Herein are a few notes on my prepping to renew my GSE as traditionally made and posted before taking the exam. I’ll be taking the renewal exam shortly and won’t be able to comment about it. For my backstory try my previous GSE study post (2017) and for more info on GSE see the official site: https://giac.org/gse .

study plan

I did shortlist some studying and prioritise it these few months, pretty succesfully.

Core Course Review

• I listened to, looked at, and did most of the labs and bonus exercises in the renewal package materials:
  • SEC504: “Attacker Techniques, Exploits, and Incident Handling” syllabus
  • SEC503: “Intrusion Detection in Depth” syllabus
  • I took GIAC practice exams for GCIH, GSEC, and GCIA.

Target Practice

• I’m working through the Easy targets in OffSec’s Proving Grounds range, with much use of hints and walkthroughs. By the scoreboard today I’ve completed six (and I’ve probably tried six more that I haven’t finished yet / fled from in panic or disgust cough).
• light CTF / puzzle practice

but also

$dayjob

• I work in SecOps and kinda soak in some of these topics every week, which certainly helps.

conferences & webinars, other courses

• I’ve caught some great talks and presentations in 2021 and have positive infinity ( &infinity; ) queued up.
  • PLUG Kernel Con 2021 Hack Live videos are posted and I want to replay them all, to catch what I missed.
• Summits! http://sans.org/summits
• ibid. positive infinity online classes queued up, oh and college ?

books I have started reading

• Purple Team Field Manual
• Honeypots for Intrusion Detection
• Red Team Development and Operations: A practical guide