Palo Alto Networks

TechNow has been involved in enterprise security architectures and education since 1990.  TechNow’s training program has followed the evolution of enterprise computing into security architectures.  Palo Alto Networks represents the current state of security product evolution.  With next generation firewall technology, the reunification of your security architecture is possible.  TechNow can present the ramifications of many centralized strategies.  All courses utilize enterprise security professionals with experience as instructors and can discuss the detail of implementation and the integration into an existing infrastructure.
Palo Alto Networks Certifications:  Accredited Configuration Engineer (ACE) take EDU-201; Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) take  EDU-201 + EDU-205 + EDU-221
TechNow is a mobile Pearson VUE Authorized Testing Center.  Palo Alto courses can be delivered on the customer site, with certificadtion testing on the last day of the course.  Take the course and get certfied, without  logistical effort of getting students to a training facility and the hassle of scheduling testing.
TechNow, Inc. is not associated in any way with Palo Alto Networks, Inc.
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Observations of Instructor Led Training with Real Hardware

TechNow has heard many students talk about virtualized/remote training that TechNow Does Not Do.  While training our most recent offering of PA-215: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Essentials FastTrack a student told his story of how he endend up in our course.  His story we have heard for other technologies like Cisco, VMware, BlueCoat and other products.

A large percentage of training is moving to the virtualized/remote lab environments.  Students are asked to use some variant of remote access software and remote into the training company's lab environment. Our student in our Palo Alto Networks Firewall course informed us that he went to a very costly offering of that course from the vendor and was not able to perform any labs.  There were either network connectivity issues, or issues with the remote access software, or other problems.  The whole training experience was very frustrating and not productive.

We keep our labs open to students if they would like after hours, or before hours access.  Repeatedly going through a lab engrains that knowledge for later recall.  Touching hardware is so critical in understanding the problems that arise when a cable comes loose, or a cable gets plugged in the wrong port.  There are other scenarios such as just pulling the power cable, or turning off a power strip, or accidently overwriting a configuration.  These disaster scenarious requires hands-on physical access to hardware.  Preventing and recovering from disasters is what it's all about, and that requires hands-on, instructor led, real hardware.

Palo Alto Networks Firewall Training Course Lab

Working with the TechNow lab for the PA-215: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Essentials FastTrack course has been nothing less than a techie's idea of fun.  When students come in we are immediatly configuring the Cisco 3750 switches for access ports, VLANS, and trunks.  We then cable the switch to the Palo Alto Networks Firewall.  Each student gets their own Palo Alto Firewall Pod of hardware and software.  What we find as fun is the VLAN environment, with an array of virtual machines hosted on an ESXi server that can really exercise the abilities of the Palo Alto Firewall.  The DMZ VLAN hosts virtual machines that support enterprise services and also potentialy vulnerable web services.  The Trust VLAN has Windows and Linux clients.  The UnTrust VLAN has Web services and a VM of Kali. The hardware Firewall is additionally connected to a Management VLAN.  All those VLANs are trunked into an ESXi server where the student also has a VM-Series Palo Alto Networks Firewall for High Availability.  

After configuring all the trunking, VLANs, and network interfaces we learn about the firewall and configure it for the lab environment.  Using Metasploitable and Kali/Metasploit nefarious penetration attempts are executed.  Using packet captures, custom APP-ID's  and custom signatures are generated.  Custom logging and reporting are created to similate and enterprise and assist the desired Incident Response.  It is always fun in a training environment to learn all about the controls available in a product, even though specific controls may not be used in the operational environment.  In the end we have a good understanding of the Palo Alto Networks Firewall.

