Security Plus

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 11, 2011, 10:42 am

So it looks like I finally landed a job in Japan, and they need to fill the position right away so I'd be leaving in 3 weeks or less. In that time I need to get my Security Plus certification, and I was hoping someone here might have a suggestion as far as a good source for the question pool/a test engine/whatever. My friend and I have been looking around online, and the supposed question pool we have found from various sources varies wildly in size.

Any help/advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » January 11, 2011, 6:06 pm

What certs do you have? Security+ is no joke, from what I hear, but I'm just working on my CCNA to go with A+, and CCNP to follow.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 11, 2011, 7:25 pm

I don't have any yet :/

I've printed out the 1000 questions and I'm just going to study my ass off and take the test next week sometime.

I figure I'll go for the mcsa after this since it counts towards that.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » January 11, 2011, 8:54 pm

double post

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » January 11, 2011, 8:54 pm

Wow, next week.... I've hit the books hard for 2 months to get halfway through my CCNA. I hope you have prior knowledge and the cert is merely a job requirement that you'd be qualified for anyway.

If you're a noob and it was me in your position, I'd get a cram book, a case of red bull, and hope that I don't fuck up something on the job that my cert claims I should know.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 11, 2011, 9:48 pm

Yeah it's basically just a formality for the job. The cert is required for any position at ANY IT job overseas that is through the government, or through a company that contracts with the government. I'd basically be doing DBA type stuff to start with, so very little of the material actually applies to what I'd be doing.

Boogahz · Post by **Boogahz** » January 12, 2011, 12:06 am

So, they didn't require that you have the cert before hiring you? I know that the company I work for pays for licensing for certain positions, but we also provide the training for the testing after hire as well. Are they just making you take it on your own before you go over there?

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 12, 2011, 12:19 am

Yeah, I don't technically have the job yet, but my friend that is taking a job there as well is good friends with the guy that does the hiring and will be my boss, and I've talked to him and not getting this cert would be the only thing that would stop me from getting the job. There is another one that I have to get in the first 30 days I'm there as well, I can't remember what it is but it's much easier, and they pay for it.

I've got a ton of stuff to get done in a short period of time, including getting my dad power of attorney so he can sell my car, but this is the only part that's stressing me out. I've got the first 150 or so questions memorized after a few hours though, so I'm pretty sure I'll be fine.

Sargeras · Post by **Sargeras** » January 12, 2011, 5:21 pm

By working for the government, do you mean DoD? And if it's DoD, are you doing this for the mandatory DoD 8570 Directive compliance?

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » January 12, 2011, 6:57 pm

Congrats on the prospect of a new job. and in Japan?! That's freaking awesome. You've been there so you know how things work. I was going to ask the same thing about if this is for a private company or a DOD position. DOD Security for computers is some of the most anal requirements I've ever seen. As that is not going to be your main job consider yourself lucky. If I were 25 years younger I'd be incredibly envious but as I'm not that young anymore, I'm just slightly envious.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 12, 2011, 7:33 pm

Sarg - I'll actually be working for a company called CSC. I believe that since they do contract work for the government, though, that directive still applies and is why I have to get the cert, but I'm not 100% on that and could be wrong.

Bubba - thanks! Yeah, I'm really excited and hope everything works out. I'll be getting a decent raise over what I'm making to go there, plus it's tax free, PLUS they pay up to like 30k/year towards your rent wherever you want to live. Add to that I'll be getting a secret security clearance, and this is a huge opportunity for me. That's not to mention that I get to move to Japan, which I really want to do!

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » January 13, 2011, 1:04 pm

Secret security clearance carries with it a lot of responsibility too. That's all I can say about that.

Now, stop reading out here and get back to studying!

Sargeras · Post by **Sargeras** » January 13, 2011, 1:12 pm

Yeah I know CSC, my previous employer picked up their AFMC contract.

I'm 8570 compliant. If you're interested, I have a Sec+ study package. It's 276mb zip, and has guides, cheat sheets, practice tests, cbt's, etc. I'll throw it on my server tonight if you're interested.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » January 13, 2011, 1:34 pm

Bubba Grizz wrote:Secret security clearance carries with it a lot of responsibility too. That's all I can say about that.

I agree with that. I only had to deal with a couple secret documents here and there but people that had higher levels of clearance didn't really like having it.

The NSA, CIA, FBI, and DIA would always be around for meetings due do the secure communications equipment my department at Motorola provided. From my tiny view of this world, security was always handled very well. Not one peep about captured alien tech!

