NOTE: After the December 6-10, 2010 session, Advanced IT Auditing will become a four-day seminar. Please call MIS Customer Service at 508-879-7999, Ext. 501 for details.

To be successful, IT auditors must be able to independently identify and assist in mitigating the myriad of risks that exist in today’s highly technical business environment. The security of the IT infrastructure critically affects ALL applications, but is often only lightly audited. In this comprehensive hands-on, five-day seminar you will learn how to use economical yet powerful software tools to identify and test key control points in your organization’s network infrastructure. You will take a plain-English, risk-based look at network application services and protocols and relate them to practical real-world safeguards and audit techniques, including files servers, directory services, network connection devices, perimeter security, and workstations. You will practice deploying configuration file testing, TCP/IP service discovery and analysis, and fundamental vulnerability testing.

Working through a series of structured hands-on exercises, you will learn how to select appropriate tools and techniques for your audits and how to execute required audit data gathering and analysis procedures. Special emphasis will be placed on conserving precious audit budget resources by leveraging bundled utility software, open source, and inexpensive commercial audit tools. In addition, you will work through a wide sampling of representative exercises that will prepare you to easily and efficiently test controls associated with the most widely used infrastructure environments (Microsoft, Unix, Cisco, Check Point). You will participate in exercises that range from intercepting live network data with packet sniffers to automatically enumerating network control points and locating serious vulnerabilities using both internal and external compliance and vulnerability testing procedures.

This intensive seminar will also help you to identify and evaluate security safeguards and automated technical auditing tools, including proven Windows and Unix-based tools that you can use to ensure that your organization’s IT environment is compliant and well protected. When you leave this workshop you will be better prepared to locate and assess the core controls and security safeguards that are critical to the protection of all valuable business application assets in your organization. This course also provides a solid foundation for more advanced training in operating system, network, and application audit and security. (Note: This seminar covers topics found in Chapters 4-5 of the CISA Review Manual.)

Prerequisites:  How to Perform a General Controls Review, or Auditing Networked Computers, or Intermediate IT Audit School, or Making the Transition from IT to IT Audit,  or equivalent experience. Familiarity with logical access cotnrol concepts, basic Windows and DOS (Command prompt)  desktop program execution, text editing, and file management is assumed.

Advance Preparation: None          Learning Level: Advanced 

Delivery Method: Group-Live      Field: Auditing

Bonus
In addition to the course workbook, you will receive a copy of the Network Security and Audit Sampler, a CD with network auditing software tools and electronic references, and the MIS Swiss Army Knife Reference, listing hundreds of valuable information security and audit resources, including free software security and audit tools.