the most trusted source for computer security training, certification and research
select a course
Washington, DC - July 5 - 13, 2006
Global Information Assurance Certification

Instructors have excellent hands on real life experience.
-Terry Kuxhaus, State of South Dakota

Faculty for SANSFIRE 2006

Chris Brenton
Chris Brenton is a private consultant with over ten years experience in the field. He is one of the founding members of the initial Honeynet Project, one of the original Internet Storm Center handlers, and started up one of the first managed security ISP's. Over the years, he's been credited with the discovery of numerous vulnerabilities in various software products. Along with being a published author, Chris is responsible for maintaining all of the material in the SANS Perimeter Security track. In his spare time, Chris teaches rally and high speed off road security driving where he can be found teaching students to make their side window the front of the car.
top^
Dr. Eric Cole, Ph.D.
Dr. Eric Cole is an industry recognized security expert, with over 15 year's hands-on experience. Dr. Cole currently performs leading edge security consulting and works in research and development to advance the state of the art in information systems security. Dr. Cole has experience in information technology, with a focus on perimeter defense, secure network design, vulnerability discovery, penetration testing, and intrusion detection systems. Dr. Cole has a Masters in Computer Science from NYIT, and a Ph.D. from Pace University with a concentration in Information Security. Dr. Cole is the author of several books including Hackers Beware, Hiding in Plain Site, Network Security Bible and Insider Threat. He is also the inventor of over 20 patents and is a researcher, writer, and speaker. Eric is also a senior scientist with Lockheed Martin Information Technology (LMIT) and Lockheed Martin (LM) fellow. Dr. Cole is actively involved with The SANS Technology Institute (STI) and SANS working with students, teaching, and maintaining and developing courseware.
top^
Jason Fossen
Jason Fossen is a principal security consultant at Enclave Consulting LLC, a published author, and a frequent public speaker on Microsoft security issues. He is the sole author of the SANS Institute's week-long Securing Windows course (SEC505), maintains the "Windows day" of Security Essentials (SEC401.5), and has been involved in numerous other SANS projects since 1998. He was graduated from the University of Virginia, received his Master's degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and holds a number of professional certifications. He currently lives in Dallas, Texas.
top^
Bob Hillery
<p>Bob Hillery is a co-founder and Senior Security Analyst with Intelguardians, LLC, of Washington, DC. He brings a global perspective to consultancy through Information Systems Security Management and computer network security incident handling experience in the U.S. Navy, private sector, and R&D. Bob has published a number of papers regarding threat assessment, business systems security management, including a National Institute of Justice project evaluating cyber attack and forensics tools requirements while a Senior Researcher for the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College.</p> <p>He is on the Advisory Boards of the SANS Institute, a variety of academic groups, and small businesses providing technical insights for Information Security degree programs and for corporate and legal digital forensics requirements. He also served as the Vice President of Academic Affairs & Chair of Information Systems Department for NH Community Technical College. He is a certified instructor for the SANS Institute and guest lecturer at such places as the University of New Haven.s National Security Master.s Program and Franklin Pierce Law Center.</p> <p>Bob has Masters degrees in both Strategic Studies and International Relations. His professional certifications include CISSP, SANS GIAC certifications, MCSE and the NSA IAM & IEM.</p>
top^
David Hoelzer
Since 1985, David has had almost any position that you can imagine in the information technology field, ranging from programmer analyst up to chief information security officer. He has been teaching for SANS since 1999, managing and authoring the majority of the audit related materials for SANS in addition to some of the secure coding courses from SANS-SSI. David currently serves as the Chief Information Officer for Enclave Forensics and the Director of Consulting for Cyber-Defense, a subsidiary of Enclave Forensics. He is a research fellow with the Internet Forensics Lab and an adjunct research associate with the UNLV Center for Cybersecurity Research.
top^
Fred Kerby
Fred is an engineer, manager, and security practitioner whose experience spans several generations of networking. He is the information assurance manager at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division and has vast experience with the political side of security incident handling. His team is one of the recipients of the SANS Security Technology Leadership Award as well as the Government Technology Leadership Award. Fred received the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award in recognition of his technical and management leadership in computer and network security. A frequent speaker at SANS, Fred’s presentations reflect his opinions and are not the opinions of the Department of the Navy.