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » January 13, 2011, 1:43 pm

Congrats man! You seem to like Japan a lot, so this is a tremendous opportunity!

You said you are doing DBA stuff to start? What platform?

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 13, 2011, 2:33 pm

Sargeras wrote:Yeah I know CSC, my previous employer picked up their AFMC contract.

I'm 8570 compliant. If you're interested, I have a Sec+ study package. It's 276mb zip, and has guides, cheat sheets, practice tests, cbt's, etc. I'll throw it on my server tonight if you're interested.

I would very much appreciate that!! It's been a long time since I've had to study anything, so I'll take any help I can get

Canelek wrote:Congrats man! You seem to like Japan a lot, so this is a tremendous opportunity!

You said you are doing DBA stuff to start? What platform?

Thanks!! Yeah I love Japan, I'm really excited. I want to see how well I can learn the language while I'm there, too!

I'm not really sure yet. Judging by the job description on the site and what I've heard from my friends that work there so far, I'll need to use: C#, ASP, Flash, PERL, SQL, Oracle (versions 11 and 12 I think), and I'm probably forgetting something. I've got a solid working knowledge of pretty much all of that, and I pick up on things really quick, so I'll be fine.

I think the other cert I need to get after I get there is ITIL level 3. From what I hear it's a really easy 40 question test though.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » January 13, 2011, 4:58 pm

BTW, grats on the Japan job (if it works out)

As Bubba was saying, I'd be jealous as well if I was younger...although I think when I was younger I wouldn't have wanted to go...although now that I'm older I wish I would have looked for a job in Japan...so it's a phantom jealously because looking back I wouldn't have been jealous but should have been. So grats to you for making a big decision relatively early in life!

You're representing the U.S. so no more spitting on people (you'd get thrown in the slammer and probably caned in Singapore, not sure how strict Japan is on spitting)

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » January 13, 2011, 6:23 pm

My first time downtown Tokyo, I was in Ropongi (I think, it was a long time ago). Across the street from the Hardrock Cafe (huge King Kong hanging off the side) was a place called Pips. We stopped in there for a bite to eat and ran into an American student just graduating from the University of Tokyo. He was leaving the next day to go stateside but before he left he passed on these words of wisdom, "The more Japanese you know, the more pussy you are going to get". The next day I bought an English - Japanese dictionary. Did I mention I really really miss Japan?

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » January 13, 2011, 6:26 pm

That's quite a list!

I can tell you that Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle are apples->oranges, but given the opportunity to work with both, you'd be the better for it.

That said, fuck Oracle.

Regards,
14-year SQL Server DBA (production)

PS: I'd love Oracle if I got paid Oracle DBA money

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » January 16, 2011, 2:35 pm

Canelek wrote:Regards,
14-year SQL Server DBA (production)

PS: I'd love Oracle if I got paid Oracle DBA money

"Good" Oracle DBAs are few and far between.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 16, 2011, 3:35 pm

Canelek wrote:That's quite a list!

I can tell you that Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle are apples->oranges, but given the opportunity to work with both, you'd be the better for it.

That said, fuck Oracle.

Regards,
14-year SQL Server DBA (production)

PS: I'd love Oracle if I got paid Oracle DBA money

I'm not a huge fan of Oracle right now. The whole software suite the data center uses at the company I work for is a oracle product, we were basically the beta testers for it in our prod environment, and to be quite honest it's really not very good.

Bubba, that is one of my many reasons to learn Japanese, not gonna lie

Winnow - thanks! And don't worry, I'll be on my best behavior. haha

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » January 16, 2011, 8:20 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:I'm not a huge fan of Oracle right now. The whole software suite the data center uses at the company I work for is a oracle product, we were basically the beta testers for it in our prod environment, and to be quite honest it's really not very good.

Aabidano wrote:"Good" Oracle DBAs are few and far between.

Our environment is pretty much bulletproof, no issues ever. Some anxiety when we spun down systems that had been up for years last year and that's about it.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 16, 2011, 9:19 pm

The issues we have aren't so much reliability as they are - it just doesn't do a lot of the stuff we need it to do that the old data center stuff we used did. That isn't so much of a fault of Oracles as it is management at our company for buying a product that hadn't even been fully tested and is still having major patches to add stuff in that should have been there from the jump. They aren't too prompt on getting patches/enhancements out either, we've had fairly major issues that we've had to find workarounds for because we have to wait months and months for Oracle to fix them.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » January 17, 2011, 2:04 am

The irony of my job is I work for IBM now and I manage around 120 SQL Server instances. Fuck DB2, too!

