What is SANS?

" ... established in 1989 as a cooperative research and education organization. The SANS Institute enables more than 156,000 security professionals, auditors, system administrators, and network administrators to share the lessons they are learning and 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." (from www.sans.org)

What is GIAC?

"... founded in 1999 by The SANS Institute in response to the need to validate the skills of security professionals and provides assurance that a certified individual holds the appropriate level of knowledge and skill necessary for a practitioner in key areas of information security." (from www.giac.org)

GCFW = GIAC Certified Firewall Analyst

Expected job responsibilities:
Designing, implementing, configuring, and monitoring a secure perimeter as well as the overall network design.
Devices that are to be configured include:

• Routers
• Firewalls
• VPNs
• Remote access server