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GIAC Security Essentials Certification GSEC

Take the first steps in your IT Security career with this in-demand Certification.

Course Contents:

Stage 1: Networking Concepts

Stage 2: Network Security Overview

Stage 3: TCP/IP, Routing and Host Security

Stage 4: Information Warfare and Web Security

Stage 5: Internet Security Technologies, Network Vulnerabilities

Stage 6: Intrusion Detection and Risk Management

Stage 7: Introducing Encryption and Cryptography

Stage 8: PKI and Steganography

Stage 9: Secure Communications

Stage 10: Wireless Security

Stage 11: Windows Security

Stage 12: Windows XP Security and IIS Security

Stage 13: Backing up Windows and UNIX

Stage 14: Managing Software, System Services and Auditing

Stage 15: UNIX Security

Course Code:

GSEC-2

Course Duration:

12 months

Typical Study Hours:

40 - 50 hours

Course Fees:

See our Fee Guide

Course Demo:

Request an online Course Demo

Study Prerequisite:

Basic PC hardware and software knowledge.

Additional Information for Stage 1:

• Networking Concepts

  • Discuss the broad goals and content of the SANS GIAC Security Essentials Certification (GSEC).
  • Differentiate between local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs).
  • Identify the basic topologies in a network.
  • Describe network components and their application.
  • Explain the role of bridges, switches, and routers in a network.
  • Explain the OSI reference model.
  • Discuss the OSI and TCP/IP reference models and how they relate to each other.
  • Describe layer 3 protocols.
  • Explain the fundamentals of IP addressing.

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Additional information for Stage 2:

• Network Security Overview

  • Explain the underlying concepts and principles of security management.
  • Describe the fundamentals of Defense in Depth.
  • Describe some real-life information security defense failures.
  • Define security policy and identify issue-specific security policy documents.
  • Design a security policy document.
  • Discuss the responsibilities of users and correct user response to security incidents.
  • Describe how passwords are stored and explain why they are vulnerable to attack.
  • Explain why a strong password policy is important and what can be done to protect password files on UNIX and Windows systems.
  • Use the password cracking utility LC4 and employ it to audit passwords from a number of locations.

   

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Additional information for Stage 3:

• TCP/IP, Routing and Host Security

• Describe the functions of the transport layer of the OSI model.
• Explain how connection-oriented services are established.
• Describe the functionality of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), the ping command, and the traceroute command.
• Describe how different port scanners operate.
• Perform a port scan using Nmap and SuperScan.
• Explain what a routing protocol is.
• Explain how routers create routing tables.
• Explain the router bootup and log in to the router CLI.
• Explain the requirement for access lists.
• Describe how access lists filter by protocols and packet details.
• Describe host vulnerabilities and applications to protect against them.
• Configure a personal firewall.

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Additional information for Stage 4:

• Information Warfare and Web Security

  • Discuss how to respond to and manage computer-related security incidents.
  • Describe threats to information security and network infrastructure.
  • Explain how different types of denial-of-service attacks affect a network.
  • Detail threats that arise specifically from hackers.
  • Set up and monitor a Telnet session using a protocol analyser.
  • Provide an overview of the various threats to web security.
  • Describe how web sites and web applications can be attacked and defended.
  • Describe how to design and maintain a secure web site.
  • Run a Black Widow scan to probe a web site for vulnerabilities.

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Additional information for Stage 5:

• Internet Security Technologies, Network Vulnerabilities

  • Describe the basic operation of firewalls and proxy servers.
  • List the components of NAT and explain when NAT should be implemented.
  • Describe Mitnick attacks and outline steps that can be taken to prevent them.
  • Discuss footprinting and network discovery tools.
  • Discuss the threat of social engineering.
  • explain how system scanners work.
  • Describe some vulnerability scanning tools and outline how they operate.
  • Describe how Gnutella and peer-to-peer networks work and outline the security issues that arise from their use.

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Additional information for Stage 6:

• Intrusion Detection and Risk Management

  • Discuss the principles of detecting network intruders.
  • Describe the characteristics and features of intrusion detection systems.
  • Describe the different types of intrusion detection mechanisms.
  • Discuss the deployment of intrusion detection systems.
  • Recognise the functionality and deployment issues of intrusion detection.
  • Describe how to distract network intruders and limit the damage they can cause.
  • Set up a decoy account and monitor both failed and successful login attempts.
  • Discuss risk management and its requirements with reference to security issues.
  • Describe the processes involved in implementing information risk management.
  • Describe the importance of risk assessment and auditing to network security.
  • Identify the risks to valuable information.

