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-822: Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) Seminar

Course Overview:

The mark of excellence for a professional certification program is the value and recognition it bestows on the individual who achieves it.  The technical skills & practices the CISA promotes and evaluates are the building blocks of success in the field. Possessing the CISA designation demonstrates proficiency and is the basis for measurement in the profession.  With a growing demand for professionals possessing IS audit, control and security skills, CISA has become a preferred certification program by individuals and organizations around the world.  CISA certification signifies commitment to serving an organization and the IS audit, control and security industry with distinction.  This course will help the student prepare to obtain this credential.

Attendees to TN-822: Certified Information Systmes Auditor (CISA) Seminar will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

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Dates/Locations:

Date/Time Event
10/06/2025 - 10/10/2025
08:00 -16:00 		TN-822: Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) Seminar
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

  • The IS Audit Process (10%)
    • Provide IS audit services in accordance with IS audit standards, guidelines, and best practices to assist the organization in ensuring that its information technology and business systems are protected & controlled.
  • IT Governance (15%)
    • Provide assurance that the organization has the structure, policies, accountability, mechanisms and monitoring practices in place to achieve the requirements of corporate governance of IT.
  • System and Infrastructure Life Cycle Management (16%)
    • Provide assurance that the management practices for the development/acquisition, testing, implementation, maintenance and disposal of systems and infrastructure will meet the organization's objectives.
  • IT Service Delivery and Support (14%)
    • Provide assurance that the IT service management practices will ensure the delivery of the level of services required to meet the organization's objectives.
  • Protection of Information Assets (31%)
    • Provide assurance that the security architecture (policies, standards, procedures and controls) ensures the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets.
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (14%)
    • Provide assurance that, in the event of a disruption, the business continuity and disaster recovery processes will ensure the timely resumption of IT services, while minimizing the business impact.

Prerequisites:

A minimum of five years of professional information systems auditing, control & security work experienced is required.  Experience must have been gained within the 10-year period preceding the application date for certification, or within five years from the date of initially passing the examination.

Comments

Latest comments from students

User: fsarisen

Instructor comments: Thank you Tim for all the great information! I am confident that I'll do well on the ICND exam.

User: storoy30

Instructor comments: The instructor, Tim Burkard, was very knowledgeable on the course material and skilled at explain more complex ideas.

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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

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

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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
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

Latest comments from students

User: trkdashin

Instructor comments: Very knowledgeable

Facilities comments: Nice Hotel

 

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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

Comments

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