Mobile forensics and cloud security at SANS Secure Europe 2012
SANS Secure Europe 2012, one of the region’s largest infosec training events will be returning to Amsterdam from 5th to 19th of May with its largest roster of courses including new sessions on mobile devices, cloud and virtualisation.
The SANS Forensics 563: Mobile Device Forensics course will be debuting in Europe for the first time in May and is designed for students who are both new to and already familiar with mobile device forensics. The 5-day hands-on course provides the core knowledge and skills that a Digital Forensic Investigator needs to process cell phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices.
Each student will be issued with state-of-the art tools, to help them learn how to forensically preserve, acquire and examine data stored on mobile devices and use the results for internal, civil or criminal investigations. The Forensics 563 course covers iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Nokia operating systems to allow forensic investigators to develop the ability to process devices in a forensically sound manner and use the resulting evidence in their work.
Amsterdam will also welcome another new course in the form of Security 579: Virtualization and Private Cloud Security. As SANS Certified Instructor Dave Shackleford explains, “The advantages of cloud and virtualisation are readily understood but with these benefits come a dark side with the technologies now the focus of many new potential threats and exploits, and presenting new vulnerabilities that must be managed.” The 6 day course covers many areas including architecture and security design, Identity and Access Management as well as extensive use of penetration testing tools and techniques within cloud and virtualised environments.
Both the Forensics 563: and Security 579 courses have limited places due to the specialised equipment supplied to students for each session. As new courses, places are filling up fast and attendees are recommended to book early to secure a place. For the mobile forensics course, students are also welcome to bring in their own test devices and SIM cards that can be examined during the sessions.
In total, there will be 10 courses running at Secure Europe 2012 and SANS will be offering discounts for early registration. Alongside the event, the NetWars tournament will be running for the first time in Amsterdam and will be free to any registered student. After its debut in London last year, NetWars participants will again compete in a mock environment to test their defensive, analysis, and offensive cyber skills, fighting off intruders while trying to take over other target systems and networks.
Last year’s inaugural event was won by Tomasz Miklas, a Vulnerability Analyst at bwin.party digital entertainment and the participants already registered for the first NetWars of 2012 include a number of competitors from last year aiming to earn both bragging rights and prizes.
“This is the most comprehensive Secure Europe event we have hosted and it also looks like being one of the most popular based on early registrations,” comments Gareth Dance, GSEC Conference Director, EMEA SANS Institute, “anybody who attended last year can testify to the atmosphere around bringing some of Europe’s best infosec professionals into the same environment where they can learn and share knowledge with peers and industry experts – It is a great opportunity not to be missed!”