Hands-on Security for System Administrators

System administrators often run into interesting conflicts between sysadmin, customer, and IT security needs. These conflicts generally lead to difficulty in achieving a balance between administrative convenience, good customer service, and minimal risk. There are processes or services available that can significantly improve any of these areas; however, many times they are costly or resource intensive. This course is designed for system administrators who want to improve the security posture of their organizations, using IT security standards paired with good system administration practices, resulting in better service, lower risk, and minimal impact to time and budget.

We will walk a path, covering many domains of IT security and enterprise system administration in ways that utilize the interconnection between good system administration practices and security fundamentals. We will discuss recent risks and threats, analyze them with respect to your environment, review possible impacts and develop mitigations that you can apply immediately. Training includes instruction, discussion, many hands-on labs, and a strong dose of common sense.

Attendees should bring a laptop capable of running a Virtual Guest and will be provided a VM in which to work. The class will have access to a test network of systems for training and lab exercises. You will return to your organization with a toolbox of documentation, (mostly) free software, and a good starting point for developing better practices to improve security and system administration.