Rating: 
Summary: And, the Editor is Belligerent...
Review: After experiencing some of the frustrations described by previous reviewers, I noticed that the front of this book has a letter addressed "To Our Valued Readers" which solicits editorial feedback from customers.
The text says "If you believe you've identified an error in the text, please send a detailed e-mail."
I followed these instructions, and just ended up with a very beligerent e-mail from a Sybex editor, which stated that Sybex had no present intention of correcting errors and actually challenged me to find more (which I gladly did)
Do yourself a favor...buy a different study guide.
Rating:
Summary: Another Dissappointment from Sybex
Review: As with their A+ and Network+ books, there are several technical mistakes. I don't know who their technical editors are, but getting something as remedial public key encryption wrong really shatters any confidence I have in this publisher. Do yourself a favor and get Exam Cram's book instead of this substandard garbage.
Rating: 
Summary: Comparing reviews - this is another negative
Review: As you see, there are reviews giving this book both good and bad reviews - the good ones praise its organization and readability, the bad ones point out its errors. There are indeed a fair number of errors, which is bad enough, but I found many explanations confusing and misleading - perhaps because I have 3 years experience with security, and 15 with networking.
Organization is all very well, but to make an analogy, a well-written tour guide to Denmark is of little help in finding your way in France! Skip this one!!
Rating:
Summary: Erroneous data - Don't Buy
Review: I agree with sadly disappointed. I found the information good, but not enough to pass the Security + test (not even enough to pass its own practice tests. I haven't taken the test yet, but am nervous about doing it because of the results of the practice tests (and I have been reading about 3 different books on the subject).Many of the answers are not in the book, at least if they are you cannot find them. If you try to find it in the index - good luck. Sometimes the answers are totally different in the test than in the book. Here is an example. In the book, it has a large section on Incident Response. The diagram they give show a circle with the order as identifying, investigating, repairing and adjusting procedures (identifying is a the bottom - I would have expect it to be at the top). At the beginning, the book gives the order as identifying, investigating, repairing, documenting and adjusting procedures, which is what one of the questions on Incident Response gives. Except that when you read the whole section, it says that during the entire process you should be documenting - therefore it shouldn't be in the step order (as one question has it before the recovery and one after). Then on the other practice test the question is: What are the six phases, in the correct order, of incidence response. Six? I only counted 4 or 5 (if you count documentation as a step). Guess what the answer is? Not what you were told in the book. Preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery and follow up. If you look at the suggested answer on the test, it says - This order was originally designated by SANS. WHAT ???? The is no where in the IR section. Maybe in some obscure section, which I have been unable to find. But this is just an example of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good information - Bad for studying for a test
Review: I agree with sadly disappointed. I found the information good, but not enough to pass the Security + test (not even enough to pass its own practice tests. I haven't taken the test yet, but am nervous about doing it because of the results of the practice tests (and I have been reading about 3 different books on the subject). Many of the answers are not in the book, at least if they are you cannot find them. If you try to find it in the index - good luck. Sometimes the answers are totally different in the test than in the book. Here is an example. In the book, it has a large section on Incident Response. The diagram they give show a circle with the order as identifying, investigating, repairing and adjusting procedures (identifying is a the bottom - I would have expect it to be at the top). At the beginning, the book gives the order as identifying, investigating, repairing, documenting and adjusting procedures, which is what one of the questions on Incident Response gives. Except that when you read the whole section, it says that during the entire process you should be documenting - therefore it shouldn't be in the step order (as one question has it before the recovery and one after). Then on the other practice test the question is: What are the six phases, in the correct order, of incidence response. Six? I only counted 4 or 5 (if you count documentation as a step). Guess what the answer is? Not what you were told in the book. Preparation, identification, containment, eradication, recovery and follow up. If you look at the suggested answer on the test, it says - This order was originally designated by SANS. WHAT ???? The is no where in the IR section. Maybe in some obscure section, which I have been unable to find. But this is just an example of it.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Security+ book
Review: I am using this to prepare for the exam and its' really well done. I am enjoying the wealth of examples and the CD-Rom. Way to go Sybex.
Rating:
Summary: Sadly Disappointed
Review: I enjoyed reading this book and learned quite a bit. Unfortunately, I did not learn enough of the things I needed to pass the Sec+ exam. As I was taking the exam, I was seeing things not even mentioned in this book. I like to be surprised, but not during an exam. This was my fifth exam and first failure. The practice tests are virtually worthless as it pertains to the real exam. It seems to me this book provides you with 60% of the info you need to pass. Anyone know where I can get the other 40%?
Rating:
Summary: Could have been better
Review: I found many more errors than I expected, including some wrong answers to the test questions. Also, many typos and inconsistent coverage. I read this book cover to cover several times, used the flash cards, and still failed the exam--never failed a cert exam before! Some questions on the Sec+ exam were nowhere to be found in this book. Save your money and go online to discussion group or buy a different book.
Rating:
Summary: Not up to par with the usual Sybex standards
Review: I have to say that in the end I was disappointed by this book. It is definitely not one of the better Sybex books. I made the critical mistake of using only this book for the exam and I failed! Not unlike one of the other reviewers, this is the first cert exam I have ever failed (I have 5 other cert exams under my belt). As several of the other reviewers correctly pointed out, many of the critical topics covered by the book simply do not go into enough detail and there are numerous key concepts that are missed completely (don't believe me - try looking up information on an FTP Bounce Attack, a Callback or a Virus Life Cycle in this book just to name a few, they aren't covered). This book is too verbose when considering how much of the necessary core data for the Security+ exam is not covered in the book. I know this now because I have since bought a different book (Security+ Prep Guide by Wiley Publishing) to re-prepare for the exam and I am amazed at how much the Sybex book left out. Also, there are several typos and wrong answers to test questions found throughout the book, but this is a First Edition, so that's to be expected. Based on my previous statements you might think that I hated the book, on the contrary, I did actually enjoy reading it and found that the information it did cover was explained in fairly simple terms. Unfortunately, I would say that unless you had previous experience in IT Security, which I have had a limited amount of, you will definitely need to supplement this book with other resources in order to pass the exam. It hits the target......but is no where near a bull's eye!
Rating:
Summary: Passed Exam with this book
Review: I just took the exam and passed it. I used this book and it was a big help. The content was really easy to understand and straight forward. I highly recommend this book for studying. He did a really nice job of breaking down the sections of the exam and most of them were right on track. Get this book, it rocks!
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