Archive for the ‘Certifications’ category

How Secure Are You?

March 31st, 2011

Management never seem to think bad things will happen to them here in Australia. Well, here are two incidents that prove that thinking wrong:

Hacker attacks Victorian servers

http://www.zdnet.com.au/hacker-attacks-victorian-servers-339301026.htm

China spies suspected of hacking Julia Gillard’s emails

http://www.news.com.au/technology/federal-ministers-emails-suspected-of-being-hacked/story-e6frfrnr-1226029713668

So anyone connected to the internet is fair game, so the question becomes: How do I stop my company from being the next headline?

Glad you asked…

Enter SANS 504: Hacker Techniques, Exploits and Incident Handling course

SANS, one of the best known names in the IT security training arena, has a course dedicated to teaching IT staff how to understand what hacker are up and put in place measures to keep the company systems safe. SANS 504: Hacker Techniques, Exploits and Incident Handling course gives hands-on experience in understanding vulnerabilities and discovering intrusions, and equipping you with a comprehensive incident handling plan.

This course is being offered as a ten week Mentor lead course here in Sydney, this allow the attendees to gain the maximum study benefits while still having personal lives. It starts on the Thursday, June 2, 2011 and running each Thursday until August 4, 2011.

Learn and work through the SANS courseware with Chris Mohan, one of the few SANS’ GSE holders in the world and a handler at the Internet Storm Center, to help make the courseware relevant and of immediate use to you.

With the Australian dollar nearing an all-time high and using the code Mentor10 for an addition 10% off the course, SANS Security training has never been more cost effective and affordable!

Register here: http://www.sans.org/mentor/details.php?nid=24644

And just in case your company doesn’t think taking IT security is important, show your boss even the Australia’s spy agency ASIO gets cyber wing to protect the country. If the country needs protecting don’t you think your company does to?

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-technology/australias-spy-agency-asio-gets-cyber-wing-20110311-1br4g.html

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GREM Certified

December 3rd, 2010

Well I certainly left this one to the last minute. I completed the GREM (GIAC Reverse Engineering Malware) course at SANS Canberra way back in July. SANS give you a generous four months from the completion of the course to study up and take the exam. Unfortunately it took me 3.5 months before I decided to start studying for it. THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDED WAY OF STUDYING! If you want to place yourself in a position of undue stress then by all means go right ahead and leave it to the last minute. However as everyone knows, it is better to spend four months doing a little study each week in preference to spending two weeks craming. I ended up scheduling to take the exam just two days before the expire date.

I think overall I was probably lucky to pass. I don’t do much reverse engineering as part of my daily duties so my experience in this area is basically nill. With that background I really should have been studying from July right up to the last possible moment to take the exam.

Anyway, I passed! Now only two more exams to do before xmas.

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GWAPT Certified

March 13th, 2010

Well that’s another certification attempt passed on my route to world domination.

This time it was the SANS GIAC Web Application Penetration Tester (GWAPT) certification. I managed to scrape through with a 97.33% which I am pretty happy about :)

hmm, I just realised this is the first time in about 8 months I haven’t had a certification hanging over my head… hmm… all of a sudden I feel all alone… confused… lost… bored…

OK, now I have to find something else to do…

Suggestions anyone?

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