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » January 17, 2011, 8:24 am

Funkmasterr wrote:The issues we have aren't so much reliability as they are - it just doesn't do a lot of the stuff we need it to do that the old data center stuff we used did.

I bought this VW and every time I fill it with concrete to go pour a driveway... Piece of crap!

We've got duplicate everything that anything going to production gets tested on.

Ashur · Post by **Ashur** » January 19, 2011, 5:16 pm

Enjoy the job and try not to pass anything important off to Wikileaks.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » January 19, 2011, 6:54 pm

Haha thanks, just got done with the test. PASSED

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » February 3, 2011, 4:14 pm

Got the job, just pending my interim security clearance going through. I'm filling out the paperwork for it and I'm nervous as hell. I owe a bit in back taxes (less than 1k) and a handful of other bad debts that total maybe 5k... I've been told by various people who have been through the process and know people that have been turned down for clearance because of financial issues, and they've said that it happens because they lied/omitted it, or it was a huge amount of money, and they all felt confident I would be okay.

I'm sure it'll be fine, but I haven't slept much all week and don't expect that will happen until I know for sure. If everything goes as expected with the clearance I'm tentatively on a plane to Japan the 26th/27th of this month. WEeeEEeeee!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 3, 2011, 4:32 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:Got the job, just pending my interim security clearance going through. I'm filling out the paperwork for it and I'm nervous as hell. I owe a bit in back taxes (less than 1k) and a handful of other bad debts that total maybe 5k... I've been told by various people who have been through the process and know people that have been turned down for clearance because of financial issues, and they've said that it happens because they lied/omitted it, or it was a huge amount of money, and they all felt confident I would be okay.

I'm sure it'll be fine, but I haven't slept much all week and don't expect that will happen until I know for sure. If everything goes as expected with the clearance I'm tentatively on a plane to Japan the 26th/27th of this month. WEeeEEeeee!

Bad credits is a killer for security clearance. They don't want anyone that owes money and might be persuaded to do something to get out of that debt that would involve breaking their security clearance.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » February 3, 2011, 4:41 pm

Winnow wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:Got the job, just pending my interim security clearance going through. I'm filling out the paperwork for it and I'm nervous as hell. I owe a bit in back taxes (less than 1k) and a handful of other bad debts that total maybe 5k... I've been told by various people who have been through the process and know people that have been turned down for clearance because of financial issues, and they've said that it happens because they lied/omitted it, or it was a huge amount of money, and they all felt confident I would be okay.

I'm sure it'll be fine, but I haven't slept much all week and don't expect that will happen until I know for sure. If everything goes as expected with the clearance I'm tentatively on a plane to Japan the 26th/27th of this month. WEeeEEeeee!

Bad credits is a killer for security clearance. They don't want anyone that owes money and might be persuaded to do something to get out of that debt that would involve breaking their security clearance.

Right, but like I said, what I've heard from people who've been through the stuff before - is typically if you are up front and honest about it on your forms, it's not an issue, unless you owe tons of money. I'm pretty confident I'll be ok, but I guess I'll find out for sure in the next week.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » February 3, 2011, 4:58 pm

Correct. Less than 10K should be totally fine. I owed about 8K when I was hired by Merrill Lynch back in 2005. Now THAT was some crazy background checks due to SEC, NYSE, etc.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 3, 2011, 5:14 pm

Also, the last thing you want to be behind on is your taxes. Don't fuck with the federal government. Pay that before anything else.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » February 3, 2011, 5:19 pm

Yeah, I intend on paying all of my bad debt off (taxes first) in the first 3 months I'm in Japan, and I'm going to note that in the comments section on the SF-86.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » February 3, 2011, 6:06 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:typically if you are up front and honest about it on your forms, it's not an issue, unless you owe tons of money.

Was involved with it for years, worst thing can do is lie followed by leaving stuff out. If all your getting is an interim secret it's not a big deal at all.

Chronic credit problems are an issue depending on the clearance level. I've seen folks get a clearance yanked due to a messy divorces, DUIs, credit cards and all kinds of other stuff..

For higher level clearances they'll be talking to all your family and neighbors from the last 5 or so years and following up on anything they might say about you. You've got to be squeaky clean. It's also about a $60k investment for an employer.

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » February 4, 2011, 10:51 am

Yuppers. Because my grandparents on my father's side are from Russia they went deep into my history and interviewed pretty much anyone I have ever had contact with and 2-3 steps out from that as well. Friends of my friends, 2nd and 3rd cousins, basically everyone. I didn't get clearence until 2 years into my stint. Now, in 2 more years, I'll finally be off of the IRR (inactive ready reserve). They pretty much locked me down for 25 years after I got out.

