Here's what recent attendees had to say about this course:

"This class is great for IT professionals looking for their first step towards security awareness. I have been in IT for 17 years and I learned a lot on this first day of class." - Paul Beninati, EMC

"Good basic information for someone just coming into the field." - Bryce Richert, SUH

"It's a very good course if you need the basic foundation. It's a very helpful class to take because it expands on some basic concepts." - Shruti Iyer, DCS Corporation

Security 301: SANS Intro to Information Security course consists of instruction and hands-on sessions. The lab sessions are designed to enable students to implement the concepts and practices in an instructor-led environment. Students will have the opportunity to install, configure, and use the programs that illustrate core skills in cyber security.

To conduct the exercises associated with the course, students will need to bring a laptop configured as described in the SEC301 Laptop and Drive Configuration Guide. To ensure success in conducting the exercises, it is critical that the laptop be properly configured before you come to class. Students are also required to test their systems (as described below) prior to coming to class.

NOTE: Do not bring a regular production laptop for this class! When installing software, there is always a chance of breaking something else on the system. Students should assume that all data could be lost.

NOTE: It is critical that students be able to login to the Administrator level account (SEC301-adm) for the operating system and be able to install programs that are provided on the CD that comes with the course materials.

NOTE: End point security solutions (i.e., application white listing) can prevent programs from being installed correctly on the system. Students need to be able to temporarily disable end point security solutions or make exceptions to allow programs to run.

NOTE: An optical reader (CD, DVD) is required to install the programs that will be provided in class.

NOTE: External storage media (e.g., USB thumb drive, portable hard disk drive, or memory card/chip) is required to store files created during the exercises. Note that the media will be completely overwritten during the last exercise. The recommended media size is 2 GB; larger sizes will require longer to completely erase the information by overwriting it. Do NOT bring media that contains information that cannot be overwritten.

Students must bring a laptop with a current version of a supported Windows operating system (e.g., Windows Vista or later; Windows 7 is recommended). The exercises have been successfully tested in a Windows 7 environment. but students can also bring a Windows 8 environment.

The SEC301 Laptop and Drive Configuration Guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to configure the laptop and associated external media.

In summary, before you arrive at the conference you should:

• Confirm that a current Windows operating system (e.g., Windows 7) is installed and working
• Login to the SEC301-adm account and verify that it has Administrative level privilege
• Confirm that the computer can connect to a WiFi network that configures the network parameters (e.g., IP address, DNS addresses, and default gateway)
• Confirm that you have properly configured the external storage media (1-2 GB capacity) as described in the SEC301 Laptop and Drive Configuration Guide
• Confirm that you can successfully copy files from optical media to the computer using the optical drive that you will take to the class

It is critical that you work through the documents before class so that you arrive with a properly configured laptop and external media.

By properly preparing, we know that you will have a knowledge rich and enjoyable lab experience.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

Fred Kerby

Track Lead/Course Author

fkerby@sans.org

If you have additional questions about the laptop specifications, please contact laptop_prep@sans.org.

• Persons new to information technology who need to understand the basics of information assurance, computer networking, cryptography, and risk evaluation
• Managers and Information Security Officers who need a basic understanding of risk management and the tradeoffs between confidentiality, integrity,and availability
• Managers, administrators, and auditors who need to draft, update, implement, or enforce policy

Which Course Is Right For You?

This is the track SANS offers for the professional just starting out in security. If you have experience in the field, please consider our more advanced offerings such as Security Essentials, SEC 401.

• Securely store passwords to multiple accounts using a free tool that implements an encrypted database
• Backup and synchronize files to an external drive using a tool that detects differences between the source and destination files
• Manage and update patches for third party applications in a Microsoft OS environment
• Protect sensitive data by creating an encrypted partition on a laptop hard drive
• Protect sensitive data from disclosure by securely erasing the data on an external drive
• Discuss and understand risk as a product of vulnerability, threat, and impact to an organization
• Apply basic principles of information assurance (e.g., least privilege, separation of risk, defense in depth, etc.)
• Understand how networks work (link layer communications, addressing, basic routing, masquerading)
• Identify the predominant forms of malware and the various delivery mechanisms that can place organizations at risk
• Identify the capabilities and limitations of cryptography
• Evaluate policy and recommend improvements
• Identify and implement meaningful security metrics
• Identify and understand the basic attack vectors used by intruders

Courses that are good follow-ups

• SEC401
• MGT512