TN-963: Windows Security Automation with PowerShell

Course Overview:

PowerShell is made for Security Operations (SecOps) automation on Windows. SecOps requires automation in order to scale out security changes and monitoring beyond a handful of hosts. For example, when a vulnerability must be remediated but there is no patch for it yet, automation is needed to quickly and consistently enact the changes necessary. PowerShell “remoting” is encrypted remote command execution of PowerShell scripts in a way that can scale to thousands of endpoints and servers.

Imagine being able to hunt for indicators of compromise across thousands of machines with just a few lines of PowerShell code. Or imagine having the local Administrator account password reset every night on thousands of endpoints in a secure way, and being able to retrieve that password securely too.

We will show you to do these tasks and more. Transcription logging for forensics, strong encryption code signing, application whitelisting of scripts, IPSec port control, and Just Enough Admin (JEA).

As more and more of our systems are moved up to the cloud, PowerShell will become even more important. Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Hyper-V and VMware already support PowerShell administration for many tasks.

Attendees to TN-963: Windows Security Automation with PowerShell will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 3 days

Course Objectives:

Day One
PowerShell Overview and Tips

- Getting started running commands
- Using and updating the built-in help
- Execution policies
- Fun tricks with the ISE graphical editor
- Piping .NET and COM objects, not text
- Using properties and methods of objects
- Helping Linux admins feel more at home
- Aliases, cmdlets, functions, modules, etc.
- Customizing your profile script

What Can We Do With PowerShell

- PowerShell remote command execution
- Fan-out remoting and security
- File copy via PowerShell remoting
- Capturing the output of commands
- Parsing text files and logs with regex patterns
- Searching remote event logs faster with XPath
- Mounting the registry as a drive
- Exporting data to CSV, HTML and JSON files
- Parsing and mining nmap port scanner XML output
- Running scripts as scheduled jobs
- Pushing out scripts through Group Policy
- Importing modules and dot-sourcing functions
- http://www.PowerShellGallery.com

Write your own scripts

- Writing your own functions
- Passing arguments into your scripts
- Function parameters and returning output
- Flow control: if-then, do-while, foreach, switch
- The .NET Framework class library: a playground
- How to pipe data in/out of your scripts

Day Two
Continuous Secure Configuration Enforcement

- How to use Group Policy and PowerShell together
- Automate with INF security templates
- How to customize INF templates
- Microsoft Security Compliance Manager (SCM)
- SECEDIT.EXE scripting
- Building an in-house security repository for SecOps/DevOps
- NSA’s Secure Host Baseline GPOs

Group Policy Precision Targeting

- Managing Group Policy Objects (GPOs) with PowerShell
- LSDOU, Block Inheritance, Enforced GPOs
- Group Policy permissions for targeting changes
- ADMX templates for mass registry editing
- Deploying PowerShell startup and logon scripts
- WMI item-level targeting of GPO preferences
- GPO scheduled tasks to run PowerShell scripts
- Remote command execution via GPO (not remoting)
- Empowering the Hunt Team to fight back!

Server Hardening for SecOps/DevOps

- Server Manager scripting with PowerShell
- Adding and removing roles and feature
- Remotely inventory roles, features, and apps
- Why Server Nano or Server Core
- Running PowerShell automatically after service failure
- Service account identities, passwords, and risks
- Tools to reset service account passwords securely

Day Three
PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC)

- DSC is Configuration Management built in for free
- Using DSC for continuous reinforcement of settings
- Writing your own DSC configuration scripts
- Free DSC resource modules: www.PowerShellGallery.com
- How to push DSC configurations to many targets
- DSC background job processing in push mode
- Examples: sync files, install roles, manage groups
- Auditing a remote target against a DSC MOF template
- “ApplyAndAutoCorrect” mode for continuous enforcement

PowerShell Just Enough Admin (JEA)

- JEA is Windows sudo, like on Linux
- JEA is Windows setuid root, like on Linux
- Restricting commands and arguments
- Verbose transcription logging
- How to set up and configure JEA
- Privilege Access Workstations (PAWs)

PowerShell and WMI

- Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service
- What is WMI and why do hackers abuse it so much?
- Using PowerShell to query WMI CIM classes
- WMI authentication and traffic encryption
- Inventory operating system versions and installed software
- WMI remote command execution versus PowerShell remoting
- PowerShell security best practices
- PowerShell transcription logging to catch hackers

Prerequisites:

GSEC or equivalent experience
UNIX, Windows, Networking, and Security Experience
This is a hands-on skill course requiring comfort with command line interaction and network communications

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PM-325: Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam Preparation

Course Overview:

This course is developed for those individuals seeking to pass the Project Management Institute’s PMP certification exam, as well as any individual who has attended any Project Management Certification program in the past and needs to brush up on the material needed to pass the PMP exam.

Attendees to PM-325: Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam Preparation will receive official PMI (Project Management Institute) course materials and expert instruction from an official PMI Instructor.

TechNow Inc. is an official Authorized Training Partner of The Project Management Institute (PMI).

