CCSA in 15 days

Check Point CCSA in 15 days

I get a lot of calls from recruiters, at least one a week. It seems that most of them are very keen on people with Check Point security skills. So, I thought I would have a look into it. It never hurts to widen your skill-set.

I am currently studying for my Cisco CCIE certification, but after sitting my written exam I though I'd take a little time out to look at Check Point.

What is Check Point Firewall?

Check Point started in 1993, and offer a wide range of products covering Network Security, data, mobile and endpoint security. Last year they made a revenue of $1.394 Billion, with a net of $652 million. That's not bad really. It shows that people are using them. Which goes to explain the number of people looking for Check Point certified staff.

Can I become Check Point Certified Security Administrator in 15 days?

Firstly, why 15 days?

This is due to the licensing limit on the R77 software firewall, so, as far as I know, it'll need to be started again from scratch after the 15 days is up. So it seems like a good goal to work towards.

I have some pretty decent knowledge of Cisco ASAs, so, in theory, making the jump shouldn't be too hard.

What is the CCSA?

The CCSA (Check Point Certified Security Administrator) is their entry level exam. The exam code is 156-215.77, with the .77 referring to the current release of the software. It is a multiple choice based exam, which can be taken at any Pearson Vue testing center, and costs £125 in the UK.

The brief exam outline is:

• Check Point Technology Overview
• Deployment Platforms and Security Policies
• Monitoring Traffic and Connections
• Network Address Translations
• User Management and Authentication
• Using SmartUpdate
• Implementing Identity Awareness
• Configuring VPN tunnels
• Resolving security administration issues

There is a longer list of exam topics, which will be covered separately.

I will not guarantee that I will be able to study every day, so chances are that I will have to recreate the firewalls at some stage during the process, this also means that you shouldn't expect the blog to be updated every day, and to have everything completed within two weeks. But at the end of it, it does mean that someone might stumble onto the blog and be able to follow it through within that time-frame.

The clock will (hopefully) start ticking mid-November.