11 Jan 2022
By Devon

My Experience: FOR508 & GCFA

A small blogpost on my first ever experience taking a SANS course and my attempt at GCFA.   Intro This was my first time taking a SANS course. I did hear about SANS courses and also many people in the DFIR industry attempt exams for GIAC certifications.   I was a little overwhelmed. I did have a lot of dilemmas in deciding which certification to pursue. The main ones were GCFE (FOR500) and GCFA (FOR508).…
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29 Aug 2021
By Devon

First Time GIAC: Studying for the GCFE

Reading about SANS courses and GIAC certifications prior to this experience was a little overwhelming. Depending on dozens of factors, people that post online seem to have either a good or terrible experience. Forums say anything from “agonize over every word” to “passed without the class” with not enough background to quickly figure out what side of the spectrum you might be on.  So, I’ll put that up front: In my current role, I am…
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28 Feb 2020
By Devon

My Take on Preparing for GIAC Certification Exams

Introduction SANS GIAC Certifications are highly sought after because of the technical expertise required for completing them successfully. They are not to be taken lightly and are held in high regard due to them not being a “gimme” for the test taker. If you do not prepare, your score will reflect that and you risk not passing. The stakes are high due to the cost of the certification ($789 per attempt as of this writing…
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10 Dec 2018
By Devon

SANS SEC401 – Comprehensive Review

To get started in InfoSec, One must drink from the fire hose eventually  First, I want to apologize for the very late and posts over the last month or so. My life has been a little chaotic bouncing between a few different things and I went on holiday for a few weeks and was told no laptop :). But alas. For this post, I wanted to jump into something that has been very near and…
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23 Jun 2018
By Devon

Preparing for a GIAC Test….This is not the CISSP

I'm late for the day! Largely because my cities "summer festival" was last night and was out with friends, so blame them...not me :) This is a topic that has been touched on by others such as my good friend Lesley in her article in respects to making a good index for a GIAC exam. Lesley's template is still something I use, only over the course of my cert attempts I've tweaked it ever so…
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