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.
Course Overview:
TN-813: Certified in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (CGRC) course is for the (ISC)²® Certified in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (CGRC) credential previously known as Certified Authorization Professional (CAP). This course walks the student through the Risk Management Framework following practices the NIST pubs. CGRC is an objective measure of the knowledge, skills and abilities required for personnel involved in the process of certifying and accrediting security of information systems. Specifically, this credential applies to those responsible for formalizing processes used to assess risk and establish security requirements. Their decisions will ensure that information systems possess security commensurate with the level of exposure to potential risk, as well as damage to assets or individuals.The CGRC credential is appropriate for civilian, state and local governments in the U.S., as well as commercial markets. CGRC certification applies to job functions such as authorization officials, system owners, information owners, information system security officers, and certifiers. CGRC is crucial to the Management staff.
This course is the “why” of the entire security field. It provides a logical way of allocating resources where there is greatest risk and why we make the decisions we make in the field of security. It is TechNow’s view that of all the security courses we have seen, this course genuinely puts the “big picture” of security in front of the students. Students actually come to an understanding of truly what is critical to security of an enterprise versus a bunch of nuts and bolts of security.
TechNow’s CGRC course covers all of the (ISC)²® CGRC 7 Knowledge domains:
- Security and Privacy Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance Program
- Scope of the System
- Selection and Approval of Framework, Security, and Privacy Controls
- Implementation of Security and Privacy Controls
- Assessment/ Audit of Security and Privacy Controls
- System Compliance
- Compliance Maintenance
RMF Related Steps
- Prepare – Process Initiation
- Categorize Information Systems
- Establish the Security Control Baseline
- Apply Security Controls
- Assess Security Controls
- Authorize Information System
- Monitor Security Controls
TechNow’s CGRC Instructors have extensive knowledge and experience in the field, and have been working with organizations to build assessor teams for over 20 years.
Attendees to TN-813: Certified in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (CGRC) will receive TechNow authorized training materials, including access to the documentation of the CGRC Exam domains, and expert instruction.
Dates/Locations:
| Date/Time | Event |
|---|---|
|
09/08/2025 - 09/11/2025 08:00 -16:00 |
TN-813: Certified in Governance, Risk and Compliance (CGRC) TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX |
Duration: 3 Days
Course Objectives:
- Initiate the Preparation Phase
- Perform Execution Phase
- Perform Maintenance Phase
- Understand the Purpose of Security Authorization
Prerequisites:
- IT Security
- Information Assurance
- Information Risk Management certification and systems administration
- 1-2 years of general experience technical experience
- 2 years of general systems experience
- 1-2 years of Database/Systems Development/Network Experience
- Information Security Policy Experience
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Course Overview:
This course is very hands-on with respect to SP 800-53 controls as related to ICD-503, leveraging experience with DCD 6/3, and incorporating a broad array of technologies found in the field. Assessors and Auditors have to face many technologies that are not part of the main stream. TechNow has gone to great efforts to build a very broad, comprehensive, and complex lab to simulate many scenarios and architectures. Technologies such as a network appliance that is not a typical infrastructure product, a radio/satellite communications device, or many other technologies that build up a weapon system. Students learn how controls are integrated into many different devices and how they fit in the overall security architecture of monitoring, reporting, and compliance testing.
Directly discussed are overlays for different requirements i.e.: tactical, medical, network type: JWICS, SIPR; IC or AF. TechNow has developed a funnel concept to overlays to exemplify the encapsulation of a control within different requirements. TechNow has over 15 years experience in Trusted Solaris/Trusted Extensions and labeled security. Cross Domain overlays are presented that fits the work flow of an assesor. PII overlays and any overlays that an organization uses and can be made available are also presented.
