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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TN-913: Cloud Security Fundamentals

 

Course Overview:

TechNow Cloud Security Fundamentals addresses the loss of hands-on control of system, application, and data security in the Cloud computing environment.  Security teams wrestle with the impact and liability of Cloud computing on an organization.  This course enables the security team to assist in contract language and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) when utilizing Cloud Service Providers (CSPs).

Compliance and auditing are introduced with strategies for control verification and audit analysis in the CSP environment.  Software as a Service (SaaS) to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and everything in between require a compliance strategy.  Students will go in-depth into the architecture and infrastructure fundamentals for private, public, and hybrid clouds.   Topics covered include: patch and configuration management, virtualization security, application security, and change management. Policy, risk assessment, and governance within cloud environments will be covered with recommendations for both internal policies and contract provisions to consider.

TechNow has worked worldwide enterprise infrastructures for over 20 years and has developed demos and labs to exemplify the techniques required to effectively manage security in the cloud environment.

Attendees to TN-913: Cloud Security Fundamentals will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

No Events

Course Duration: 3 days

Course Objectives:

  • Cloud computing introduction
  • Security challenges in the cloud
  • Infrastructure security in the cloud
  • Policy, risk, and governance for cloud computing
  • Compliance and legal considerations
  • Audit and assessment for the cloud
  • Data security in the cloud
  • Identity and Access Management (IAM)
  • Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning (DR/BCP) in the cloud
  • Intrusion detection and incident response

Course Prerequisites:

  • GSEC, CISSP, CASP or equivalent experience in managing enterprise infrastructures
  • Managing or administering at least one of UNIX, Windows, Databases, networking, or security

Comments

Latest comments from students

User: reedrobt

Instructor comments: Dave is like an encyclopedia of technical topics...what "doesn't" he have expertise in?

Facilities comments: Home2 location was well-kept and convenient to other services.

 

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CT-425: CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+)

Course Overview:

This course will cover topics to ensure that students have the technical knowledge and skills required to conceptualize, design, and engineer secure solutions across complex enterprise environments.  Students will be able to apply critical thinking and judgement across a broad spectrum of security disciplines to propose and implement solutions that map to enterprise drivers.  This course will prepare students for the objectives covered in the CompTIA CASP+ certification exam (CAS-004).

Attendees to CT-425: CompTIA Advanced Security Practitioner (CASP+) will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Date/Locations:

Date/Time Event
12/16/2024 - 12/20/2024
08:00 -16:00 		CT-425: CASP+
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

Duration: 5 days

Course Objectives:

  • Support IT governance in the enterprise with an emphasis on managing risk
  • Leverage collaboration tools and technology to support enterprise security
  • Use research and analysis to secure the enterprise
  • Integrate advanced authentication and authorization techniques
  • Implement cryptographic techniques
  • Implement security controls for hosts
  • Implement security controls for mobile devices
  • Implement network security
  • Implement security in the systems and software development lifecycle
  • Integrate hosts, storage, networks, applications, virtual environments, and cloud technologies in a secure enterprise architecture
  • Conduct security assessments
  • Respond to and recover from security incidents

Prerequisites:

Completion of the following or equivalent knowledge:

CompTIA Certification: A+ Essentials

CompTIA Certification: Security+

Comments

Latest comments from students

User: clbrack

Instructor comments: I expect to pass, another great class from technow!

User: christopher0470

Instructor comments: Alan takes the time to cover the material so that you understand the concepts and applications of the information presented.

Facilities comments: I like the location. It was quiet and very conducive to learning.

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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:

No Events

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.

Comments

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PA-215: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Essentials FastTrack

  

Course Overview: PA-215: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Essentials FastTrack Training Class is a five-day course that teaches students to configure and manage the entire line of Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls. This course combines PA-213 and PA-212 and adds a half day introduction to Panorama and Troubleshooting.  Through hands-on training, students learn high end skills of how to integrate Palo Alto next-generation firewalls into their network infrastructure.  This is not a virtualized theoretical course.  This is hands-on, real world instruction, directly relevant to the DoD and Commercial implementations of Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls.

Each student is issued a physical Palo Alto firewall and a Cisco layer 3 switch at their desk.  Real hardware per student for real experience and real skill development.  TechNow provides a very comprehensive client infrastructure that includes Windows, Linux, and multiple packet sniffer agents.

This course sets up the foundation for the two day course PA-232: Palo Alto Networks Panorama Manage Multiple Firewalls. The instructor for this course has been a lead in Unix kernel development to implement firewall and intrusion detection technologies.  Additionally, the instructor has taught several security appliance products and carries several SANS, Cisco, Unix, and Windows certifications. Attendees to the PA-215:  Palo Alto Firewall Essentials FastTrack Training Course will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations: No Events

Duration 5 days

Course Objectives:   Students attending this foundational-level training course will gain an in-depth knowledge of how to configure and manage their Palo Alto Networks firewall, including hands-on experience in configuring the security, networking, threat prevention, logging, and reporting features of the Palo Alto Networks Operating System (PAN-OS).  Additionally Panorama and Troubleshooting are addressed.

  • Day 1
    • Module 0 – Introduction & Overview
    • Module 1 – Administration & Management
      • Configuration Management
      • PAN-OS & Software Updates
      • Service Route Configuration
      • Log Forwarding
      • GUI, CLI, and API
    • Module 2 – Interface Configuration
      • L2 & L3
      • Vwire
      • Tap
      • Interface Management in Security Zones
      • VLANs
      • QoS
  • Day 2
    • Module 3 – Layer 3 Configuration
      • L3 Configuration and DHCP
      • NAT
      • DNS Proxy
      • Policy Based Forwarding in
      • Introduction to IPv6
    • Module 4 – App-ID
      • App-ID Process
      • Policy Administration
    • Module 5 – Content-ID
      • Antivirus
      • Anti-spyware
      • Vulnerability
      • URL Filtering
      • File Blocking and Wildfire
      • Data Filtering
      • DoS Protection
      • Botnet
  • Day 3
    • Module 6 – VM Firewall
      • Downlaod VM Template
      • Configure ESXi
      • Configure VM
    • Module 7 – Decryption
      • SSL Inbound and Outbound
    • Module 8 – Custom Signatures
      • Defining New Application Signatures
      • Application Override
      • Custom Threat ID
  • Day 4
    • Module 9 – User-ID
      • User-ID Agent
      • Terminal Server Agent
      • XML API
      • Captive Portal
    • Module 10 – VPN and GlobalProtect
      • Psec Tunnels
      • GlobalProtect
      • Agent
      • Portal
      • Gateway
      • HIP
  • Day 5
    • Module 11 – High Availability
      • Active/Passive
      • Active/Active
    • Module 12 – Panorama
      • Device Groups & Objects
      • Shared Policy
      • Configuration Management
      • Reporting

Prerequisites:

This course is in no way associated with Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

Comments

Latest comments from students

User: rod3535@gmail.com

Instructor comments: Instructor was great, he explained everything and made sure we understood the process's/product. He also took time out of his own schedule to help set up a VM environment on our personal pc's.

Facilities comments: Facility was great, enjoyed feeding the deers!

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