For years I have heard people complain about having to learn things for the CISSP exam that they would never use in their life. When I was studying for this exam several years ago, I also had the same perspective as others. People also have the belief that they are required to understand security through (ISC)2's view for this exam, which is so detached from reality. The thought on both of these statements is that someone would have to memorize items for the test that are not useful in their professional life – thus a waste of time. Again, I was also in the same boat when I studied and took the exam forever ago. Now I view it in an entirely different angle.

I realized that since I have authored books and taught CISSP classes for many years, I understand the material at a much greater degree than I would have if I just studied and took the test and moved on with life.

The things that people complain about having to learn (Bell Lapadula, Biba, Clark-Wilson, etc.) are very beneficial to their understanding of security in a holistic manner instead of just getting a mechanical understanding of what constitutes security. Many technical people seem to think that learning anything above technology is a waste of their time. This is a common thought patterned because they are stuck in a realm that dictates that anyone who does not understand technology like they do are inferior. But companies are not in business to just have software and networks in place. The software, network, and systems are just some of the tools the company utilizes to manage and grow their business. So understanding things that are above technology, commonly referred to as soft skills, are in reality more essential in the business world – which is where we all live and work.

Although I am very much frustrated with the way that the questions on the CISSP exam are worded (confusing, vague, subjective), I have greater appreciation of the actual Common Body of Knowledge CBK. I was already a security consultant before I took the exam, and then I wrote books, and taught CISSP – and I am still a security consultant, but the difference in my knowledgebase and view on security has drastically changed.

I, like many people, concentrated on the security topics relevant to my current job. At the time on-line banking was coming out of the market (yes that reveals how old I am now) and I worked with programmers, software architects, project managers, analysts, and end customers – all doing on-line banking . I sure as hell was not interested in the different types of fire suppression, access control models, trusted computing base or anything outside of my domain of topics that I lived, worked and breathed in.