Upcoming SANS Course in Cork (Incident Handling and Hacker Exploits)

hantakage

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to let those of you interested in techie things, and specifically those interested in IT Security, that there is a course coming up in Cork you might be interested in.

The Course is a SANS certification in Incident Handling and Hacker Exploits (GCIH) and it will be taking place in the offices of Trend Micro on the Model Farm Road. Full details can be found at the link below, but basically it runs every Wed 6.30-9.30 for 8 weeks starting Oct 24th (ending Dec 12th).

https://www.sans.org/mentor/details.php?nid=8266

A more detailed breakdown of the course can be found at this url

http://www.sans.org/mentor/description.php?tid=617&portal=45b0e7698f67770f0755f1933054f367

Lastly if anyone has any questions at all about the course, certificate, venue etc please either email me (RobertMcArdle[insert obvious symbol here]gmail.com or reply in this thread.

FORUM ADMINS: Please delete this post if I am stepping out of line here. I would like to point out that I am the one who will be mentoring this class, although the SANS Institute are the one actually receiving the money for it. I want to bring this class to people attention, as I've noticed in the past that people have come back to me after a course and said that they would love to have attended if they knew it was on. I'm just trying to raise awareness of the course, so at least people have the option of decided whether they want to go or not.

BaconZombie

Any course coming up nearer Dublin?

Martyr

BOFH_139 wrote:

Any course coming up nearer Dublin?

save your money, download metasploit and a few e-books on computer security.
anybody can get certified today, providing you have $$$

hantakage

BOFH_139 wrote:

Any course coming up nearer Dublin?

Hi BOFH_139 - there are not any planned in Dublin this year that I am aware of unfortunately, although there is the possibility that one may be run in the New Year.

Sully

Anything closer to Waterford? Wouldnt be worth my while travelling to Cork!

hantakage

Sully wrote:

Anything closer to Waterford? Wouldnt be worth my while travelling to Cork!

Afraid not, not at the moment anyhow.

Average Joe wrote:

save your money, download metasploit and a few e-books on computer security.
anybody can get certified today, providing you have $$$

There is a lot more to Information than Metasploit i'm afraid, while it is an excellent tool, I think it always helps to expand your knowledge of many different areas. While the course does of course cover metasploit, it also deals with Incident Handling, Malware, Law, Rootkits, Copyright Protection, Scanning, Vulnerability assessment, Pen testing and a range of other stuff.

True there are some excellent books there on each of these subjects, but I think that course like the SANS GCIH are very useful for people as they bring it all together in one place. If people then want to go off and further research key topics, they are free to do so, but they have already a good grounding to work with.

As for trhe $$$ - courses are not free unfortunately. Besides a good course should pay itself back. Firstly you are gaining new skills, and secondly you have a Certificate to show your level of skills in a key area, which prove very useful when looking for a position in a company, or during annual appraisals. Besides, thats what your departments training budget is for

Martyr

As for trhe $$$ - courses are not free unfortunately

yeah, but most of the information used pretty much is, including metasploit.

i've no doubt the courses you run are good, i just think they're over-priced.

But the main gripe i have about the SANS process, is the fact many people getting certified won't necessarily have a clue about anything they've been shown..yet are considered qualified.

thats a big problem for me - alot are given high-tech well paid jobs in computer security, which i don't think should be based on doing a SANS course or two.

how high is the success rate for passing? i'd say its pretty high

Imagine if a banker who can barely use a computer wants to get into computer security, he attends and pays for some courses which last a couple of weeks..there you go, he is qualified, right?

lets say you're an employer who only recognises how many certs you have on a particular subject..which you know is how the HR dep. usually works.

so the banker wannabe hacker goes for a job, and someone else also applying, who actually has a clue about security - but not certified by SANS gets turned down?

that happens, and its crazy! and it makes me mad as hell!

i would, as many others, like to attend, but as i say - too expensive.

EDIT:
most of the people attending might not actually care about security, they may just want to get 'certified' to further their career..nothing wrong with that i guess, except you then have many people in the business who are clueless.

hantakage

Average Joe: I agree that there are a lot of courses out there that you can simply buy a book, spend a week studying, pay cash and boom - instant Cert. I don't think SANS (or CISSP for that matter) fall into that category. I think that they generally are quite difficult exams if you have no real understanding of the material.

Having said that I think that the material covered in both (SANS and CISSP) is top notch. I can't speak for other courses like some of the Comptia stuff, but SANS is a high standard.

And as for the situation that occurs where the guy with 3 years of Incident Handling experience loses out on the guy with no real world experience but who has a cert, thats as much of a case of a badly put together CV than anything else? If you have the experience, and the job involves incident handling (or forensic, auditing, etc) - surely the CV would be orientated that way.

hantakage

Oh and for those who are interested there is still time to sign up. Just go to https://www.sans.org/mentor/details.php?nid=8266 or contact me by PM if you have any questions.