Archive for the ‘Security Leadership Essentials’ Tag

Insider’s Guide to a SANS Conference – Day 5

Posted March 27, 2009
Filed under: External Training, Industry Events, Professional Development, Uncategorized | Tags: , ,
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This was the last day for the Management 512 “Security Leadership Essentials for Manager’s” course.  Day 5 was a Management Practicum.  

The Day 5 material was the most focused on pure management with less attention on technical information.  The topics included understanding legal liability and managing technical employees.

As a management “practicum”, I was hoping for more scenarios, role-play, or exercises.  That being said, the class did have an outstanding discussion on the topics at hand. 

MGMT 512 uses a trademarked feature called “Knowledge Compression”. Most of the full length courses are 6 days.  There are also a handful of one day courses that are being offered, so the conference runs throughout this weekend.

I had a GREAT time participating in the SANS work-study program.  One of the most memorable moments was when the hotel staff asked if we wanted to jump in a bounce house they set up.  Apparently they had it set up to model to a different group and thought someone should get some use out of it before they deflated it.  

We collectively thought it would be a good idea to get a picture of us all jumping around with and post it on the website with a caption of “Volunteering at SANS is fun!”.  Well, the bounce house had a “structural failure”.  To make a long story short, I ended up folded like a taco in a corner of the bounce house with everything collapsing around me.  Needless to say, we were all laughing pretty hard.  Hopefully, I can get a copy of one of the pictures taken.  Check out the SANS website if you are interested in their work-study program – I highly recommend it! 

Related Posts: 

Insider’s Guide to a SANS Conference – Day 4

Insider’s Guide to a SANS Conference – Day 3

Insider’s Guide to a SANS Conference – Day 2

Insider’s Guide to a SANS Conference – Day 1

Insider’s Guide to a SANS Conference – Setup

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Insider’s Guide to a SANS Conference – Day 1

Posted March 23, 2009
Filed under: External Training, Industry Events, Professional Development | Tags: , ,
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If you are reading this, it means that we both survived Day 1 of SANS Phoenix.  🙂  

My favorite part of the day was helping everyone at the registration desk.  It was fun meeting so many different people. There seemed to be a good mix of people returning to SANS as well as first time conference attendees.  

Stephen Northcutt gave a short “Welcome to SANS” briefing this morning.  I wasn’t able to attend as I was at the registration desk (see above).  

Classes kicked off at 9AM and most ran until approx. 5:30-6:00PM.  I know that we covered a TON of information in the MGMT 512 (Security Leadership Essentials for Managers) course.  We talked about budgeting, project management, vulnerability management, and vendor selection processes.   

Even though I am in a Management course, there was a great deal of technical information covered in Day 1.  We discussed the TCP/IP header, ports/protocols, and packet analysis.  At one point I felt like Neo in The Matrix – (paraphasing more than an exact quote…) “what do you see in the matrix?  ones and zeros?  I see a blonde.  I see a brunette.” 

Logistically, everything seemed to run smoothly.  As always with big conference rooms and theaters, the temperature runs cold, so don’t forget to bring a sweater or light jacket with you tomorrow.  🙂  

There was a SANS@night talk regarding Honeypots, which I missed.  I am excited to see Rich Mogull’s SANS@night talk tomorrow night as he and I are connected on Twitter (@rmogull) 

Speaking of Twitter, I “tweeted” about the conference at least a half dozen times today.  You can search for the hashtag #SANS_PHX or follow me (@wifijedi) to see the updates.

Insider’s Guide to a SANS Conference – Setup

Posted March 22, 2009
Filed under: blogging, Industry Events, Professional Development | Tags: , , ,
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This is the first blog post in a series, “Insider’s Guide to a SANS Conference”. It corresponds to my attendance at the SANS Phoenix Conference March 23-30, 2009.

As a disclaimer, this “Insider’s Guide” will not provide you confidential information.

Also, you should know that I am “nobody special” within the organization. This is the third conference I have attended, all through their work-study (volunteer) program. I have Mentored the wireless course and taught a wireless Stay Sharp course in Dallas a couple years ago, but that’s it.

The series is meant to be detailed description of my participation and to hopefully encourage others to attend. (I am a big fan!)  I am taking the “Security Leadership Essentials for Managers” course, which is being taught by Stephen Northcutt – the CEO of SANS.  

I am also “micro-blogging” about the conference via Twitter. You can find my updates with the hashtag #SANS_PHX …better yet, you can “follow me” on Twitter @wifijedi to see all the updates in your own time line!

Today the conference organizers & volunteers set up the conference. Since this is a smaller, regional conference, there are only 5 volunteers (one for each course they are running). Setting up consisted of the following activities:

  • Preparing name badges 
  • Preparing registration folders 
  • Recieving and sorting courseware (books)
  • Stuffing totes with courseware and other inserts 
  • Sorting conference shirt by size 
  • Placing signage throughout facility directing attendees to registration, classrooms, internet cafe, etc.  
  • Setting up registration station 
  • Preparing course evaluation forms & folders 
  • A briefing regarding volunteer duties & expectations
  • Etc. 

I am looking forward to seeing all the attendees at the registration booth from 7:00 – 9:00 AM tomorrow morning!  

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