WatchGuard Network Security Essentials Exam

Yesterday, I passed the first exam of the year. In this case the WatchGuards Network Security Essentials exam. The exam covers basic networking and firewalling skills, as well as the necessary knowledge to configure, manage, and monitor a WatchGuard Firebox. If you were familier with networking and firewalls in general, this exam is a “low hanging fruit”. I had to take it due to partner conditions.

WatchGuards offers a pretty good study guide for this exam which you can get for free.. The exam is delivered by  Kryterion and can be taken in a test center or as online proctored exam.

The closed book exam consists of 70 questions. You have 2h and you need at least 70% to pass the exam. The exam covers six different topics:

• Network and network security basics
• Administration and setup
• Monitoring, logging, and reporting
• Networking and NAT
• Policies, proxies, and security services
• Authentication and VPN

I passed the exam with a some preparation (I’ve only used the study guide). As long as you have experience with WatchGuard firewalls, which is mandartory IMHO, it is sufficient to read the study guide a couple of times.