TN-965 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-965: Windows Security Automation with PowerShell will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

Date/Time Event
04/28/2025 - 05/02/2025
08:00 -16:00 		TN-965 Windows Security Automation with Powershell
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX
07/07/2025 - 07/11/2025
08:00 -16:00 		TN-965 Windows Security Automation with Powershell
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX
11/03/2025 - 11/07/2025
08:00 -16:00 		TN-965 Windows Security Automation with Powershell
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

Duration: 5 days

Intended Audience
This course is intended for IT Professionals already experienced in general Windows Server and Windows Client administration or already experienced in administering and supporting Application servers and services including applications like Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL. It is broadly intended for students who want to use Windows PowerShell to automate administrative tasks from the command line, using any Microsoft or independent software vendor (ISV) product that supports Windows PowerShell manageability.

Course Objectives:

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

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

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:

  • Previous Windows Server and Windows Client management knowledge and hands on experience.
    Experience installing and configuring Windows Server into existing enterprise environments, or as standalone installations.
  • Knowledge and experience of network adapter configuration, basic Active Directory user administration, and basic disk configuration.
  • Knowledge and hands on experience specifically with Windows Server 2012/Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8/Windows 8.1 would be of benefit but is not essential.

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TN-125: Introduction to UNIX and Linux

 

Course Overview:

This hands-on course provides an intensive overview of fundamental UNIX commands that are common to all flavors of UNIX, but the focus is on RedHat. At the end of this course students will have a firm grasp of how the UNIX operating system works, how to accomplish powerful functions using multiple commands & most importantly of all, how to think UNIX. With the skills gained in this course, students can move on to RedHat System Administration I or Linux System Admnistration I.

Attendees of TN-125: Introduction to UNIX and Linux will receive course materials and expert Instruction.

Date/Locations:

Date/Time Event
01/27/2025 - 01/31/2025
08:00 -16:00 		TN-125: Introduction to UNIX and Linux
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX
05/05/2025 - 05/09/2025
08:00 -16:00 		TN-125: Introduction to UNIX and Linux
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX
11/03/2025 - 11/07/2025
08:00 -16:00 		TN-125: Introduction to UNIX and Linux
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Unix Overview
  • Introduction to the UNIX command Line
  • Managing and controlling access to files
  • Batch Scripting and tools
  • Regular Expressions, Pipelines, and IO Redirection
  • Text File Manipulation
  • Basic Network Commands
  • Managing Unix Processes
  • GNOME Graphical Desktop

Prerequisites:

  • Basic Knowledge of Computers

Comments

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User: trkdashin

Instructor comments: Very knowledgeable

Facilities comments: Nice Hotel

 

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TN-5202: Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and 2013: Workflows and Designing InfoPath Forms

Course Overview:

SharePoint is the Premier Office Collaboration Server Suite.  Two of the most requested features to implement in any SharePoint Server environment is building custom workflows and incorporating InfoPath forms into the site.  This course aims to build the average user’s body of knowledge and skill set to allow them to take on some of this responsibility.  Students will learn the SharePoint Designer software, a free product, to do these tasks.

Over the course of the two days the users will work on a live SharePoint Server environments making changes to pages, adding pages and making Workflows.  They will learn how to build InfoPath forms and migrate them to the SharePoint environment.

Attendees to TN-5202: Microsoft SharePoint 2010/2013: Workflows and Designing InfoPath Forms will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 2 days

Course Objectives:

  • Identify the basic features of the SharePoint Designer environment.
  • Create a new subsite.
  • Add content to a web page.
  • Use Cascading Style Sheets to format a SharePoint site.
  • Link web pages.
  • Add SharePoint components to the site.
  • Automate business processes with workflows.
  • Create InfoPath forms.
  • Import and export forms.
  • Customize a form layout.
  • Distribute forms.
  • Work with a database.

Prerequisites:

  • Knowledge of HTML not required, but helpful
  • Basic Computer Skills

Comments

Latest comments from students

User: golf123

Instructor comments: Mr. Moore knew and presented the course very well. I would definitely take future courses with TechNow.

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PM-232: Product Owner and Scrum Master Roles in AGILE using SCRUM

 

Course Overview: 

This course details how a well-educated Product Owner and a knowledgeable Scrum Master can work together to deliver a successful product with Agile principles using SCRUM approach.  Designed specifically for students who want to learn the mechanics of an Agile / Scrum team being led by a Product Owner and a Scrum Master.

This course offers a firm grasp of Agile principles as they relate to new product development.  If you need to learn what is required to lead or participate in an Agile effort using the SCRUM approach within your organization, this course covers the Agile adaptive life cycle framework and everything in between.

Attendees to PM-232: Product Owner and Scrum Master Roles in AGILE using SCRUM will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 2 Days

Course Objectives: At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to:

  • Understand the Scrum Flow, the core components of the Scrum framework
  • Understand the principles of empirical process control
  • Understand the scope of the Product Owner role in detail
  • Understand the scope of the Scrum Master role at a high level
  • Understand the scope of the Scrum team roles and why there is no project manager
  • Understand how the Scrum Master measures team velocity
  • Understand the importance of having the product vision as an overarching goal galvanizing the entire Scrum team
  • Understand the relationship between the vision and the product roadmap
  • Understand the different estimation levels in Scrum
  • Understand what the Product Backlog is and what it is not
  • Understand Product Backlog grooming
  • Understand that Scrum planning is adaptive, iterative, incremental, and collaborative

 

Target Student:

  • Designed specifically for Agile project team members, product owners, project leaders and senior managers or anyone wanting to understand the Agile Framework.

 

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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.