GSEC stands for GIAC Security Essentials Certification and it's a vendor-independent security certification. GIAC stands for Global Information Assurance Certification and there are several tracks. GSEC is the generic security one. GIAC is the certification series from the SANS institute. SANS is an acronym for SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security. So there you have the acronym "farm."

The GSEC certification requirements begin with a practical of at least 12 pages on an information security topic. It must have a requisite number of sources, etc., and is graded pass/fail. Once a GSEC candidate passes the practical, he or she has two certification tests to pass in order to complete the GSEC. Interestingly enough, my GSEC practical is on permissions the public role has. When it posts to the SANS GIAC page, I'll share the link. I'm also breaking it down into a series of articles.

K. Brian Kelley, GSEC

http://www.truthsolutions.com/

Author: Start to Finish Guide to SQL Server Performance Monitoring

http://www.netimpress.com/