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Global Information Assurance Certification

SANS delivers the best training I have seen in the industry.
-Brian Hughes, Idaho State University

SECURITY 401

SANS Security Essentials

Dr. Eric Cole, Ph.D., SANS Technology Institute (Fellow)
6 CPE Credits per day

Please note that some course material for SEC 401 and MGT 512 may overlap. We recommend SEC 401 for those interested in a more technical course of study, and MGT 512 for those primarily interested in a leadership-oriented but less technical learning experience.
This course prepares you for the GSEC certification which meets the requirement of the DoD 8570 IAT Level 2.

Maximize your training time and turbo-charge your career in security by learning the full SANS Security Essentials curriculum needed to qualify for the GSEC certification. In this track you will learn the language and underlying theory of computer security. At the same time you will learn the essential, up-to-the-minute knowledge and skills required for effective performance if you are given the responsibility for securing systems and/or organizations. This course meets both of the key promises SANS makes to our students: (1) You will gain up-to-the-minute knowledge you can put into practice immediately upon returning to work; and, (2) You will be taught by the best security instructors in the industry. As always, great teaching sets SANS courses apart, and SANS ensures this by choosing instructors who have ranked highest in a nine-year competition among potential security faculty.

To compliment the SANS Security Essentials course material, students will also receive the SANS Security Essentials Cookbook and CDs. The Cookbook and CDs provide the necessary tools and instructions on how to use the 25 critical/fundamental tools that every security professional must know how to use to help solve information security problems that may arise.

SPECIAL NOTE: This course is endorsed by the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) NSTISSI 4013 Standard for Systems Administrators in Information Systems Security (INFOSEC).

Test your security knowledge with our SANS Security Essentials Assessment Test. Get your free test at https://portal.sans.org/assessments/

  • Who Should Attend
    • Security Professionals who want to fill the gaps in their understanding of technical information security
    • Managers who want to understand information security beyond simple terminology and concepts
    • Anyone new to information security with some background in information systems and networking
  • SANS Security Essentials Course Topics
    • Risk Assessment and Auditing
    • Host and Network Based Intrusion Detection
    • Honeypots, Firewalls and Perimeter Protection
    • Security Policy
    • Password Management
    • Security Incident Handling - The Six Steps
    • Information Warfare
    • Web Security
    • Network Fundamentals and IP Concepts and Behavior
    • Cisco Router Filters
    • Four Primary Threats for Perimeter Protection
    • PGP, Steganography
    • Anti-Viral Tools
    • Windows (2000, XP, NT, 98) Security Administration and Auditing
    • IIS Security
    • Unix Security Fundamentals
Author Statement

One of the things I love to hear from students after teaching Security 401 is "I have worked in security for many years and after taking this course I realized how much I did not know." With the latest version of Security Essentials and the Bootcamp, we have really captured the critical aspects of security and enhanced those topics with examples to drive home the key points. After attending Security 401, I am confident you will walk away with solutions to problems you have had for a while plus solutions to problems you did not even know you had.
- Eric Cole