Leading a SANS Mentor Program

I will be leading a SANS Mentor program for SEC 560: Network Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking, beginning October 6, 2009. The program consists of self-study and ten 2-hour weekly sessions. Taking the week of Thanksgiving off, the sessions will finish up on December 15.

The 560 course provides a lot of hands on activities that cover the whole penetration testing process. We'll cover some of the business aspects in regards to defining project scope, legal and operational restraints, and tester-client interactions. Much of the material involves the technical aspects of penetration testing. Reconnaissance, scanning and exploitation are covered in addition to wireless testing and a large section on password attacks. The full last day of the conference version of 560 included a competitive capture-the-flag competition. I'm not sure just how this will be handled in the mentor version, but I hope to provide a comparable event.

I originally took 560 at SANS Toronto 2008. Dave Shackleford taught that class, and my goal is to channel at least a bit of the energy and excitement that he brought to the presentation. If you ever get the chance to take a class with Dave, jump at the opportunity. He is a fun guy who will keep you motivated through the long days.

The sessions will be held at my employer's training facilities in Brookfield, Wisconsin. The office is about 15 minutes out of Milwaukee and 45 minutes from Madison. I'd like to encourage anyone from the Southeast Wisconsin interested in participating in this course to check out the SANS Mentor website and contact my office at (262) 373.7100.