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Q-CERT Training Workshops

As part of its mission, Q-CERT is offering a series of information security workshops developed by members of the CERT Program, who have almost two decades of expertise in the field. The following workshops are currently being offered. Click on the title of the workshop for more detailed information.

Information Security for Technical Staff
This five-day course is designed to provide participants with practical techniques for protecting the security of an organization's information assets and resources, beginning with concepts and proceeding on to technical implementations. The course teaches participants how to design a secure network architecture, manage host systems, secure network services and infrastructure, and work with firewalls and intrusion detection systems.

Advanced Information Security for Technical Staff
This five-day course is designed to increase the depth of knowledge and skills of technical staff charged with administering and securing information systems and networks. Developed around a scenario in which a production network has failed an information security audit, students will implement numerous technical security solutions to bring the network into compliance.

Creating a Computer Security Incident Response Team
This one-day course is designed for managers and project leaders who have been tasked with implementing a computer security incident response team (CSIRT). This course provides a high level overview of the key issues and decisions that must be addressed in establishing a CSIRT. As part of the course, attendees will develop an action plan that can be used as a starting point in planning and implementing their CSIRT.

Managing Computer Security Incident Response Teams
This three-day course provides current and future managers of computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) with a pragmatic view of the issues that they will face in operating an effective team. The course provides insight into the type and nature of the work that CSIRT staff may be expected to handle, and provides an overview of the CSIRT environment, organizational interactions, and the nature of incident management activities.

Creating and Managing a CSIRT
This two-day workshop is an accelerated workshop covering the same material as the workshops Creating a Computer Security Incident Response Team and Managing a Computer Security Incident Response Team.

Fundamentals of Incident Handling
This five-day course is for computer security incident response team (CSIRT) technical personnel with little or no incident handling experience. Course attendees will learn how to gather the information required to handle an incident; realize the importance of having and following pre-defined CSIRT policies and procedures; understand the technical issues relating to commonly reported attack types; perform analysis and response tasks for various sample incidents; and identify potential problems to avoid while taking part in CSIRT work.

Advanced Incident Handling
This five-day course, designed for computer security incident response team (CSIRT) technical personnel with several months of incident handling experience, addresses techniques employed in detecting and responding to computer security threats and attacks, and commonly used and emerging attacks that are targeted against a variety of operating systems and architectures. Building on the methods and tools discussed in the Fundamentals of Incident Handling course, this course provides guidance that incident handlers can use in responding to system compromises.

OCTAVE® Training Workshop
OCTAVE® is a self-directed risk evaluation that provides organizations with control over security risks; balances critical information assets, business needs, threats, and vulnerabilities; and benchmarks organizations against known or accepted best practices for security. This three-day workshop is designed to help individuals and analysis teams lead and perform OCTAVE evaluations.

Computer Forensics for Technical Staff
This three-day course comprises three components: lecture, student labs, and team scenarios. It is designed for technical staff who administer and secure information systems/networks. This course will provide participants with a fundamental understanding of the computer forensics process, and develop first responders' basic forensic best practices.

Defense in Depth
The Defense-in-Depth workshop is designed for students, ranging from system administrators to CIOs, who have some technical understanding of information systems and want to delve into how technical assurance issues affect their entire organizations. The workshop material takes a big-picture view while also reinforcing concepts presented with some details about implementation. Therefore, this workshop can be a useful pursuit for system administrators and IT security personnel who would like to step up to the management level. It also can provide a refresher for IT managers and executives who want to stay up to date on the latest technological threats facing their enterprises. The workshop consists of eight modules: Compliance Management, Risk Management, Identity Management, Authorization Management, Accountability Management, Availability Management, Configuration Management, and Incident Management.

Introduction to VTE
The CERT Virtual Training Environment (VTE) provides self-paced remote access to a suite of information assurance and computer forensics training material in virtual classroom and knowledge library formats. VTE follows a 'read it, see it, do it' instructional model, offering written training material, captured video of instructor-led lectures and demonstrations, and virtual training labs that are provisioned on-demand directly by students through virtual machine technology.

Q-CERT is making a customized version of VTE, VTE-Q, available to its partners. To promote the usage of VTE-Q, this hands-on half-day workshop covers the benefits that VTE technology provides, the usage of the VTE interface, and scenarios for using VTE within organizations. Attendees will be provided with laptops with which they can access VTE-Q during the workshop.