SANS Institute to Help Houston Protect Industrial Control Systems from Cyber Attacks

BETHESDA, Md., April 20, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- SANS Institute, the global leader in information security training, is joining forces with industry leaders to help Houston's oil and gas industry strengthen Industrial Control Systems (ICS) cyber security. SANS' ICS Security training event, taking place June 1 – 5, will provide ICS security professionals with up-to-date ICS knowledge and security skills that are essential to defending the country's critical systems.

"With the United States on track to become the world's top oil producer by 2020, it is no surprise the oil and gas industry is under frequent attack. Nation-state level adversaries and activists who take offense to this type of energy production continue to target the critical infrastructure that supports our nation's energy," said Rob M. Lee, SANS instructor and course author. "While we are gaining ground in defending these systems, much more work is needed. SANS' ICS training is a must-attend event for anyone involved with ICS security; it is here they will be provided with the skills to determine what is in their environment and how to defend it."

The goal of this training is to help Houston turn ICS cyber security around by equipping both security professionals and control system engineers with the security understanding, work-specific knowledge, and the technical skills they need to secure automation and control system technology. SANS ICS Houston will feature a number of hands-on immersion style training courses to accomplish this.

Among the courses offered is the new ICS515: ICS Active Defense and Incident Response five day course. This first-run course will empower students with the ability to understand and utilize active defense mechanisms in concert with incident response for ICS networks to respond to and deny cyber threats.

For those working towards their Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional Certification (GICSP), ICS Houston will also feature the ICS410: ICS/SCADA Security Essentials course which provides the base level knowledge required for GISCP certification. This course provides a foundational set of standardized skills and knowledge to help industrial cyber security professionals keep operational environments safe, secure, and resilient against current and emerging cyber threats.

To learn more about SANS ICS Houston 2015, including an overview of courses and additional details on the GICSP, or to register, please visit: http://www.sans.org/u/3wl

About GICSP
The Global Industrial Cyber Security Professional Certification assesses a base level of knowledge and understanding across a diverse set of professionals who engineer or support control systems and share responsibility for the security of these environments. This certification will be leveraged across industries to ensure a minimum set of knowledge and capabilities that IT, engineer, and security professionals should know if they are in a role that could impact the cyber security of an ICS environment.

About SANS Institute
The SANS Institute was established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. SANS is the most trusted and, by far, the largest provider of training and certification to professionals at governments and commercial institutions world-wide. Renowned SANS instructors teach over 50 different courses at more than 200 live cyber security training events as well as online. GIAC, an affiliate of the SANS Institute, validates employee qualifications via 27 hands-on, technical certifications in information security. The SANS Technology Institute, a regionally accredited independent subsidiary, offers master's degrees in cyber security. SANS offers a myriad of free resources to the InfoSec community including consensus projects, research reports, and newsletters; it also operates the Internet's early warning system--the Internet Storm Center. At the heart of SANS are the many security practitioners, representing varied global organizations from corporations to universities, working together to help the entire information security community. (www.SANS.org)

SOURCE SANS Institute

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