documentation

[+] Well organized

[-] Minor mistakes, some errata

I passed the exam, but I wouldn't say that this book was a great help in that regard.

I thought this book was too superficial in its coverage; if I hadn't had prior experience there would have been questions I would have missed simply because the book didn't even bring it up. There was even one instance on the exam where the terminology used was different than the terminology defined in the book.

Bottom line is that I wouldn't suggest using this book, even as a quick review before the test.

I found this book to be very useful as a last minute crammer right before the exam. Each chapter is straight to the point and easy to read. I highly recommend this book above all the other same style crammer books out there. Good job!

This book is definitely for someone who as some experience in the Security field. Not for newbies. I found the Security+ Certification Passport by Trevor Kay to be straight forward and to the point. If you already know what your doing this book is for you.

I'll say it again. this book is not for newbies. I can't see how a newbie can read a book and be a certified expert on network security after passing this exam with no experience and just book knowledge. This exam and book is definitely for the experienced technician.

I found this book put me in the right direction for the exam.
Thank you!