N-595: VoIP Security Analysis and Design

Course Overview:

As VoIP (Voice-over IP) is integrated into the operations of many missions, it is imperative to understand its security ramifications.  In the N-595: VoIP Security Analysis and Design class the objectives are designed for those who are chartered with the responsibility of securing networks and application environments that incorporate VoIP.   Topics include how VoIP works, its interactions with the network, its vulnerabilities and mitigations.  Focus is on leading open source and proprietary technologies utilizing Asterisk and Cisco and the protocols SIP, H.323, RTP, MGCP, and Skinny.  Other protocols such as Nortel's UNIStim will be addressed.  As for Cisco, security pieces in the VoIP CallManager servers, Catalyst switches, IOS-based routers, and ASA firewalls, amounts to several different platforms, each with its own management interface and lockdown procedures.   Various open source tools including those in BackTrack are used for VoIP attacks.  A task list of actions for securing enterprise VoIP is carried out in hands-on labs, performed on Cisco phones, routers, switches, and ASA firewalls.

Attendees to N-595: VoIP Security Analysis and Design will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

  • VoIP Architecture
  • VoIP Signaling and media protocols
  • Common VoIP authentication mechanisms
  • Common VoIP encryption techniques
  • VoIP protocol analysis with Wireshark
  • Maintaining QoS while mitigating DoS
  • VoXML, XML, and application integration security
  • Converged network security design and implementation
  • Impact of NAT and firewalls
  • SIP, H.323, and MGCP vulnerabilities
  • VPN, IPsec and SRTP to secure VoIP services
  • Penetration testing with open source tools
  • Attacks for Eavesdropping, call redirection, and DoS
  • Design of hacked firmware virtualization layer
  • Concise lockdown steps for network hardware and VoIP

Prerequisites:

  • This is an advanced Information Security Course which requires basic Windows & UNIX competency
  • Certification or 2 years of experience in these operating systems is highly recommended
  • As well as an understanding of TCP/IP

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PA-242: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Manage Cyberthreats (EDU-231)

  

 

Course Overview:  PA-242: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Manage Cyberthreats (EDU-231) Training Class is a two-day course that teaches students strategies in defense against cyberthreats.  Successful completion of this course enables administrators to better understand the threat landscape.  This is not a virtualized theoretical course.  This is hands-on, real world instruction, directly relevant to the DoD and Commercial implementations of Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls.

Each student is issued a physical Palo Alto firewall and a Cisco layer 3 switch at their desk.  Real hardware per student for real experience and real skill development.  TechNow provides a very comprehensive client infrastructure that includes Windows, Linux, and multiple packet sniffer agents.

The instructor for this course has been a lead in Unix kernel development to implement firewall and intrusion detection technologies.  Additionally, the instructor has taught several security appliance products and carries several SANS, ISC2, ISACA, Cisco, Unix, and Windows certifications.

Attendees to the PA-242: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Manaage Cyberthreats  (EDU-231) Training Course will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 2 days

Course Objectives:   Students attending this training course will gain an understanding of cyberthreats and their characteristics.  Students will learn how to manage cyberthreats using security policies, profiles, and signatures to protect their network against emerging threats.

Day 1

  • Mod 1: Threat Landscape
    • Advanced Persistent
    • Threats
    • Data Breaches and Tactics
    • Threat Management
    • Strategies
  • Mod 2: Integrated
    • Approach to Threat
    • Protection
    • Integrated Approach to
    • Protection
    • Next-Generation Firewall
    • Advanced Endpoint
    • Protection
  • Mod 3: Network Visibility
    • Zero Trust Model
    • SSL Decryption
    • Decryption Policy
  • Mod 4: Reducing the Attack
    • Surf
    • ection

 

Day 2

  • Mod 5: Handling Known
    • Threats
    • WildFire Analysis
    • Security Profiles
  • Mod 6: Handling Unknown
    • Traffic and Zero-Day Exploits
    • WildFire
    • Researching Threat Events
    • Identifying Unknown
    • Applications
  • Mod 7: Investigating
    • Breaches
    • Identify IOCs Using
    • App-Scope
    • Log Correlation
    • Finding Infected Host
  • Mod 8: Using Custom
    • Signatures
    • Creating Custom App-IDs
    • Threat Signatures

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Prerequisites:

  • Students must complete the PA-213: Install, Configure, and Manage course
  • Understanding of network concepts, including routing, switching, and IP addressing
  • In-depth knowledge of port-based security and security technologies such as IPS, proxy, and content filtering

This course is in no way associated with Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

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