Security+ Study Guide and DVD Training System [With DVD]

This was the third and final book I bought and used to pass the Security+ exam. I failed the exam the first time after studying Mike Meyers book, it was way to easy. The second book I purchased was the Exam Cram2 book, even easier than Mike Meyers book and I could tell that by the time I had read seven chapters. I simply put the book down and asked around.This is the book that was recommended to me as the ONLY book to use to pass the Security+ exam. It doesn not candy coat how hard the exam is. It tells you in detail what you need to know to pass the exam. It will tell you you don't need to know this to pass the exam...BUT you should know this for the real world. Pay attention to the exam alerts and warnings. Trust me they will give you a great idea of what to expect. In my opinion the DVD that comes with this book is worthless, its the book you want!!I can't say enough about this exam. While it could use a little editing in my opinion. Some of the paragraphs where a little long winded, it does cover unlike other books in extream detail what you need to know. Non of the other 2 books I read covered what this book takes forgranted as the "normal" information you need to know! CompTIA's Security+ exam is not a easy exam like the A+ and Net+ which in my opinion are used to grade first year IT persons. This exam expects you to know in detail and to be able to figure out situations and how to fix them. This book provides the book knowledge and also points you in the direction you need to go to figure out the situational questions.This book is definately worth the read IF you want to pass!! This is the only book I recommend as one that will provide you with the tools to pass the exam at all!Erik; A+, Net+, Security+, soon to be MCSA.

I bought this book along w/ a couple of the others to study for the Security+ exam. I wanted to make sure I used the best book, so I read the first couple of chapters of each before deciding to use this one as my primary book. I continued to use Passport for quick, review stuff. This book was by far the most comprehensive and gave the most detailed and thorough explanation of the objectives. A lot of the other book throw terms at you with quick definitions, but never really give you any context or production examples. I also found this book mapped better to the official CompTIA objectives than any of the other books. The book has all of the objective numbers in the margins, so you always know which objecitves you're studying. This makes is a lot easier to make sure you've covered everything. The test questions were also very good, and the explanations of the quesitons and answers were very informative. The book help me pass. Well done.

I am writing this to inform the 'negative posters' here of comments that your posts here relate to the fact that you think this book is not good advanced security topics like for the CISSP - well I have news for you... this book was made for the SECURITY+ exam, not the CISSP exam - surprise! The Security+ exam is an entry-level cert for security beginners looking to advance to the CISSP, etc next, not the other way around. If you think that this book is lame because you're studying for your CISSP, then your actually just facing reality that the CISSP exam is like 10x harder than this one, and you SHOULD know all this stuff already, so why did you read it anyway, and why would you make ridiculous comments against a book that was written to help you pass an entry level exam? If you are actually using this 'certification study guide' to pass the 'certification exam' then that's why the book is repeats things... to reinforce difficult concepts for newbie's... repetition will also build the concepts up in your head so you can remember them come test time. Also if you follow the actual CompTIA exam objectives online at CompTIA.org, you will see that the actual objectives are repetitive. If you work through this book completely, your guaranteed to pass. For those of you looking for a quick pass and don't want to read a book like this, I suggest not bother taking the exam, and stop slamming the book because you failed. You're only embarrassing yourselves. For those of you serious about taking the exam, then this is what you need to read... from start to finish, and you'll pass - for sure. For the posters who are just 'upset' because they failed... its not the books fault, its yours.

I've read countless study guides over the last few years for all the major certs. from Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA, etc. And I can honestly say this is really one of the best ones that I've seen. The auhtors have done a really masterful job of covering absolutely everything that is on the exam, but also including the right amount of coverage on things that may not be tested, but you really need to brush up on to understand the stuff that is being tested. I also haven't seen sample question and answer sections as in depth as the ones in this book. If you read all the answer explantions you really begin to understand what the questions are all about, and this helps you that much more for the exam. I also like the idea of having a DVD with the book and them getting all the other stuff that is usually on a CD from the Web site. You just get so much more by doing it this way.

Security+ is CompTIA's newest exam, it covers a wide variety of security concepts. Having taken the beta, help tech edit a coupe of books, I thought I had certainly seen about everything relating to the exam. The author(s) and editor(s) of this book have put together some of the best reading on the subject I have seen.In just over 800 pages, the exam, which covers a vast amount of information, is taken apart and pieced together in a logical and well written format. What I found is that the book is written to the level of the intermediate skill set and this make the learning process a bit better.The section on attacks, as well as the wireless section goes beyond the exam objectives; in fact the wireless section could be used for other exams such as CWNA. There is a good flow of information and it is well documented and well organized, each section building on the previous.There are a few well thought out add-ons, such as the exercises, which seem to draw from real life, rather than simulation. Also the exam tips and warnings are very helpful; anyone preparing for the exam should take a close look at these.At the end of each chapter you find a review test of the material, the question are well explained and I was impressed with the FAQ section in each chapter, no other book I have seen has this. Finally there is a DVD with over 2 hours of instructional material. While this could be used as a stand alone tool I found it to be more helpful working with the book. Overall I think this book gives you a very good shot at passing - well done.