Advancing Skills Of Security Professionals

Partnership To Advance Skills And Knowledge Of Security Professionals In Australia And New Zealand

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sydney, 23 April 2008

The SANS Institute has formalised its long term association with Shearwater Solutions, a leading provider of information security services, by appointing Shearwater as its local representative in Australia and New Zealand. As part of the new relationship, Shearwater is working with SANS to organise a six day SANS training session event at the National Convention Centre in Canberra, commencing on 30th June.

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

Commenting on the newly formalised partnership, Stephen Northcutt, President of the SANS Institute stated, ‘We are very pleased to have Shearwater representing SANS in Australia and New Zealand and are looking forward to our first event with them 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”.

The SANS Institute, recognised by many as the leading organisation in information security education, develops courses through a unique consensus approach involving many highly 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. They 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.

Ray Kantor, Commercial Manager at Shearwater stated, “Shearwater Solutions has always had a good relationship with SANS, and Mark Hofman, one of our directors, is a certified SANS trainer. We are very pleased to formalise this relationship and to represent SANS in Australia and New Zealand.”

“We have had a great response to the Canberra session from intending participants and it looks like it will be a very successful event. A large percentage of the bookings already received for the training session in June has been from organisations that have sent delegates in the past, many of which are Government agencies or departments. Clearly, those organisations see the significant value that can be gained from the SANS experience.”

Mr. Kantor added that another training event is planned for Sydney in October 2008 and planning is underway for a New Zealand event in 2009.

Attendees at previous SANS events in Australia have been from more than 300 major organisations including the Australian Taxation Office, Statistics New Zealand, the Australian Defence Force, Telecom New Zealand and Unisys Australia.

For further information on the Canberra event please see http://www.sans.org/info/27573.

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About SANS

SANS was established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. Its programs reach more than 165,000 security professionals, auditors, system administrators, network administrators, chief information security officers, and CIOs who share the lessons they are learning and jointly find solutions to the challenges they face. At the heart of SANS are the many security practitioners in government agencies, corporations, and universities around the world who invest hundreds of hours each year in research and teaching to help the entire information security community.

To develop the technology leaders needed to help strengthen the world-wide defensive information community, the SANS Technology Institute was created as a degree-granting affiliate of SANS. It is one of the nation's leading graduate schools devoted to the study of information security.

Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) provides IT security professionals with certification in the areas of security administration, management, operations, legal, audit, and software security. GIAC assures and validates that certified individuals have practical awareness, knowledge, and skills in key areas of computer, network, and software security. Visit SANS at http://www.sans.org or email info@sans.org.

About Shearwater Solutions

Protecting and managing information assets are critical requirements for organisations. Growing needs for compliance, regulatory and business practices require information security developments focused on corporate objectives. Shearwater Solutions provides specialised information security solutions and services to address these issues, focusing on the Australian and New Zealand region. The solutions and services include all aspects of information security, specialised business consulting, integrated solutions, training as well as managed and outsourcing services.

Shearwater's clients include Federal, State and Local government as well as financial services, manufacturing, health, telecommunication and retail enterprises. Shearwater partners with leading technology providers, has strong alliances internationally and is a long standing supporter of the Australian Information Security Association. Visit Shearwater at http://www.shearwater.com.au

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