MGT415: A Practical Introduction to Cyber Security Risk Management

A basic understanding of information security and information security management topics is helpful for students attending this class. However, a strong background in any of these skills is not a pre-requisite for the class. In the class students will be taught a step by step approach for performing a risk assessment regardless of their technical information security or management background.

Important! Bring your own system configured according to these instructions.

A properly configured system is required to fully participate in this course. If you do not carefully read and follow these instructions, you will not be able to fully participate in hands-on exercises in your course. Therefore, please arrive with a system meeting all of the specified requirements.

Back up your system before class. Better yet, use a system without any sensitive/critical data. SANS is not responsible for your system or data.

MANDATORY MGT415 SYSTEM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

• Wireless networking (802.11 standard) is required. There is no wired Internet access in the classroom.

MANDATORY MGT415 HOST CONFIGURATION AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

• Your host operating system must be the latest version of Windows 10, Windows 11, or macOS 10.15.x or newer.
• Fully update your host operating system prior to the class to ensure you have the right drivers and patches installed.
• Linux hosts are not supported in the classroom due to their numerous variations. If you choose to use Linux as your host, you are solely responsible for configuring it to work with the course materials and/or VMs.
• Microsoft Office (any version) or OpenOffice installed on your host. Note that you can download Office Trial Software online (free for 30 days).

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

"Most every time we talk with an organization, whether that be a private company or a government agency, we meet people who want to use risk assessment as a tool, but are not actually using it as they could. No organization has enough resources to do everything they would like to defend themselves. At some point a priority decision has to be made. We either make those decisions individually based on whatever need seems to be the most pressing in from of us today, or we take a methodical approach, getting as much input from the business as possible. Risk management is the tool we have available for taking the methodical path.

This course has been written with practicality and usability in mind. Risk models and learning ALE to pass a certification test is fine. But to defend our systems, we need practical skills in risk assessment. This course will teach students the hands-on skills necessary to immediately start using risk assessment as a tool to defend their organization."

- James Tarala & Kelli Tarala

"James was great! Very informative, clear and concise." - Sean O'Connor, Secureworks