As the scope and complexity of cyber security challenges continues to increase, the lack of qualified technical resources has become a major challenge for Middle East businesses. SANS Institute, a provider of information security training, intends to address this by conducting its training course in Abu Dhabi from the 25th to the 30th of March, 2017.
In recent years, businesses in the region have begun to make notable investments in IT security systems. However, many have been unable to realise the full potential of these as their IT personnel are not fully qualified to understand and efficiently operate these solutions.
The course, SEC561: Immersive Hands-on Hacking Techniques, is specifically designed for penetration testers, vulnerability assessment personnel, auditors, and operations personnel. It teaches in-depth security capabilities for penetration testing and vulnerability assessment through 80%+ hands-on exercises that closely model real-world scenarios. “Businesses in the Middle East are heavily reliant on security technologies but these are only as good as the people configuring, utilising and maintaining them. Penetration testing and vulnerability assessment are particularly useful skills as they help uncover the most critical IT security flaws and thus enable organisations to make strategic investments that are optimised for their unique cyber security requirements,” explains Erik Van Buggenhout, Certified Instructor at SANS Institute.
Emphasis on real-world learning
The training leverages the innovative NetWars challenge infrastructure which lets students interact with brand new and custom-developed scenarios built just for the course. It entails over 30 hours of intense lab sessions that prepare attendees to identify, exploit and address the flaws in network configurations, passwords and authentication, web application code, Windows and Linux server configuration, antivirus systems, and iOS and Android devices. Van Buggenhout states that thanks to the extensive hands-on experience, “participants will be able to apply the skills they have learned the day they get back to their jobs”.
“In creating this course, we focused on getting as much practical, hands-on skill building into the classroom as possible. When students walk out of the class, they will have mastered over 100 new techniques for finding, exploiting and then fixing security flaws,” he says.
SANS Institute is already accepting enrolment for the 6-day training which will be conducted at the Hilton Abu Dhabi. Attendees can register for the course by visiting: https://www.sans.org/event/abu-dhabi-2017/
