Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: A must for initial review
Comment: This book is a must for initial review. It covers all 10 areas of what needs to be studied in a clear and easy to understand way. It is not, however, detail enough to get you pass the test. You need something more detailed and more sample test questions.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Read This Book First
Comment: CISSP -- Certified Information Systems Security Professional
After reading this book you can't be considered a Dummy any more. Nor, however, do I think you'll be ready to call yourself a Professional.
The real strength of this book is that is is so simple, so well written, so complete in its subject coverage that giving it a quick read will give you the overall view of where you want to be when you are ready to call yourself a Professional. This book is also quite inexpensive when compared with some of the other exam preparation guides, and especially when compared to some of the classes offered either in person or on CD.
The book is organized about like you would expect with a separate chapter on each of the ten domains that are covered on the exam. There are a number of other useful security certifications such as those put out by Check Point, Cisco and others. He covers each of these to the point of at least letting you know what they are, i.e. the Check Point certifications cover the use of the Check Point Firewall products. The book is supplied with a CD that includes additional sample testing and other materials.
Recommendation: Read this book first for an overall view, then study one of the harder books.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A good first read, but you risk a false sense of security
Comment: I just recieved word last week I passed my CISSP exam, and I used this book among others to study for it. Let me give you a little background: I've been in IT for 10 years, starting as phone support, and moved on to desktop support, LAN administration, Exchange administrator, and eventually became my company's ISSO, then moved on to become an Information Assurance (Security) Engineer on one of our larger programs. Consequently, I had real world experience in many of the domains already.
Despite this, I think if I had only read this book, I would have failed the test. It is an excellent starter, since you can sit down and read it cover to cover in a day (plenty of white space, large font etc.) and you will get a good outline of the ten domains. But it just doesn't go into enough detail to keep you from getting tripped up on the test. A Section that is particularly lacking is cryptography. I don't think a single question on the test would have been answered from the knowlege I gained in that section.
The CD-Rom practice test is also too easy. I finished the book, took the 260 question test immediately afterwards, and scored ~95%. I then went online to the cccure.org website quizzer (which I highly recommend) and scored a 65% on their test!
Bottom line, if some one else has it, borrow it for your first read, it won't hurt and is a good way to get started, just don't stop there!
A book I highly reccomend is the CISSP prep guide by Krutz
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047126802X/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_6/103-8873493-6496642?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155
The advanced questions at the end of each chapter are excellent. Remember, (ISC)2 jealously guards the actual test questions, and changes them all the time, so brain dumps are a waste in my humble opinion, but this book closely matches the conceptual depth and breadth you need to be confident of passing the exam.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nothing is wrong with the book - just not enough
Comment: I sat for and passed the CISSP test in January 2006. I used the following resources to help in passing the CISSP:
Shon Harris - All-in-One - 3rd Edition - 30%
Official ISC Guide to the CISSP Exam - 15%
Kurtz - CISSP Prep Guide - Gold Edition - 10%
CISSP for Dummies - 5%
Cccure.org - 25%
Other resources - 15%
"CISSP for Dummies" by Miller is a decent tool at preparing for the exam. I had thought this book would be a great cram book (if possible for the CISSP), where the `core' topics would be documented. After referencing the book, I do not feel this to be true and stopped referring to the book after the first few chapters. I did not find any typos or editorial mistakes, so while I do not think the book is necessarily wrong, I just do not feel it is nearly enough to pass the CISSP. Everything found in "CISSP for Dummies" can be found in other books/material. Please see my other reviews to see how I rated other books that I used to help pass the CISSP.
I give this book 3 pings out of 5:
!!..!
Customer Rating:
Summary: CISSP for Dummies - Preparing for the Exam
Comment: This book is a good resource for keeping yourself focused when preparing for the exam. The chapters are not "in depth reviews" of the 10 Domains, but they do a good job of keep your mind in the study mode. I did like the accompanying CD which contains a series of questions and answers that can be read on a PDA. These were also helpful to stay focused. I would not recommend this book as the sole source for anyone preparing for the exam. For that you should consider the Official (ISC2) Guide or the Shon Harris All-In-One book.
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