top^
Rob Lee
Rob Lee is a Principal Consultant for MANDIANT, a leading provider of information security consulting services and software to Fortune 500 organizations and the U.S. Government. Rob has over 11 years experience in computer forensics, vulnerability discovery, intrusion detection, and incident response. Rob graduated the U.S. Air Force Academy and served in the U.S. Air Force as a founding member of the 609th Information Warfare Squadron, the first U.S. military operational unit focused on Information Operations. Later, he was a member of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations where he conducted computer crime investigations and computer forensics. Prior to joining MANDIANT, he worked on contracts for a variety of government agencies, where he was the technical lead for a vulnerability discovery team, contractor lead for cyber forensics branch, and led a security software development team. Rob also coauthored the bestselling book, Know Your Enemy, 2nd Edition. In addition to working for MANDIANT and the SANS Institute, Rob is currently pursuing his MBA at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.
top^
Matthew Luallen
*Matthew E. Luallen* is a well-respected information professional, researcher, instructor and author. Mr. Luallen serves as the President and Principal Consultant of Sph3r3, LLC., a strategic and practical educational and consulting company. With Sph3r3 Mr. Luallen consults with both governmental and commercial sectors including a multi-client base of corporations, public utilities, financial institutions, law enforcement and healthcare organizations. He has provided assistance and architectural support for many information security projects including integrating compliance requirements associated with SOX, HIPAA and the NERC CIP standard. Recent endeavors include architecting and integrating protective controls for financial market transactions, virtualized environments and SCADA systems. Prior to incorporating Sph3r3, Mr. Luallen provided strategic guidance for Argonne National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, within the Information Architecture and Cyber Security Program Office. In an effort to promote education and collaboration in information security Mr. Luallen is an instructor and faculty at several institutions. Mr. Luallen is adjunct faculty for DePaul University instructing the Computer Information and Network Security Masters degree capstone course. He is also a certified instructor and CCIE for Cisco Systems instructing security technologies such as firewalls, intrusion prevention, virtual private networks and general secure information architecture. As a certified instructor for the SANS Institute Mr. Luallen teaches infrastructure architecture, wireless security, web application security, regulatory and standards compliance, and security essentials. Mr. Luallen is a graduate of National Technological University with a Master's Degree in Computer Science, Mr. Luallen also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana.
top^
Stephen Northcutt
Stephen Northcutt founded the GIAC certification and currently serves as President of the SANS Technology Institute, a post graduate level IT Security College, www.sans.edu. Stephen is author/coauthor of Incident Handling Step-by-Step, Intrusion Signatures and Analysis, Inside Network Perimeter Security 2nd Edition, IT Ethics Handbook, SANS Security Essentials, SANS Security Leadership Essentials and Network Intrusion Detection 3rd edition. He was the original author of the Shadow Intrusion Detection system before accepting the position of Chief for Information Warfare at the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Stephen is a graduate of Mary Washington College. Before entering the field of computer security, he worked as a Navy helicopter search and rescue crewman, white water raft guide, chef, martial arts instructor, cartographer, and network designer.
top^
Hal Pomeranz
Hal is founder and CEO of Deer Run Associates, a systems management and security consulting firm. He has spent more than fifteen years managing systems and networks for some of the largest commercial, government, and academic organizations in the country. He is the Technical Editor for SysAdmin Magazine and was the recipient of the 2001 SAGE Outstanding Achievement award for his teaching and leadership in the field of System Administration. Hal participated in the first SANS conference and designed the SANS Step-by-Step course model. He is a top-rated instructor and author on topics ranging from information security to system and network management to Perl programming.
top^
David Rice
David Rice is Director of The Monterey Group a results-oriented consultancy fulfilling client objectives in all matters of information security. David is an internationally recognized information security expert and the author of the forthcoming book, Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Software. David has been awarded for significant contributions as part of his work with the Department of Defense and the National Security Agency. David is a SANS Institute author and senior instructor. He has over 10 years of experience in security and large-scale IT infrastructure.