This course allows the student to leverage years of experience in DoD DCD 6/34 for transition to the Risk Management Framework (RMF) applied to the Intelligence Community as mandated by ICD 503. Utilizing NIST SP 800-37 to establish a baseline of RMF knowledge, the student learns how to integrate the NIST pubs to provide cohesive information assurance architectures and compliance. ICD 503 scorecard evaluations are integral in demonstrating a successful ICD 503 compliance program. TechNow's ICD 503 course provides students with the skill to assess security programs and evaluate ICD 503 compliance to build an improvement and sustainable program for score consistency. TechNow's instructors have unparralleled expertise in federal compliance initiatives, and we bring this expertise instructing students on the complete life cycle of RMF.
More than a simple checklist, we instruct students not only how to validate essential security controls, programs, and metrics, but that they are operating effectively. The student leaves the course knowing how to: identify gaps where controls, programs, or metrics are incomplete, missing or ineffective, and provide actionable findings and recommend remediation strategies. Students learn to internalize NIST pubs to meaningul and effective IA guidelines and work with the Body of Evidence templates which include: Risk Assessment Report (RAR), Systems Security Plan (SSP), Security Assessment Report (SAR), and Plans of Action and Milestone (POAM).
TechNow training materials are aligned with the most recent set of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS), and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) policies standards, processes, policies and instructions to be addressed/explained include ICD 503, ICS 503-1, ICS 500-16, ICS 500-18, ICS 500-27, ICD 502, NIST SP 800-37, NIST SP 800-30, NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-53A, NIST SP 800-137, NIST SP 800-47, CNSSP 22, CNSSI 1253, and CNSSI 4009.
A majority of time is spent on in-depth compliance review of NIST SP 800-53 controls. Instruction discusses which method should be used to test and validate each security control and what evidence should be gathered. This course is not theory or death by power point. Real scenarios are presented as exercises. A complete live cyber range simulating the IC is utilized for hands-on labs for techniques of validating and documenting compliance of NIST SP 800-53 controls as related to ICD 503.
Date/Locations:
No Events
Duration: 5 days
Course Objectives:
- Establish a baseline of RMF knowledge
- Validate essential security controls, programs, and metrics
- DoD DCD 6/3 to ICD 503 Transition
- Lab Environtment and the Cyber Range
- Overlays: Tactical, Medical, Network type(JWICS, SIPR; IC or AF), Cross Domain, PII
- Risk Assessment Report (RAR)
- Systems Security Plan (SSP)
- Security Assessment Report (SAR)
- Plans of Action and Milestone (POAM)
Prerequisites:
Experience in the field of auditing and assesments.
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Course Overview:
A skills focus enables the student to better absorb the subject matter and perform successfully on the job. This is not death by power point. The course is aligned with information assurance operators and executing hands-on labs to secure Windows systems. Lecture and labs start with quick review of Active Directory and group policy to enforce security mechanisms within the Windows architecture. Students then gain network experience and use sniffing to help exemplify the benefit of learning wired and wireless security configurations. PowerShell is made for SecOps/DevOps automation and students will learn to write PowerShell scripts to automate security operations and Desired State Configuration (DSC). The course concludes with exercising real attack strategies to demonstrate the effectives of properly securing your host.
Attendees to TN-969: Windows Security Administrator course will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.
Date/Locations:
No Events
Duration: 5 days
Course Objectives:
- Active Directory and BloodHound
- Security Controls
- PKI
- Encryption
- Wireless & Network Security and Hardening DNS
- 802.1x and Endpoint Protection
- Firewalls and VPN
- PowerShell Scripting
- JEA, DSC, Enterprise Security with PowerShell
- Windows Attack Strategies
Prerequisites:
- Security+
- Windows System Administration Skills
Comments
Latest comments from students
User: bbrabender
Instructor comments: Instructor was very knowledgeable and help more inexperienced users with concepts as well explaining in a way that can be understood.
Facilities comments: N/A
User: dale.r.anderson
Instructor comments: Instructor was well knowlegeable accross alot of domains.
Facilities comments: Pretty good