SANS Institute gets local presence

Raymond Kantor, commercial manager at Shearwater told CRN the company is already working with SANS to organise a six day SANS training session event at the National Convention Centre in Canberra, commencing 30 June.

The Canberra event will include courses on system forensics, hacker techniques, security auditing and the SANS 'Security Essentials Bootcamp'. It will also be the first of several training events for information security professionals in the region.

“We have had a long association with the SANS Institute through one of our directors, Mark Hoffman. He was a trainer for the institute and the association takes Shearwater’s relationship with SANs back five years,” he said.

According to Kantor, a local association will allow Shearwater to promote the SANS institute locally and bring awareness to training courses in the local market.

“The relationship will give us a more local focus in training. Previously the SANS institute ran all training courses in Australia remotely from the US. A local presence will give Australian organisations the ability to feel comfortable having discussions about courses,” said Kantor.

Commenting on the newly formalised partnership, Stephen Northcutt, president of the SANS Institute said he was very pleased to have Shearwater representing SANS in Australia and New Zealand and is looking forward to the first event in June.

“We have many customers in the region who appreciate having a local point of contact and we can provide this added level of service with Shearwater,” he said.

The SANS Institute develops courses through a unique consensus approach involving qualified and experienced IT security professionals and practitioners.
All SANS courses are designed to be relevant to the workplace and easy to put into practice when they have been completed and are aligned with GIAC (Global Information Assurance Certification) training, which is recognised as an industry standard for security knowledge.

GIAC certification provides an objective standard and assurance that each individual meets a specific level of competence and has acquired the skills necessary to do the job, said Kantor.