This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

CCNA Security

Official Exam Certification Guide

• Master the IINS 640-553 exam with this official study guide

• Assess your knowledge with chapter-opening quizzes

• Review key concepts with Exam Preparation Tasks

• Practice with realistic exam questions on the CD-ROM

CCNA Security Official Exam Certification Guide is a best of breed Cisco® exam study guide that focuses specifically on the objectives for the CCNA® Security IINS exam. Senior security instructors Michael Watkins and Kevin Wallace share preparation hints and test-taking tips, helping you identify areas of weakness and improve both your conceptual knowledge and hands-on skills. Material is presented in a concise manner, focusing on increasing your understanding and retention of exam topics.

CCNA Security Official Exam Certification Guide presents you with an organized test preparation routine through the use of proven series elements and techniques. “Do I Know This Already?” quizzes open each chapter and allow you to decide how much time you need to spend on each section. Exam topic lists make referencing easy. Chapter-ending Exam Preparation Tasks sections help drill you on key concepts you must know thoroughly.

The companion CD-ROM contains a powerful testing engine that allows you to focus on individual topic areas or take complete, timed exams. The assessment engine also tracks your performance and provides feedback on a topic-by-topic basis, presenting question-by-question remediation to the text and laying out a complete study plan for review.

Well-regarded for its level of detail, assessment features, and challenging review questions and exercises, this official study guide helps you master the concepts and techniques that will enable you to succeed on the exam the first time.

CCNA Security Official Exam Certification Guide is part of a recommended learning path from Cisco that includes simulation and hands-on training from authorized Cisco Learning Partners and self-study products from Cisco Press. To find out more about instructor-led training, e-learning, and hands-on instruction offered by authorized Cisco Learning Partners worldwide, please visit www.cisco.com/go/authorizedtraining.

Michael Watkins, CCNA/CCNP®/CCVP®/CCSP®, is a full-time senior technical instructor with SkillSoft Corporation. With 13 years of network management, training, and consulting experience, Michael has worked with organizations such as Kraft Foods, Johnson and Johnson, Raytheon, and the United States Air Force to help them implement and learn the latest network technologies.

Kevin Wallace, CCIE® No. 7945, is a certified Cisco instructor working full time for SkillSoft, where he teaches courses in the Cisco CCSP, CCVP, and CCNP tracks. With 19 years of Cisco networking experience, Kevin has been a network design specialist for the Walt Disney World Resort and a network manager for Eastern Kentucky University. Kevin also is a CCVP, CCSP, CCNP, and CCDP with multiple Cisco security and IP communications specializations.

The official study guide helps you master all the topics on the IINS exam, including

• Network security threats

• Security policies

• Network perimeter defense

• AAA configuration

• Router security

• Switch security

• Endpoint security

• SAN security

• VoIP security

• IOS firewalls

• Cisco IOS® IPS

• Cryptography

• Digital signatures

• PKI and asymmetric encryption

• IPsec VPNs

This volume is part of the Exam Certification Guide Series from Cisco Press®. Books in this series provide officially developed exam preparation materials that offer assessment, review, and practice to help Cisco Career Certification candidates identify weaknesses, concentrate their study efforts, and enhance their confidence as exam day nears.

Category: Cisco Press—Cisco Certification

Covers: IINS exam 640-553

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

USE FOR PRIMER ONLY - 2009-07-10
Reviewer Rating:
DON'T BUY! ABSOLUTELY WORTHLESS FOR THE EXAM. This book should be billed as a primer only. It contains good introductory-level information but was nowhere near the level of depth of information required on the actual exam. The cover says it has "realistic exam questions." Not so. I passed all practice exams with ease, but on the actual exam, the level of granularity on the questions was much more in-depth than anything covered in the book. This book in no way, shape, or form prepares you for the exam. Like I said, good as an intro to the subject but definitely NOT good for exam preparation. Sorry to disappoint, but either they changed the exam to make it harder, or whoever advertised the book over-reached on their claims for how the book would prepare you. In any case, if it ever was good, it is NOT good for this exam any longer. DON'T BUY!

ccna security ftw! - 2009-04-10
Reviewer Rating:
This is a must need book for any network technician or administrator. Plain and simple, you will get your money's worth out of this book! I recently obtained my CCNA and was looking to add an extra appendage to my credentials, so I chose to read this book. I havent yet attempted to take the certification yet or if I even will, but I will say that I came out knowing a ton more about hardening your Cisco devices than I did with the ccna material. In fact, theres really not that much configuring wise with security in the ccna material. So this book really gives you a "one-up" to those with just ccna credentials.

The first thing that I enjoyed in this book was learning about DHCP snooping, vlan hopping, double tagging, stp attacks, CAM table attacks, etc. This book actually explains and shows you how to prevent these layer 2 attacks.

I also enjoyed the cryptography and encryption material (which I also didn't know much about).

The CCNA security is fairly new to the cisco program (as of april 09) and is definitely emerging big time. I encourage you to get this book and jump on the bandwagon.

Great book - 2009-04-21
Reviewer Rating:
This was a very informative text that provides a nice entry into the security realm after obtaining your CCNA. Whether you plan to take the exam or not, I highly recommend it for the knowledge you can obtain from it.

Best Study Source for CCNAS - 2009-10-19
Reviewer Rating:
I read this book, as well as the Exam Cram book for this exam, and studied a little bit from the other CCNA Security book by Richard Deal. Overall I think the Cisco Press book was the best as far as what it covers and how it words things. The key topics are clearly marked throughout the chapters so you can easily flip through the book and review them, this helps keep from having to highlight and mark things on your own. The many screen shots of SDM where helpful and the configuration examples where easy to understand. So yeah, best single study source.

Some final advice:
I think this book was better than the other two I studied. But I'd suggest studying from at least one other book just to get a different taste of it. You may be able to answer all the questions in this book, but fail miserably at the questions from another book because they're different. This was a tough exam, I was lucky to have SDM and a router at home to practice the stuff on and passed the exam, not a great score, but still. I honestly don't think studying ONLY this book will enable you to pass, I don't think studying any ONE book will enable you to pass, at the least you should have some way to practice everything hands-on, or "simulate" it however you can, because Cisco has questions on the exams that require you to know how to do some of the stuff hands on.

excellent coverage of exam material - 2009-05-11
Reviewer Rating:
I can't imagine being able to pass this exam without this book. topics are well organized and very well covered. The included CD has the boson test on it, which is integrally tied to the book. If you miss a question on the test their is a link that will take directly to that section of the book that covers that material.

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