I don’t think I’ve really reviewed a technical book here before, but I read the thing so I guess I should. This book is the certification guide for a “Cisco CyberOps Associate” certification, which is what they now call the CCNA Security qualification. Its a relatively junior certification, qualifying you to be a level one operator in a Security Operations Centre (SOC).
I read this book because I took a Cisco NetAcad course for the associated certification in the second half of 2022 (although it has continued to be a thing I plug away at in 2023). That was mainly motivated by a desire to more about a field that is clearly important, but hasn’t been core to my personal career.
This book is reasonably well written and readable — I’d read a chapter in the evening after work and its wasn’t a huge chore to churn though. I certainly learned things along the way, even if the certification seems to suffer from a desire to have everyone rote learn a lot of acronyms, which seems like a common ailment in the industry (AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, I’m looking at you).
My main critism is of the qualification itself, which is that it is quite Cisco centric — almost all examples of the implementation of a technology are a Cisco product, which is great if you’re trying to demonstrate the depth of Cisco’s portfolio, but isn’t great if you’re competing with less vendor centric certification options. This is in contrast to the CCNA content, which feels more vendor neutral to me because its more fundamental.
That said, this book wasn’t a waste of my time and I learned stuff — which I guess is mission accomplished for a technical book?
Computers
Cisco Press
August 6, 2020
900
Modern organizations rely on Security Operations Center (SOC) teams to vigilantly watch security systems, rapidly detect breaches, and respond quickly and effectively. To succeed, SOCs desperately need more qualified cybersecurity professionals. Cisco's new Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate certification prepares candidates to begin a career working as associate-level cybersecurity analysts within SOCs.