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.

TN-969: Windows Security Administrator Course

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

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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

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TN-335: Advanced Penetration Testing Using Open Source Tools

Course Overview:

This is an advanced course that assumes the attendee is a qualified security professional with experience using security tools and understands the concepts behind penetration testing. Courses that build up the expertise that enables a student to succeed in this course is Security+, CEH, CISSP, and any of the GIAC certifications. This course is completely hands-on and utilizes the BackTrack tool suite from backtrack-linux.org. The course covers, in detail, various attacks and tools that are contained in the BackTrack tool suite.

Attendees to TN-335: Advanced Penetration Testing Using Open Source Tools will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Information Security and Open Source Software
  • Operating System Tools
  • Firewalls
  • Scanners
  • Vulnerability Scanners
  • Network Sniffers
  • Intrusion Detection Systems
  • Analysis and Management Tools
  • Encryption Tools
  • Wireless Tools
  • Forensic Tools
  • More on Open Source Software

Prerequisites:

  • Experience in IT Security
  • Solid basic knowledge of networks and TCP/IP
  • Experience in command line under Linux and Windows is required

 

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TN-813: Certified in Governance, Risk and Compliance (CGRC)

 

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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N-485: In-Depth Securing Networks with Cisco Firepower Threat Defense NGFW

Course Overview:

An in-depth course on how to use and configure Cisco Firepower Threat Defense technology,  from device setup and configuration and including routing, high availability, Firepower Threat Defense migration, traffic control, and Network Address Translation (NAT).  Students implement advanced Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Next Generation Intrusion Prevention System (NGIPS) features, including network intelligence, file type detection, network based malware detection, and deep packet inspection.
Students will also learn how to configure site to site VPN, remote access VPN, and SSL decryption before moving on to detailed analysis, system administration, and troubleshooting.  This course combines lecture materials and hands on labs throughout to make sure that students are able to successfully deploy and manage the Cisco Firepower system.

It is a five-day instructor-led course that is aimed at providing network security engineers with the knowledge and skills that are needed to implement and maintain perimeter solutions that are based on Cisco Firepower security appliances. At the end of the course, students will be able to reduce risk to their IT infrastructure and applications using Cisco Firepower security appliance features, and provide detailed operations support for the Firepower appliance.

Attendees to N-485: In-Depth Securing Networks with Cisco Firepower Threat Defense NGFW will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Understand Sourcefire, Firepower 6.2, FireAMP, and Firepower Threat Defense (FTD)
  • Configure the Firepower Management Center (FMC)
  • Raise you confidence managing the Firepower Manager and Firepower tThreat Defense (FTD)
  • Describe the Cisco Firepower Systems infrastructure
  • Navigate the user interface and administrative features of the Cisco Firepower 6.2 system, including advanced analysis and reporting functionality to properly assess threats
  • Describe the System Configuration and Health policies and implement them
  • Describe the role Network Discovery (Firepower) technology plays in the Cisco devices
  • Describe, create, and implement objects for use in Access Control policies
  • Create DNS and URL policies and configure Sinkholes
  • Configure FTD policies such as Platform, Routing, Interface, Zones, PreFilter, QoS, NAT and Flex Config!
  • Describe advanced policy configuration and Firepower system configuration options
  • Configure Malware Policies to find and stop Malware
  • Understand Security Intelligence, and how to configure SI to stop attacks NOW!
  • Configure policies to find and stop Ransomware
  • Understand how to fine tune IPS policies
  • Understand how to find tun Snort Preprocessor policies (NAP)
  • Configure Correlation events, white rules, traffic profiles and create respective events and remediate them
  • Analyze events
  • Create reporting templates and schedule them
  • Configure backups, rule updates, Firepower Recommendations, URL updates, and more to run every week automatically
  • Set up external authentication for users using LDAP/Realms
  • Configuring system integration, realms, and identity sources
  • Configure FMC domains and implement them
  • Configure FTD HA with two FTD devices
  • SSL Policy – decrypt your traffic
  • AnyConnect and Site-to-Site VPN
  • Understand network and host based AMP.  Configure and analyze host based AMP
  • Understand Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
  • Configure ISE and integrate with Cisco FMC identity policy using PxGrid

Prerequisites:

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