   

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Additional information for Stage 7:

• Introducing Encryption and Cryptography

  • Outline the history of encryption and the reasons why encryption is important.
  • Outline the principles of symmetric encryption.
  • Explain what a block cipher is and identify the algorithms that use them.
  • Discuss the fundamentals of asymmetric encryption.
  • Explain the functionality of hashes and message functions in protecting the integrity of encrypted data.
  • Describe the processes involved in symmetric and asymmetric encryption.
  • Outline the different methods of managing encryption keys.
  • Discuss some practical applications of encryption.
  • Implement a secure encryption scheme on a computer.
  • Exchange encrypted e-mails.

   

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Additional information for Stage 8:

• PKI and Steganography

  • Explain the use of certificates for trusted secure public-key implementation.
  • Discuss the X.509 standard for public-key certificates.
  • Describe public-key infrastructure and Secure Electronic Transactions (SETs).
  • Describe revocation and nonrepudiation of public-key certificates.
  • Outline certificate practices, policies, and paths.
  • Detail what steganography is and how it works.
  • Hide and recover data using steganographic tools.

   

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Additional information for Stage 9:

• Secure Communications

  • Explain the technologies used to implement VPNs for secure WAN communications.
  • Detail the features of a VPN solution for secure remote connectivity.
  • Implement a VPN solution for secure remote access.
  • Outline the RADIUS authentication mechanism.
  • Outline the TACACS+ authentication mechanism and compare it to the RADIUS authentication mechanism.
  • Describe different virus types and how they operate.
  • Outline steps to protect against viruses.
  • configure antivirus software such as AVG.

   

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Additional information for Stage 10:

• Wireless Security

  • Describe WEP and the differences between the various wireless LAN standards.
  • Describe wireless LAN security attacks and explain how to prevent them.
  • Identify the strengths and weaknesses of various wireless LAN security techniques.
  • Identify appropriate security solutions for wireless LANs.
  • Explain corporate security policies and outline the procedures involved in performing a site survey.
  • Conduct a wireless LAN site survey.
  • Describe the WAP protocol and discuss mechanisms for protecting the WAP gateway.

   

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Additional information for Stage 11:

• Windows Security

  • Describe security issues with MS Windows.
  • Configure account policy in Windows.
  • Describe Security Configuration Manager.
  • Implement the SYSKEY utility.
  • Enable auditing, configure an audit policy, and analyse audit logs.
  • Implement a step-by-step process to ensure security on Windows NT machines.
  • Discuss how to manage network and security policies and to outline how to configure security policies through Group Policy.
  • Evaluate security by using Group Policy.
  • Analyse security configuration in Group Policy.
  • Implement user security in Windows 2000.
  • Manage security in Windows 2000 using Group Policy.
  • Harden Windows 2000 during installation.

   

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Additional information for Stage 12:

• Windows XP Security and IIS Security

  • Describe advanced boot options for troubleshooting startup problems in Windows XP Professional system restorations.
  • Explain the encrypting file system.
  • Use security templates and analyze system security in Windows XP Professional.
  • Apply a security configuration policy to a computer using a security template.
  • Describe improved reliability features in Windows XP over Windows 2000.
  • Describe how to install or upgrade Internet Information Services 5.0 and how to customize its installation to suit an organisations needs.
  • Discuss how Internet Information Services security is integrated into Windows 2000 security.
  • Apply Internet Information Services 5.0 security methods.

   

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Additional information for Stage 13:

• Backing up Windows and UNIX

  • Describe backup strategies and best practices for implementing backups.
  • Detail the backup utilities available in UNIX.
  • Describe backups in UNIX.
  • Use NT 4.0 utilities to back up data.
  • Describe backup and recover utilities in Windows 2000.
  • Perform a backup in Windows 2000 using Win 2000 Backup.

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Additional information for Stage 14:

• Managing Software, System Services and Auditing

  • Detail different security log types and analyse their contents.
  • Describe how to filter, store, and manage log files.
  • Discuss audit assessment reports and compliance.
  • Enable and utilize a security log file.
  • Describe some useful auditing tools and utilities that are used to simplify auditing.
  • Apply upgrade patches and software upgrades to UNIX systems.
  • Install software using the Debian package management tool and RPM, and discover Information about packages using RPM.
  • Describe boot services in UNIX.
  • Describe the boot process in UNIX.
  • Describe how to limit services launched by inetd and xinetd.
  • Decide which services to disable or remove in a UNIX system.

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Additional information for Stage 15:

• UNIX Security

  • Understand UNIX user and group accounts.
  • Describe the UNIX password system.
  • Restrict boot-level and root access to UNIX systems.
  • Describe how UNIX file attributes relate to file ownership and access rights.
  • Manage UNIX file attributes.
  • Protect the security of entire UNIX file systems.
  • Set security parameters in UNIX kernels and prevent cron and unwanted shutdown security issues.
  • Change file permissions and implement permission-based system security in UNIX.
  • Benchmark operating systems (OS), including UNIX OS, and evaluate the security of their configurations.

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