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.

Observations of Instructor Led Training with Real Hardware

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.

CompTIA

Increase your credibility, job security, and career opportunities by reaching your goal and getting certified!  TechNow offers many CompTIA bootcamp style courses in which we administer an exam on the last day of class.  We have a proven testing program that will get you the results you want!

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TN-835: Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) Preparation Seminar

Course Overview:

Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), is for professionals responsible for an organization's risk management program.  Students looking to acquire CRISC qualify themselves as IT security analyst, security engineer architect, information assurance program manager and senior IT auditor.  CRISC certified professionals manage risk, design and oversee response measures, monitor systems for risk, and ensure the organization's risk management strategies are met.

The CRISC exam will primarily align with the terminology and concepts described in The Risk IT Framework, The Risk IT Practioner Guide, and COBIT 5.  This will include applications in the evaluation and monitoring of IT-based risk, as well as the design and implementation of IS controls. 

The CRISC exam covers four domains that are periodically updated to reflect the changing needs of the profession:

  • Domain 1: Risk Identification 
  • Domain 2: Risk Assessment
  • Domain 3: Risk Response and Mitigation
  • Domain 4: Risk and Control Monitoring and Reporting

This course is designed to assist in your exam preparation for the CRISC exam.

Attendees to TN-835: Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC) Seminar will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration: 5 Days

Course Objectives:

  • Risk IT Framework—Purpose and Principles
  • Essentials of Risk Governance, Evaluation, and Response
  • Risk and Opportunity Management Using CobiT, Val IT and Risk IT
  • The Risk IT Framework Process Model Overview
  • Managing Risk in Practice—The Practitioner Guide Overview
  • Overview of the Risk IT Framework Process Model 
  • The Risk IT Framework

Prerequisites:

A minimum of at least three (3) years of cumulative work experience performing the tasks of a CRISC professional across at least three (3) CRISC domains is required for certification. There are no substitutions or experience waivers.

Comments

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User: tracycampbell

Instructor comments: Dave had great command of the class and the flow of information. The lessons seem relevant to the exam and the course material should assist greatly with passing. As a bonus, his breakdown of PKI helped with my current job requirements.

Facilities comments: The Home2Suites by Hilton was FANTASTIC!

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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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