CEH & CHFI Self-Study Route Advice

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Hi All,

I have been recently sponsored through work to undertake both the CEH and CHFI. The sponsorship includes exam and study material costs.

Due to the nature of my work (I am a Police Officer within CID) it would be very diffuclt for me due to shift work to take 2 weeks off for a tutor led course.

I have over 4 years experience investigating crimes including e-crime and cyber-crime plus I have the bog standard A+ certification and programming experience in C++ and Turbo Pascal.

As such I am looking to go through the self-study route (also because I prefer to discover and work out things for myself rather than have someone literally vomit countless information on me for hours on end for the sake of passing an exam).

Can anyone please let me know in their experience if that is the correct route to undertake and what would be the best course material for the CEH and CHFI courses?

Thanks and congrats on the forum!

Ciao,

Invictus

 

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Hey, admins/mods - when you guys approve posts, many of us don't ever see them, because we've refreshed new posts between the time the post is submitted and the time the post is approved. Is there any way to reset the time on the post when it's approved so all of us can have an opportunity to see it and respond to it? Otherwise, a new user might post, never see a response, and give up on the forum entirely.

The reason I bring this up is because Invictus PMed me asking for advice, stating that nobody had replied to his post. Unfortunately, I don't think I ever saw it, and others might be in the same boat.

 

Invictus,

To be honest, I don't know of any training products for the CEH and CHFI - I haven't pursued those certifications myself. If I were interested in studying for them, I would look for reviews for books and other study tools, such as practice exams and video-based training (if I enjoyed using video-based training products, which I don't - you can't skim a video!).

Boson's got a CEH practice exam product, but I haven't used it, so I don't know how well it prepares you for the exam. I'd recommend that you download the demo and see if you like it. You can do the same for other legit practice exam vendors as well.

Sorry I couldn't be of more use to you!

 

Hi Invictus,
I've looked into this before as the company I work for wanted to pay for me to do this. Unfortunately the recession has hit and it's highly unlikely that they'll sanction the spend now. Anyhow, after heaving a look around at what was on offer, I think the best self study that is out there is from the EC-Council themselves.

Keep us posted on what you decide.

NB

 

Hi bud

Sorry - i never saw this post initially either.

Having worked for a UK Police Force as their Security Admin for two years, and having gone through the CEH with them as well, I'm probably pretty well-qualified to give some advice!

Unfortunately, I can't really expand on what BM and NB have put already - largely because I don't think there ARE that many (if any) decent study materials available for the CEH (didn't bother with the CIFH but I think its the same picture with that). I went on the course (you have to sit the course to qualify for the exam) and found it to be not a lot of use to me as regards skills - but the exam wasn't that difficult either. I learnt a load of useless old ****e (including 'attacks' that ceased to be relevant five years beforehand and fifteen different tools for each attack approach (password cracking, sniffing, arp poisoning etc etc)) and was actually worried about being able to pass the exam but when it came to the day I sat it it was pretty easy.

So, in short, because you HAVE to take the course to be able to sit the exam, and because there aren't any decent self-training products out there, I would suggest you start looking around on some of the decent security sites for information, familiarise yourself with the concepts behind hacking and ask away here for any advice you may want - I will be able to point you in the right direction on most things and there are other security-minded bods here who'll be able to help out too.

Good luck, HTH

 

Self study books are available, and you can self study, but you must prove two years relevant experience and sign an agreement that you only use your l33t skills for good not evil !

A background in the police should mean that your trust/skills assessment should be a fairly straightforward process I'd have thought.

See here :- http://www.eccouncil.org/ceh-faq.htm

If you are being sponsored It may be easier to just take a course.

I've also seen some interesting infosec courses in Cyprus and the US if your are prepared to travel.

 

I done this course as a module in Uni, pretty intresting module. Although a lot of the stuff is outdated, the techniques they use. We never sat the actual cert but heard its pretty easy. I found a lot of material online when I was doing it, cant remember were now but.

 

Hi guys,

thank you for your replies. And thankyou BosonMichael for replying to me so soon on PM and highlighting the glitch in the posting system.

I have received today the authorisation code from EC-Council to self-study and have bought a few study materials including the Sybex which, I have seen on other posts, comes highly recommended.

I am not really after certification for certification sake at all. I have just a deep rooted belief in imrpoving myself and my professional area of work and I thought undertaking these two quals would make me a better rounded cyber crime investigator.

Open to any other suggestions on courses to pursue to this end.

I'll keep you guys posted on my progress with the exams.

Thanks again fellas.

Ciao,

Invictus