top^
Marcus Sachs
Marcus Sachs serves as Executive Director of Government Affairs for National Security Policy at Verizon in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Verizon in August 2007, he was the deputy director of SRI International's Computer Science Laboratory. Marcus has served as the director of the SANS Internet Storm Center since 2003, and is an internationally recognized computer security expert. He brings over 26 years of professional experience to SANS including 20 years of active military service as an officer in the United States Army and two years of national cyberspace security policy development as a Presidential appointee to the National Security Council staff in the George W. Bush administration. Marcus was the first cyber security official assigned to the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 where he developed the initial concept and strategy for the creation of the United States Computer Emergency Response Team. He was also a founding member of the Defense Department's Joint Task Force for Computer Network Defense, created in 1998 as the first US military organization designed to fight foreign threats in cyberspace. A graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College, Marcus also holds a Masters degree in Computer Science with a concentration in Information Security, a Masters degree in Science and Technology Commercialization, and a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Policy with a concentration in Science and Technology. Marcus is a licensed Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
top^
Richard Salgado
Richard P. Salgado is a Senior Legal Director with Yahoo! Inc., where he focuses on international privacy, security and law enforcement compliance matters. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Mr. Salgado served as Senior Counsel in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the United States Department of Justice. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Salgado specialized in investigating and prosecuting computer network cases, such as computer hacking, illegal computer wiretaps, denial of service attacks, malicious code and other technology-driven privacy crimes. Mr. Salgado also regularly speaks on the legal and policy implications of searching and seizing computers and electronic evidence, emerging surveillance technologies, digital evidence and related criminal conduct. Mr. Salgado is a lecturer in law at Stanford Law School, where he teaches a Computer Crime seminar; he previously served as an adjunct law professor at Georgetown University Law Center and George Mason Law School, and as a faculty member of the National Judicial College. Mr. Salgado graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Mexico and in 1989 received his J.D. from Yale Law School.
top^
Dave Shackleford
Dave Shackleford, Director of Configuresoft's Center for Policy & Compliance, is a course and exam author for the SANS Institute, where he also serves as a GIAC Technical Director. He is the co-author of Hands-On Information Security from Course Technology, as well as the “Managing Incident Response” chapter in the Course Technology book, Readings and Cases in the Management of Information Security. Previously, he worked as CTO for the Center for Internet Security, as well as for a security consulting firm in Atlanta. He has also worked as a security architect, analyst, and manager for several Fortune 500 companies. He has consulted with hundreds of organizations in the areas of regulatory compliance, security and network architecture and engineering. His specialties include incident handling and response, intrusion detection and traffic analysis, and vulnerability assessment and penetration testing.
top^
Ed Skoudis
Ed Skoudis is a co-founder and Senior Security Analyst with Intelguardians, a Washington DC based information security consulting firm. Ed teaches SANS Security 504, "Hacker Techniques, Exploits and Incident Handling," and 517, "Cutting Edge Hacking Techniques," on a regular basis. Ed's expertise includes hacker attacks and defenses, the information security industry, and computer privacy issues. He has performed numerous security assessments, provided detailed expert witness services in cases involving major credit card theft, and responded to computer attacks for clients in the financial, high technology, healthcare, and other industries. Ed conducted a demonstration of hacker techniques against financial institutions for the United States Senate and is a frequent speaker on issues associated with hacker tools and defenses. He has published several articles on these topics, as well as the books Counter Hack Reloaded and Malware: Fighting Malicious Code. Ed was also awarded 2004, 2005, and 2006 Microsoft MVP awards for Windows Server Security, and is an alumnus of the Honeynet Project. Previous to Intelguardians, Ed served as a security consultant with International Network Services (INS), Predictive Systems, Global Integrity, SAIC, and Bell Communications Research (Bellcore).
top^
Dr. Steve Slater, Ph.D.
