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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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.

TechNow has heard many students talk about virtualized/remote training that TechNow Does Not Do.  While training our most recent offering of PA-215: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Essentials FastTrack a student told his story of how he endend up in our course.  His story we have heard for other technologies like Cisco, VMware, BlueCoat and other products.

A large percentage of training is moving to the virtualized/remote lab environments.  Students are asked to use some variant of remote access software and remote into the training company's lab environment. Our student in our Palo Alto Networks Firewall course informed us that he went to a very costly offering of that course from the vendor and was not able to perform any labs.  There were either network connectivity issues, or issues with the remote access software, or other problems.  The whole training experience was very frustrating and not productive.

We keep our labs open to students if they would like after hours, or before hours access.  Repeatedly going through a lab engrains that knowledge for later recall.  Touching hardware is so critical in understanding the problems that arise when a cable comes loose, or a cable gets plugged in the wrong port.  There are other scenarios such as just pulling the power cable, or turning off a power strip, or accidently overwriting a configuration.  These disaster scenarious requires hands-on physical access to hardware.  Preventing and recovering from disasters is what it's all about, and that requires hands-on, instructor led, real hardware.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course Overview:

PenTest+ is an intermediate-level certification for cybersecurity professionals who are tasked with penetration testing to identify, exploit, report, and manage vulnerabilities on a network. PenTest+ is at the same certification level as CT-395: CySA+. Depending on your course of study, PenTest+ and CySA+ can be taken in any order, but typically follow the skills learned in CT-325: Security+. PenTest+ focuses on offense through penetration testing and vulnerability assessment while CySA+ focuses on defense through incident detection and response. The most qualified cybersecurity professionals have both offensive and defensive skills. Attend Tech Now training for hands-on, instructor led course to prepare you for the CompTIA PT0-002 exam. This exam is hands-on, performance-based questions and multiple choice, to ensure each candidate possesses the skills, knowledge, and ability to perform tasks on systems.

 

 

 

 

What’s Included:

  • 5 days of instructor led in classroom training
  • Labs
  • PenTest+ Courseware
  • Exam Voucher
  • PenTest+ onsite exam scheduling

Course Objectives:

  • Plan and scope penetration tests
  • Conduct passive reconnaissance
  • Perform non-technical tests to gather information
  • Conduct active reconnaissance
  • Analyze vulnerabilities
  • Penetrate networks
  • Exploit host-based vulnerabilities
  • Test application
  • Complete post-exploit tasks
  • Analyze and report pen test results

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 Days

Course Content:

    • Module 01. Planning and Scoping Penetration Tests
    • Module 02. Conducting Passive Reconnaissance
    • Module 03. Performing Non-Technical Tests
    • Module 04. Conducting Active Reconnaissance
    • Module 05. Analyzing Vulnerabilities
    • Module 06. Penetrating Networks
    • Module 07. Exploiting Host-Based Vulnerabilities
    • Module 08. Testing Applications
    • Module 09. Completing Post-Exploit Tasks
    • Module 10. Analyzing and Reporting Pen Test Results

 

Prerequisites:

Target Audience:

This course is designed for cybersecurity professionals tasked with penetration testing and vulnerability management.

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Course Overview:

This course will provide students with proficiency in the everyday management of Linux based clients and basic management of server system. Students will learn the knowledge and tools necessary to manage Linux systems from the command line, as well as how to manage user administration, file permissions, software configurations, and Linux based clients, server systems and security.  Let us help you prepare for the CompTIA Linux+ exam (XK0-005).

TechNow is a CompTIA partner and uses official CompTIA Linux+ curriculum.

Attendees to CT-245: Linux+ will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

Date/Time Event
08/25/2025 - 08/29/2025
08:00 -16:00
CT-245: Linux+
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX
12/01/2025 - 12/05/2025
08:00 -16:00
CT-245: Linux+
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

  • Perform basic Linux tasks
  • Manage users and groups
  • Manage permissions and ownership
  • Manage storage
  • Manage files and directories
  • Manage kernel modules
  • Manage the Linux boot process
  • Manage system components
  • Manage devices
  • Manage networking
  • Manage packages and software
  • Secure Linux systems
  • Write and execute Bash shell scripts
  • Automate tasks
  • Plan and perform a Linux installation

Prerequisites:

 

Comments

Latest comments from students


User: cwbrind

Instructor comments: Great experience with Mr. Peterson, would recommend again. Highly knowledgable and approachable for any subject.

Facilities comments: The Holiday Inn was a nice location for learning despite traffic around the area.



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