Aabidano · Post by **Aabidano** » February 4, 2011, 1:19 pm

Dad worked in corporate licensing and traveled to communist bloc countries a lot selling chemical plants (more or less). Put the folks doing my initial clearance check into a frenzy

Depending on what you work on\with you can end up with lifetime travel restrictions, requirements to pre-screen publications with State, all kinds of crap. Would assume folks like Scooter & Co. aren't impacted.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » February 4, 2011, 11:16 pm

Aabidano wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:typically if you are up front and honest about it on your forms, it's not an issue, unless you owe tons of money.
Was involved with it for years, worst thing can do is lie followed by leaving stuff out. If all your getting is an interim secret it's not a big deal at all.

Chronic credit problems are an issue depending on the clearance level. I've seen folks get a clearance yanked due to a messy divorces, DUIs, credit cards and all kinds of other stuff..

For higher level clearances they'll be talking to all your family and neighbors from the last 5 or so years and following up on anything they might say about you. You've got to be squeaky clean. It's also about a $60k investment for an employer.

Yeah I just have to get my interim (secret) clearance before I leave, then they'll work on the full one once I get there.

I have a dui on my record from 5 years ago and about a half dozen or so things in collections, most of which are from 8-10 years ago. I'm going to pay it all off as soon as I get to Japan, so I just hope the stuff doesn't end up screwing me.

I don't keep very good records, so I'm going to pull all my credit reports and do the detective work to write down everything to the best of my knowledge. I'm a nervous wreck about all this.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 5, 2011, 12:15 am

Funkmasterr wrote:
I have a dui on my record from 5 years ago and about a half dozen or so things in collections, most of which are from 8-10 years ago. I'm going to pay it all off as soon as I get to Japan, so I just hope the stuff doesn't end up screwing me.

Unless the laws have changed, you don't need to worry about any revolving credit debts more than seven years old. They shouldn't be on your credit report anymore. Taxes are another matter.

DUI's I think stay on your record for 10 years (for the purpose of repeat offenses)

I could be wrong on both counts but that's how it used to be.

Funkmasterr · Post by **Funkmasterr** » February 5, 2011, 1:01 am

Yeah, I checked with the lady helping me with this, and since a lot of my debts have been transferred to new collections agencies in the last 7 years, so I have to list them. Statue of limitations on debt in Minnesota is 10 years.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » February 5, 2011, 4:01 pm

Funkmasterr wrote:Yeah, I checked with the lady helping me with this, and since a lot of my debts have been transferred to new collections agencies in the last 7 years, so I have to list them. Statue of limitations on debt in Minnesota is 10 years.

Ah, if you don't pay on a past debt, they drop off after 7 years. If you attempt to make payments then they stay active on your credit report.

You can keep getting attempts to collect from third party collection agencies after seven years but they're meaningless. They have zero bearing on your credit. It very well may be ten years though these days. I'm kinda out of the loop. I haven't had any revolving credit/debt that I haven't paid of the same month since the mid 90's.

sarlen · Post by **sarlen** » February 8, 2011, 12:00 am

Funkmasterr wrote:
I'm not a huge fan of Oracle right now. The whole software suite the data center uses at the company I work for is a oracle product, we were basically the beta testers for it in our prod environment, and to be quite honest it's really not very good.

This pretty much sums up my feelings on Oracle as well. We have 65 SQL boxes and 6 Oracle boxes, guess which ones the DBAs are huddled over more at night and the weekends..

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » February 21, 2011, 9:01 pm

Winnow wrote:
Funkmasterr wrote:Yeah, I checked with the lady helping me with this, and since a lot of my debts have been transferred to new collections agencies in the last 7 years, so I have to list them. Statue of limitations on debt in Minnesota is 10 years.
Ah, if you don't pay on a past debt, they drop off after 7 years. If you attempt to make payments then they stay active on your credit report.

You can keep getting attempts to collect from third party collection agencies after seven years but they're meaningless. They have zero bearing on your credit. It very well may be ten years though these days. I'm kinda out of the loop. I haven't had any revolving credit/debt that I haven't paid of the same month since the mid 90's.

It's an interesting theory, but it depends who you owe money to.

Australia has similar 7 year bankruptcy retirement, but you have to actually go bankrupt.

On the other hand, when I worked for one of the 4 major banks here, we had bad debt ledgers that we kept until you died (well, 50 years). They wouldn't give a toss what some credit reporting agency thought of you if you owed them money.