Dr. Steve Slater is Founder and President of Security Compliance Corporation (www.securitycompliancecorp.com), a privately held software company building solutions for information security compliance and identity auditing. Steve is also a SANS author and instructor for Security 615: Secure Internet Presence – LAMP. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Slater has provided a range of expert consulting including secure firewall and application design, vulnerability assessments, threat management, security policy, and regulatory compliance. In addition to security, Steve also holds a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkeley and has several publications relating to high-performance computing and advanced numerical analysis. His scientific expertise earned the recognition of both the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.
top^
William Stearns
Bill is a Senior Research Engineer at Dartmouth's Institute for Security Technology Studies, working on Honeypot development and other network security projects. He is a content author and faculty member at the SANS Institute. His background is in network and operating system security; he was the chief architect of a commercial firewall and is an active contributor to the Linux development effort. His spare time is spent coordinating and maintaining an antispam blacklist. Bill's articles and tools can be found in SysAdmin magazine, online journals, and at http://www.stearns.org.
top^
James Tarala
James Tarala is a principal consultant with Enclave Hosting, LLC and is based out of Venice, FL. He is a regular speaker and senior instructor with the SANS Institute, as well as a courseware author and editor for many of their auditing and security courses. As a consultant, he has spent the past few years architecting large enterprise IT security and infrastructure architectures, specifically working with many Microsoft based directory services, e-mail, terminal services, and wireless technologies. He has also spent a large amount of time consulting with organizations to assist them in their security management, operational practices, and regulatory compliance issues, and often times performs independent security audits and assists internal audit groups to develop their internal audit programs. James completed his undergraduate studies at Philadelphia Biblical University, his graduate work at the University of Maryland, and holds numerous professional certifications.
top^
Dr. Johannes Ullrich, Ph.D.
As Chief Research Officer for the SANS Institute, Johannes is currently responsible for the SANS Internet Storm Center (ISC) and the GIAC Gold program. He founded DShield.org in 2000, which is now the data collection engine behind the ISC. His work with the ISC has been widely recognized, and in 2004, Network World named him one of the 50 most powerful people in the networking industry. Prior to working for SANS, Johannes worked as a lead support engineer for a web development company and as a research physicist. Johannes holds a Ph.D. in Physics from SUNY Albany and is located in Jacksonville FL.
top^
Dave Wichers
David Wichers is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Aspect Security, a company that specializes in application security services. Mr. Wichers has over seventeen years of experience in the information security field, in areas such as application security, security architectures, secure designs, security policies, database security, multilevel security, system and software development, and security testing. He has supported the design and development of enterprise web applications, trusted operating systems, trusted databases, multilevel secure guards, and large integrated systems for a wide variety of Commercial and Government customers. He previously ran the Application Security Services Group at Exodus Communications. Mr. Wichers has a BSE in Computer Systems Engineering from Arizona State University and a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of California at Davis. Mr. Wichers is a CISSP and a CISM, is currently the OWASP Conferences Chair (www.owasp.org), and is a coauthor of the OWASP Top Ten.
top^
Joshua Wright
Joshua is the author of several papers on wireless security and intrusion analysis, and the co-author of Securing Cisco Routers: Step-by-Step, a book published by the SANS Institute. In a consulting role, he has worked with Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies, and educational institutions addressing issues related to wireless security, vulnerability assessment, and secure network design. He currently serves as the senior security researcher for Aruba Wireless Networks and is an instructor for the SANS Institute.
top^
Benjamin Wright
Ben, recognized the world over as one of the leading lawyers in e-commerce, is the founding author of The Law of Electronic Commerce, a comprehensive book on the legality of electronic transactions and computerized business records. Since 1988, Wright has delivered over 500 speeches on e-commerce, privacy, records management, and computer security and been quoted in publications around the globe, from the Wall Street Journal to the Sydney Morning Herald. He wrote and presented to the Sri Lankan government a report on technology law, which contributed to the adoption of national e-commerce legislation in 2005.
top^
Lenny Zeltser
Lenny Zeltser leads the New York security consulting team at SAVVIS, a premier provider of IT infrastructure and hosting services. He is also a member of the Board of Directors at SANS Technology Institute, a senior faculty member at SANS, and an incident handler at the Internet Storm Center. Lenny co-authored a number of books, including Inside Network Perimeter Security and Malware: Fighting Malicious Code. He also contributed articles to publications such as the Information Security magazine, and presented to IT executives at conferences and private summits. In addition to holding the CISSP certification, Lenny is one of the few individuals in the world who have earned the highly-regarded GIAC Security Expert (GSE) designation. He has an MBA degree from MIT Sloan and a Computer Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania. More information about Lenny's projects and interests is available at http://www.zeltser.com.
top^