Curriculum | 12 Credit Hours
In this hands-on program, you’ll begin with a foundational course and then progress through 3 advanced courses to learn the real-world techniques of pen testers and red teamers. This is the curriculum order for this program.
Required Core Courses | 6 credit hours
- SANS Course: SEC504: Hacker Tools, Techniques, and Incident Handling
Certification: GIAC Certified Incident Handler Certification (GCIH)
3 Credit Hours
By adopting the viewpoint of a hacker, ISE 5201 provides an in-depth focus into the critical activity of incident handling. Students are taught how to manage intrusions by first looking at the techniques used by attackers to exploit a system. Students learn responses to those techniques, which can be adopted within the framework of the incident handling process to handle attacks in an organized way. The faculty instruction, lab exercises, and exam are coordinated to develop and test a student's ability to utilize the core capabilities required for incident handling.
- SANS Course: SEC560: Enterprise Penetration Testing
Certification: GIAC Penetration Tester Certification (GPEN)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6320 prepares students to conduct successful penetration testing and ethical hacking projects. The course starts with proper planning, scoping and recon, and then dives deep into scanning, target exploitation, password attacks, and wireless and web apps with detailed hands-on exercises and practical tips for doing the job safely and effectively. Students will participate in an intensive, hands-on Capture the Flag exercise, conducting a penetration test against a sample target organization.
Specialization Elective Courses | 3 credit hours
Students select one of the following courses.
- SANS Course: SEC542: Web App Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking
Certification: GIAC Web Application Penetration Tester (GWAPT)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6315 is a highly technical information security course in offensive strategies where students learn the art of exploiting Web applications so they can find flaws in enterprise Web apps before they are otherwise discovered and exploited. Through detailed, hands-on exercises students learn the four-step process for Web application penetration testing. Students will inject SQL into back-end databases, learning how attackers exfiltrate sensitive data. They then utilize cross-site scripting attacks to dominate a target infrastructure in a unique hands-on laboratory environment. Finally students explore various other Web app vulnerabilities in-depth with tried-and-true techniques for finding them using a structured testing regimen.
- SANS Course: SEC575: iOS and Android Application Security Analysis and Penetration Testing
Certification: GIAC Mobile Device Security Analyst (GMOB)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6325 helps students resolve their organization's struggles with mobile device security by equipping then with the skills needed to design, deploy, operate, and assess a well-managed secure mobile environment. From practical policy development to network architecture design and deployment, and mobile code analysis to penetration testing and ethical hacking, this course teaches students to build the critical skills necessary to support the secure deployment and use of mobile phones and tablets in their organization.
- SANS Course: SEC588: Cloud Penetration Testing
Certification: GIAC Cloud Penetration Tester (GCPN)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6630 dives into the latest in penetration testing techniques focused on the cloud, how to assess cloud environments, as well as other new topics that appear in the cloud like microservices, in-memory data stores, files in the cloud, serverless functions, Kubernetes meshes, and containers. The course also specifically covers Azure and AWS penetration testing, which is particularly important given that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft account for more than half of the market. The goal is not to demonstrate these technologies, but rather to teach you how to assess and report on the true risk that the organization could face if these services are left insecure.
Students will be able to:
- Conduct cloud-based penetration tests
- Assess cloud environments and bring value back to the business by locating vulnerabilities
- Understand how cloud environments are constructed and how to scale factors into the gathering of evidence
- Assess security risks in Amazon and Microsoft Azure environments
Additional Elective | 3 credit hours
Students select one of the following courses.
- SANS Course: SEC542: Web App Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking
Certification: GIAC Web Application Penetration Tester (GWAPT)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6315 is a highly technical information security course in offensive strategies where students learn the art of exploiting Web applications so they can find flaws in enterprise Web apps before they are otherwise discovered and exploited. Through detailed, hands-on exercises students learn the four-step process for Web application penetration testing. Students will inject SQL into back-end databases, learning how attackers exfiltrate sensitive data. They then utilize cross-site scripting attacks to dominate a target infrastructure in a unique hands-on laboratory environment. Finally students explore various other Web app vulnerabilities in-depth with tried-and-true techniques for finding them using a structured testing regimen.
- SANS Course: SEC575: iOS and Android Application Security Analysis and Penetration Testing
Certification: GIAC Mobile Device Security Analyst (GMOB)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6325 helps students resolve their organization's struggles with mobile device security by equipping then with the skills needed to design, deploy, operate, and assess a well-managed secure mobile environment. From practical policy development to network architecture design and deployment, and mobile code analysis to penetration testing and ethical hacking, this course teaches students to build the critical skills necessary to support the secure deployment and use of mobile phones and tablets in their organization.
- SANS Course: SEC617: Wireless Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking
Certification: GIAC Assessing and Auditing Wireless Networks (GAWN)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6330 takes an in-depth look at the security challenges of many different wireless technologies, exposing students to wireless security threats through the eyes of an attacker. Using readily available and custom-developed tools, students will navigate through the techniques attackers use to exploit WiFi networks, Bluetooth devices, and a variety of other wireless technologies. Using assessment and analysis techniques, this course will show students how to identify the threats that expose wireless technology and build on this knowledge to implement defensive techniques that can be used to protect wireless systems.
- SANS Course: SEC573: Automating Information Security with Python
Certification: GIAC Python Coder (GPYC)
3 Credit Hours
The ISE 6350 course teaches student in the pen testing specialization, and other students who want to use the Python programming language, how to enhance their overall effectiveness during information security engagements. Students will learn how to apply core programming concepts and techniques learned in other courses through the Python programming language. The course teaches skills and techniques that can enhance an information security professional in penetration tests, security operations, and special projects. Students will create simple Python-based tools to interact with network traffic, create custom executables, test and interact with databases and websites, and parse logs or sets of data.
- SANS Course: SEC660: Advanced Penetration Testing, Exploit Writing, and Ethical Hacking
Certification: GIAC Exploit Researcher and Advanced Penetration Tester (GXPN)
- SANS Course: SEC588: Cloud Penetration Testing
Certification: GIAC Cloud Penetration Tester (GCPN)
3 Credit Hours
ISE 6630 dives into the latest in penetration testing techniques focused on the cloud, how to assess cloud environments, as well as other new topics that appear in the cloud like microservices, in-memory data stores, files in the cloud, serverless functions, Kubernetes meshes, and containers. The course also specifically covers Azure and AWS penetration testing, which is particularly important given that Amazon Web Services and Microsoft account for more than half of the market. The goal is not to demonstrate these technologies, but rather to teach you how to assess and report on the true risk that the organization could face if these services are left insecure.
Students will be able to:
- Conduct cloud-based penetration tests
- Assess cloud environments and bring value back to the business by locating vulnerabilities
- Understand how cloud environments are constructed and how to scale factors into the gathering of evidence
- Assess security risks in Amazon and Microsoft Azure environments
