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:

Date/Time Event
11/18/2024 - 11/22/2024
08:30 -16:30 		TN-965: Cloud Security Fundamentals
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

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.

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PA-222: Palo Alto Networks Panorama Essentials

  

Course Overview:

PA-222: Palo Alto Networks Panorama Essentials Training Class is a two-day course that teaches students to configure and manage the Palo Alto Networks Panorama management server. Through hands-on training, students learn high end skills of how to integrate Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls into their network infrastructure and manage them with Palo Alto Networks Panorama management server.This is not a virtualized theoretical course.  This is hands-on, real world in the classroom instructor led with lab assistance, directly relevant to the DoD and Commercial implementations of Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls and their enterprise management.

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.

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 Palo Alto Networks Panorama Essentials Training Course will receive TechNow approved course materials and expert instruction.

Dates/Locations:

No Events

Duration 2 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 Panorama management server, including hands-on experience in configuring the security, networking, threat prevention, logging, and reporting features of the Palo Alto Networks Operating System (PAN-OS) through Panorama.

  • Day 1
    • Module 0 – Introduction & Overview
    • Module 1 – Deployment Overview
      • Panorama Solution
      • Functional Overview
      • Architecture Design
    • Module 2 – Interface Configuration
      • Installation
      • Design and Planning
      • Administration Roles
      • Access Control
      • Commit Options
    • Module 3 – Device Groups
      • Device Groups
      • Policies
      • Objects
      • Device Group Commits
    • Module 4 – Templates
      • Template Overview
      • Configure Templates
      • Commits
      • Overrides Commits
  • Day 2
    • Module 5 – Administrative Tools
      • Logging
      • Reporting
      • Managing Devices
    • Module 6 – Log Collection
      • Log Collector
      • Collector Groups
      • Distributed Data Collection
      • Installation and Configuration
    • Module 7 – Deployment Recommendation
      • High Availability
      • Export Configuration
      • Tips and Tricks
      • Best Practices

Prerequisites:

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

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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:

Date/Time Event
11/12/2024 - 11/14/2024
08:30 -16:30 		TN-913: Cloud Security Fundamentals
TechNow, Inc, San Antonio TX

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

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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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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-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:

No Events

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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