Dates/Locations:

Date/Time	Event
02/10/2025 - 02/14/2025 08:00 -17:00	PM-325: Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam Preparation TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX
04/07/2025 - 04/11/2025 08:00 -16:00	PM-325: Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam Preparation Tech Now, Inc., San Antonio TX
04/07/2025 - 04/11/2025 08:00 -16:00	PM-325: Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam Preparation TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

Project Initiation
Examining the Project Management Framework
Examining the Project Management Processes
Implementing Project Integration Management
Managing the Project Scope
Introducing Project Time Management
Introducing Project Cost Management
Introducing Project Quality Management
Introducing Project Human Resource Management
Introducing Project Communications Management
Introducing Project Risk Management
Introducing Project Procurement Management
PMP Code of Professional Conduct

Prerequisites:

A Bachelor’s degree & 4,500 hours of project management experience over 3 years/36 months.

OR

7,500 hours of project management experience over 5 years/60 months (if NO degree).

AND

Complete & submit the PMP certification application directly to PMI

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TN-959: UNIX Security Administrator Course

Course Overview:

The UNIX Security Administrator Prep is a hands-on course that covers how to secure and audit UNIX and Linux operating systems. This includes concepts such as Rootkits, Buffer overflows, and monitoring UNIX/Linux systems.

Attendees to TN-959: Unix Security Administratorwill receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

AIDE
Apache
Best Practices for Kernel Tuning and Warning Banners
Boot Services
Chroot()
DNS- BIND
DNSSec
Evidence Collection and Preservation
Forensic Analysis
Forensic Preparation and Incident Handling
Host Based Firewalls – iptables
Intro to Forensics
OS Install and Patching
Physical, User Account, and Password Access Control
Se Linux
Sendmail
SSH
Stack Smashing
Sudo
Syslog-NG
UNIX Logging

Course Prerequisites:

GSEC or equivalent experience
UNIX, Windows, networking, and security experience
This is a hands-on skill course requiring comfort with command line interaction and network communications

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User: wbcarter

Instructor comments: Good Stuff. Thanks!

User: ryuhas

Instructor comments: Very Good Instructor

Facilities comments: Facilities was great. Location had a lot to be desired. To much traffic and accidents trying to get here.

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TN-949: Certified Firewall Analyst Course

Course Overview:

This is a hands-on course that covers many of the concepts of securing the perimeter of an organization. This includes concepts such as intrusion detection, packet filtering, and central logging.

A skills focus enables the student to better absorb the subject matter and perform better on the job. This is not death by power point. The course is aligned with information assurance operators and executing hands-on labs. Lecture and labs walk the student through the knowledge required to truly understand the mechanics of Firewalls.

This course is an excellent precursor to PA-215 Palo Alto Firewall Essentials FastTrack.

Attendees to TN-949: Certified Firewall Analyst Prep will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

Analyzing Network and Wireless Design
Creating and Auditing a Rulebase
Firewall Assessment and Penetration Testing
Host-Based Detection and DLP
Incident Detection and Analysis
IOS and Router Security
IPv6 and ICMPv6
Log Collection and Analysis
NAT and Proxies
Netfilter IPtables
Network Access Control
Network-Based Intrusion Detection
Packet Filters and Inspection
Packet Fragmentation
Perimeter Concepts and IP Fundamentals
Securing Hosts and Services
TCP/IP Protocols
VPN Design and Auditing
VPN Implementation

Course Prerequisites:

GSEC or equivalent experience
UNIX, Windows, networking and security experience
This is a hands-on skill course requiring comfort with command line interaction and network communications

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TN-223: Advanced Shell Programming

Course Overview:

The course teaches students to use the sort, grep, sed, & awk utilities within Unix. Systems administrators, Unix users, & programmers benefit from the course showing them how to use the command line applications of sort, grep, sed, & awk commands as well as using sed & awk scripts that develop the users skills with the full power of these utilities.

Attendees to TN-223: Advanced Shell Programming will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 3 Days

Course Objectives:

Sorting files by line or field
Regular Expressions (meta character) with grep commands to locate specific lines in files
Performing non-interactive editing tasks with the sed command
Writing simple sed scripts to perform complex editing tasks
Using awk variables & arrays to sort data
Employing awk programs to manipulate numeric & textual data
Performing formatted printing in awk
Writing simple awk programs to write reports from data files
Using built-in awk functions & defining new functions
Write awk programs that make decisions based on numeric or string comparisons (branches & loops)
Grep, egrep extended metacharacters, combinations-lab advanced combinations- lab Sed
Basic commands- Lab, Advanced commands- Lab, Advanced scripting -Lab
Miscellaneous commands Tr, sort, cut, paste, pr -Lab

Prerequisites:

TN-125: Introduction to UNIX & Linux
TN 215: Shell Programming.
Students should have a basic knowledge of UNIX commands including rm, cp, man, cat, & mkdir. Navigating directory structure using commands such as ls, cp, & pwd. Creating and editing files with the vi editor or text editor. Use of basic programming constructs, & commands such as variables & loops & how to write a simple program in a programming language.

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