SANS Technology Institute Master of Science degree programs offer candidates an unparalleled opportunity to excel in the two aspects of security that are most important to the success of their employer and their own careers: management skills and technical mastery.

Over the next 20 years, information technology will become so central to all aspects of our lives, from recreation to warfare, that information security will rise in importance and scale. It will become a profession with more than 500,000, and perhaps 1,000,000 people employed in positions in which they have significant roles in shaping the security of their employers' systems. Those people need managers - technical directors and chief information security officers who are deeply skilled in the technology and who have excellent management skills.

If you aspire to help lead your organization's or your country's information security program, and you have the qualifications, organizational backing, and personal drive to excel in these challenging degree programs, we will welcome you into the program.

The following SANS Technology Institute (STI) master's students will be making the following presentations as part of their graduation requirements:

Creating a Remote Command Shell Using Default Windows Command Line Tools
- Kevin Bong
- Monday, July 28, 2008 * 6:30pm - 7:10pm
- Wilson A

You may think your windows machines are free of backdoors because your users cannot install any software and your antivirus tells you the systems are clean. This presentation will show how the default windows command line applications FTP.EXE and NSLOOKUP.EXE can be used to "shovel" a command shell from a Windows machine out to another host using FTP and DNS protocols. No malware or netcat needed, just a little creativity and you can turn a windows box into a zombie waiting to do its remote master's bidding.

Bio:
Kevin Bong is the Vice President of Network and Data Security for Johnson Financial Group. Kevin has a BS in Physics and Computer Science from Carroll College, WI, and has earned the GIAC GSE. Kevin is also an amateur astronomer, beekeeper, SANS community instructor, and a pretty neat Dad.

Security Awareness Training Using an Actual Incident
- Russell Meyer
- Monday, July 28, 2008 * 7:20pm-8:00pm
- Wilson A

Companies practice evacuations in case of fire, disaster recovery simulations, and testing of generators in case of power failure; so why not also practice security incident handling?

In this talk you will learn how information security awareness training can be delivered to IT staff like developers, management and helpdesk personnel. The staff will work in teams to investigate an actual compromised system recreated on a VMware image. Using this hands-on approach, the teams will examine the system, find the vulnerabilities, the hidden folders and files, and practice cleaning up the system and removing the vulnerabilities -- all the while documenting their findings and following the proper incident handling procedures. Attendees will learn how a hands-on approach in a lab setting can be an effective learning tool.

Bio:
Russell Meyer has over 15 years experience in compliance, network security, programming and project implementations. He holds several GIAC certifications as well as the CISSP, MCSE, MCNE. He is currently a SANS Technology Institute Master of Science degree candidate.

Finding Success with a SIM: Uncovering What You Need to Analyze
- Jim Voorhees
- Monday, July 28, 2008 * 8:10pm-8:50pm
- Wilson A

This briefing will show you how to use a SIM to help you find what matters. You'll see how the author used ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) to find events that were of primary importance. Specifically, you will learn how he found violations of agency policy, misconfigurations, and even an unauthorized network. The incidents demonstrated the power of easy methods to get value out of a SIM. As part of the presentation you'll learn some of the uses and limitations of a SIM.

Bio:
Jim Voorhees, a candidate for the Master of Science Degree inInformation Security at SANS Technology Institute, is a security analyst forAdvanced Concepts, Inc. He has almost a decade of experience in information technology and has worked in information security since 2002. His experience with ArcSight began more than three years ago at the FBI. He is now making it work at the IRS. Jim holds multiple GIAC certifications.