Raise awareness... reduce the risk

In today's IT-based business environment, a company's data is very often its most valuable asset. It's an asset that needs protection. Protecting your company's data extends into the protection of individual members of staff and commercial reputation. It follows that security professionals need to be aware, organised and prepared to deal with potential abuses of the network.

Vogon International – a leader in the field of data services and computer forensics – has launched a two-day course to help them in their quest. Covering accidental, malicious and criminal threats to your organisation (whether internal or external), the training course has been designed to guide IT/security managers and internal investigators through the common legislative, disciplinary and procedural issues which they need to know.

Networking and data storage
Everyday threats and risks in the office are examined in conjunction with a full review of network and data storage systems. Distributed systems, mobile data storage and data conversion are all covered in the first module. Crucially, Vogon's tutors will then look at the collection of computer evidence. Accepted techniques are addressed alongside the ACPO guidelines (so too erasure programs, data capture and sources of evidence).

Passwords, encryption and e-commerce issues take centre stage, the course looking in detail at: password and encryption policies, system policies, reverse engineering, the basics of encryption (standards and principles), the definition of when a system is 'secure' and the likely e-commerce risks involved in 'getting it wrong'. The next in-depth module considers eaves-dropping, examining the threat, wireless LANs, the legal considerations and Trojans.

Creating a disaster plan is key to the success of any IT security policy, but knowing how to recover from a malicious breach of data security is just as important. Worse case scenarios are examined to show you what can happen if you and your company remain in blissful ignorance of the hacking community.

Physical and logical security, necessary resources, employment vetting procedures, back-ups and data erasure/disposal are all covered in the module entitled 'Data Security, Data Disposal and Data Erasure'.

The legal framework is highly important, of course. If you don't know the legislative considerations tied up with data security then you should do. This course tells you all, taking in the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, the Data Protection Act and the Human Rights Act. European law is studied, so too civil versus criminal law in the UK.

Viruses, worms and firewalls
The final part of the 'pure classroom' section of the course takes in tuition on the latest viruses, worms, newsgroups, web browsers, firewalls and the Intranet.

If you want to extend your knowledge still further you can enlist for the three-day course, which also includes a practical day. Here, you'll be given the opportunity to contain a crime scene within a workshop-style environment.

Securing the scene of a crime, securing the evidence (with or without expert help) and drafting a checklist for a successful defence or prosecution are examined here, as well as helpful instruction on what to do in a Court of Law.