Re: Training advice

[Paul Keser <pkeser () STANFORD EDU>]

I agree. I have taken SANS face to face classes and I also took one of 
their SANS at home and I actually found I got more out of it at home 
because I had a week between classes to do the labs also there wasn't 
the problem of information overload by the 3rd or 4th day...

You do miss some of the networking (interpersonal...not IP :-)) apsects 
of a face to face class but each have their advantages.

Also I see educational pricing advertised for SANS classes from time to 
time and that is very reasonably priced. I would say that even at full 
price including travel SANS class is the best bang for the buck you can 
find...IMHO...

As vendor certs go I think Cisco are pretty good. When I did my CCNA I 
did a self study book and passed but I was coming from a networking 
support background. CheckPoint on the other hand was just a quiz to make 
sure you could repeat their marketing spiel back to them. I also did a 
self study for the CISSP and passed as well but I took 130+ pages of 
notes and spent 3-4 mos studying for the CISSP. The CISSP exam is very 
challenging but my main complaint is it is 10 miles long and 2 inches 
deep. They brush the surface a a lot of things but didn't go into depth 
in anything...

A couple other options...usually the local community college or 
extension program has a decent selection of networking classes, not 
usually much of a security slant but usuallly pretty reasonably prices 
(as long as cisco isn't in the course...out here anyway having cisco in 
the name tends to ~double the cost of the course...

One final option...online degrees, I completed the MSci in Network 
Security at capitol college (capitol-college.edu) and am currantly 
converting that from a 30 credit MSci in NS to a 36 credit MSci in 
Informtion Assurance. I have been very happy with the quality of the 
courses and the quality of the instructors. It is a completely online 
program but still has a pretty good live classroom "feel" to it.

I hope my rambling helps...in case you couldn't tell...I tend to use up 
my training budget wherever I am! :-)



-PaulK

Paul Keser
Assoc. Information Security Officer
Stanford University
650.724.9051
GPG Fingerprint:  DBA3 E20F CE91 28AA DA1C  4A77 3BD9 C82D 2699 24FB



John Piercy wrote:
> I have really liked SANS’ course offerings. The instruction has a good 
> pace and is delivered by superbly qualified industry professionals. 
> They also do some heavy discounting for .edu clients. Check out the 
> available course descriptions at http://www.sans.org/training/courses.php
>
> The training best suited to you will depend largely on you and your 
> environment. I will say that I’ve taken two of the 5-day courses: 
> Intrusion Detection In-Depth and Hacker techniques, Exploits, and 
> Incident Handling. They were both fantastic.
>
> Good luck in your new pursuit!
>
> John Piercy
> Network Manager
> Randolph College*
> 2500 Rivermont Avenue
> Lynchburg, VA 24503
> jpiercy () rmwc edu
>
> *founded as Randolph-Macon Woman's College
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> *From:* Vanderbilt, Teresa [mailto:tvanderb () OZARKS EDU]
> *Sent:* Monday, June 18, 2007 3:02 PM
> *To:* SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
> *Subject:* [SECURITY] Training advice
>
> I recently stepped into the title of Security Manager. We're a small 
> school and this is a new position for us. I'd only maintained the 
> servers, switches and firewalls before. I have no one to mentor me and 
> very little budget for training. I can spend approximately $3-5K on 
> formal training this year. I was thinking of a good online class so 
> all the money goes toward training rather than hotels and travel. 
> Until now, everything I've learned has been mostly on my own; although 
> I recently attended Pentration Testing Training. What other training, 
> both formal and informal, would benefit me and my school the most? 
> I've been thinking of CCNA and I would like to learn how to use Snort 
> since it's free. Will CCNA be beneficial or should I buy a good 
> beginners book on Snort. Am I way off the mark for what I need to 
> study? I need to get up to speed quickly and can't afford to guess at 
> what I need. Please help.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Teresa Vanderbilt
> University of the Ozarks