Just took and passed the CompTIA CSA+ Exam, ask me anything.

[David_TheMan]

Self explanatory, took the CSA+ Exam

I was planning on taking the CASP exam, but saw the CSA+ and I needed to renew my certs so I said why not take this one. Still going to continue studying for the CASP though, just at a slower pace.

Its pretty close to the Sec+ exam though, less focus on memorization of facts that the Sec+ has, and more application of those concepts that you learn in Sec+. The books they have for the test are all over the place, but I posted two of them in the cert thread and if you need them and they aren't still available, let me know and I'll try to post them here for you.

That said relatively easy exam if you have experience running nmap or zenmap (focus on the commandline and what the program is actually doing) and what the varoius topics of security like organizational compliance, specific types of attacks and etc. This is a blue team or defensive security exam more than red team/offensive.

Anything you want to know I"m here to answer though

 

[Tr0yTV]

How much exp do you have? Why did you pick csa/casp over the cissp?

 

[thewarrior05]

Self explanatory, took the CSA+ Exam

I was planning on taking the CASP exam, but saw the CSA+ and I needed to renew my certs so I said why not take this one. Still going to continue studying for the CASP though, just at a slower pace.

Its pretty close to the Sec+ exam though, less focus on memorization of facts that the Sec+ has, and more application of those concepts that you learn in Sec+. The books they have for the test are all over the place, but I posted two of them in the cert thread and if you need them and they aren't still available, let me know and I'll try to post them here for you.

That said relatively easy exam if you have experience running nmap or zenmap (focus on the commandline and what the program is actually doing) and what the varoius topics of security like organizational compliance, specific types of attacks and etc. This is a blue team or defensive security exam more than red team/offensive.

Anything you want to know I"m here to answer though

Yo I got my CEH................... can you send me any of the stuff u used to study and what book helped u study the most

 

[thewarrior05]

Self explanatory, took the CSA+ Exam

I was planning on taking the CASP exam, but saw the CSA+ and I needed to renew my certs so I said why not take this one. Still going to continue studying for the CASP though, just at a slower pace.

Its pretty close to the Sec+ exam though, less focus on memorization of facts that the Sec+ has, and more application of those concepts that you learn in Sec+. The books they have for the test are all over the place, but I posted two of them in the cert thread and if you need them and they aren't still available, let me know and I'll try to post them here for you.

That said relatively easy exam if you have experience running nmap or zenmap (focus on the commandline and what the program is actually doing) and what the varoius topics of security like organizational compliance, specific types of attacks and etc. This is a blue team or defensive security exam more than red team/offensive.

Anything you want to know I"m here to answer though

What sections was on the test the most and What study guides and practice exams did you use

 

[David_TheMan]

How much exp do you have? Why did you pick csa/casp over the cissp?

I have about 10 years of experience.
I"m a system admin/sys analyst.

As for picking CSA/CASP over CISSP, just random, I'm familar with CompTIA more than with the other shyt siso I figure I'd stick with it.

 

[ben anderson]

I have about 10 years of experience.
I"m a system admin/sys analyst.

As for picking CSA/CASP over CISSP, just random, I'm familar with CompTIA more than with the other shyt siso I figure I'd stick with it.

Start at a+ or just go for sec+? I have no experience

 

[David_TheMan]

Yo I got my CEH................... can you send me any of the stuff u used to study and what book helped u study the most

UPLOAD.EE - CompTIA_CSA__Study_Guide.pdf - Download
Private file

Read both, Sybex is good for overview, bad on specifics that is where the Pearson book comes in handy.
The certmaster shyt helped too, plus you get 10 CEs in completing it that you can try to apply for recertification.

What sections was on the test the most and What study guides and practice exams did you use

A lot of questions on my test about output from commands and what that meant in security. They have some funky simulations too, where you click on PC's, IPSs, and Server logs and try to determine from the logs what security issues there are and what to do to fix them. I think if you are good on know what nmap is, and the general principles involved you should be good.

I only read those 2 books and used certmaster to practice.
CompTIA had a sale where you get the 1 year deal on Certmaster and your CSA+ voucher with retest for 390 so I got that deal. Certmaster is good in getting you used to the type of questions they are going to ask and hammering home key shyt to know for that objective.

 

[David_TheMan]

Start at a+ or just go for sec+? I have no experience

No experience, get your Network+, no experience unless you have a hook up you aren't getting a Sec job with just that. The more you learn from your Network+ can be applied to your Sec+ as well.

Only reason I can say get an A+ is if you need it for that specific job, but if you can get your foot in the door now skip A+ and go for Net+ IMHO

 

[thewarrior05]

How many questions and nmap

 

[David_TheMan]

How many questions and nmap

75 questions total for the test.
had about 7 - 10 questions related to understanding output from nmap.
Its pretty to understand, but if you can get Kali linux (has all the tools you need) and play with nmap, learn the swtiches and what the output is.
Learn how to read the general output from netstat as well, traceroute/tracert, ipconfig/ifconfig and you should be solid.

 

[thewarrior05]

Lol the funny thing is I did most of that for CEH.... Now I got to do it again damn it lol

 

[David_TheMan]

Lol the funny thing is I did most of that for CEH.... Now I got to do it again damn it lol

A lot of people said that the studying for CEH is enough to take the CSA+ test. I've read Ethical Hacking books when I was in undergrad, but I would guess if you take what you learned from CEH and combine it with certmaster you would pass it easy, if you already have you CEH

 

[David_TheMan]

Do you need to know any programming language for that cert?

No, it isn't a programming certification, its a security certification.

 

[thewarrior05]

A lot of people said that the studying for CEH is enough to take the CSA+ test. I've read Ethical Hacking books when I was in undergrad, but I would guess if you take what you learned from CEH and combine it with certmaster you would pass it easy, if you already have you CEH

Also do you have like a cheat sheet that you used to study............... I know with CEH we had an cheat sheet with all the information on a couple of pages so it was easier to study

 

[Silkk]

Want to know if it actually lands you a security gig. Security+ really didn't do shyt for me