Our life

Now as I began to type this a week ago yesterday, I sat in seat 11B, onboard NWA flight 1294. Non-stop service to Dulles International Airport. I was on my way, 2 days after passing my GSEC, to attend the CISSP boot camp. After boot camp, I would be taking my exam either the Saturday after (November 15th), or in December. In the seat behind me sat Batman’s disowned son, RW. He was with the Help Desk when I first started down there 4 years ago. He went up to work for 1 of the 2 most dangerous people I know (Yes, G, you) about the same time I was brought on full time at the desk. Our flight landed about 1030EDT. We went to our respective rental companies, then respective hotels. He got a Hyundai. I was originally given a Mazda 5 (read: mini-minivan). I asked if there was something else. They gave me a “more suitable car” instead (hooray for free upgrades). By the time I was settled in, it was close to 1AM.

This week was brutal. Class started Sunday and ended Thursday. Our instructor, John “Hack” Hackmeyer¹, was just fantastic. HUGE props to him for presenting a MASSIVE amount of data in a short time, clearly and concisely. Class was just awesome, albeit tough.

Now, I can tell you how to craft a packet using hping. I can tell you how to find rogue APs, and how to blank an admin password on a windows box. Most of that stuff is covered under the SANS bodies of study (GSEC, GPEN, etc).

What I couldn’t tell you was how to properly equate an SLE (AV*EF), or how the ALE (SLE*ARO) is used in Risk Assesment and how the CBA affects the decision. Nor could I tell you, off the top of my head, the inner workings of DES (Symmetric, uses DEA as its algorithm, based off of IBM’s Lucifer algorithm. Weak due to small keyspace) or that RSA factors 2 large prime numbers (Broken Glass analogy).

Those are some of the nuggets that I was tested on for the CISSP. Just a couple of the many in their “CBK”. I studied my butt off, but still didn’t know it all. The exam started, officially, at 912AM EDT. Was I prepared? No. Was I ready? Maybe. Do I think I passed? Absolutely. I had all the answers to the exam. In fact, they gave them all to me. They just obfuscated² them with 3 wrong ones.

I walked out of the exam at 247PM EDT, feeling pretty good. I didn’t “kick its a**”, as Hack would say. But it didn’t kick mine (as RW said). I felt good about it. I think the hardest part of it is now going to be the wait. It will be at least 2 weeks before we hear anything. Since the end of those 2 weeks falls on a holiday, it won’t be til December now.

And so here I sit, again, in seat 11B, onboard NWA flight 1263. Non-stop service to Minneapolis-St Paul International. RW sits across the aisle on this flight. We’re both uncertain, but feeling the same. Our conversation bounced from what we’ve learned to completely unrelated things that guys discuss, and back again. Anyone listening in would have been thoroughly confused. We landed at 715CDT and parted ways.

It has been one massive week. A blur. A real butt kicker. My mind is now mush. I am exhausted, nervous and even frustrated. But the biggest thing I was feeling was excitement. I hadn’t held my daughter or kissed my wife in 7 days. I have alot of time to make up before I get back to the office.

And now its the morning after as I finish this up. Just missed dd by 30 minutes or so last night. Got to sneak in twice to give her a kiss. Just amazing. About 330AM, she requested food. I got up with her, as did mommy. When she saw me, she just lit up. So very very cool. I changed her as she giggled. But since I lack the necessary anatomical requirements, mommy handled the feeding. But this morning, she’s all mine. I fed her again about 730, and we’re just hanging out.

It seems that in the week I’ve been gone, she has learned so much more than I. My learning was very focused. A particular subset of things, all related in one way or another to an ultimate goal: IT Security.

DD, on the other hand, has learned just a wee bit more about life. I am humbled.

1. breaking the name thing here, but he truly deserves the plug. Just an awesome instructor, really. If your company needs advanced IT training, contact him. [↩]
2. dad: otherwise tasked? [↩]

4 hours, 24 minutes, and a few seconds. That was my Thursday, 2 Thursdays ago. It was the second longest Thursday I can recall, and the single longest exam I’ve ever taken, until yesterday.

Remember back in August, that little training event I went to? Well, the training was to prepare me for the GIAC General Security Essentials Certificate. The GSEC. A “bachelors degree in computer security”. After class, I was given 4 months to study for and take the exam.

As things often go, when I went back to normal life after the training event, I became busy living. Work, family, blankly staring at the wall while drooling. These things take time. So I hadn’t spent the time studying like I should.

That changed rather quickly. You see, work had planned on sending me to a CISSP Boot Camp some time in 2009. If the GSEC is the Bachelor’s Degree, then the CISSP is the Master’s. “Mile wide and inch deep”. It covers many, many things in the IT Security world, just not as in depth as the GSEC. But it is the premiere certificate in IT Security. The Holy Grail.

I found out about 2 weeks before I took my GSEC that an opportunity opened up for me to attend a CISSP boot camp. Initially, I was weary. I hadn’t taken the GSEC yet, and I wasn’t sure I was fully ready. But the opportunity came up. It would be silly for me to pass on it. Plus, when senior management suggests you go, then you go. Its just that simple (don’t bite the hand that feeds).

Thinking it would be best to get all this GSEC stuff out of my head before going after another cert, we decided I need to study. The first night I studied, it was over at Oz’s on a weeknight, while she was at our house hangin out with C+dd. That worked out nicely, but I needed somewhere more isolated. Somewhere without distraction.

Thankfully, Oz has access to a building that has 2 rooms: 1 really swanky conference room, and 1 less swanky back room. Said back room consisted of a desk, a table, an unplugged fridge, 2 doors and a window. That’s it. No phone. No internet. Barely any cell reception. Perfect.

So I locked myself in that room, mostly cut off from the outside world, for an entire weekend. Well, 16 to 20 hours of the weekend. 6 books, 2 laptops, an iPod; a small galaxy of multicolored post-its, highlighters and pens. Just me, 4 walls and 2 spiders.

The time in my box, plus the time at various other places, paid off. I needed a 70% inside of the 5 hours allotted. It took me 4 hours, 24 minutes and change. I scored an 89.44%, missing 19 of the 180 questions. Half of those missed were in the last hour, when fatigue and malnutirition kicked in. Longest exam ever. But, that score was high enough to be invited to become a SANS Mentor. How cool is that?

It will be 4 years ago Thanksgiving that I started working at the Help Desk. My, how things have changed.