This 3-day course provides current and future managers of computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) with a pragmatic view of the issues that they will face in operating an effective team.

The course provides insight into the work that CSIRT staff may be expected to handle. The course also provides prospective or current managers with an overview of the incident handling process and the types of tools and infrastructure needed to be effective.

Technical issues are discussed from a management perspective. Topics include hiring CSIRT staff, identifying critical information, publishing information, establishing effective working relationships, working with law enforcement, evaluating CSIRT operations, building CSIRT service capacity, and the importance of pre-established policies and procedures.

The course incorporates interactive instruction, exercises, and role playing. During a simulated incident, attendees will gain experience with the type of decisions they might face on a regular basis.

Before attending this course, participants are encouraged to attend the companion course, Creating a Computer Security Incident Response Team. This course is offered the day before the Managing CSIRTs course.

Note: There is some content overlap between this course and the Fundamentals of Incident Handling course. We recommend that attendees register for one course or the other, but not both. This course focuses on incident handling issues from an operational management perspective and discusses best practices in sustaining an effective operation. Whereas the Fundamentals of Incident Handling course covers more technical topics such as email and malware attacks and is designed to introduce new incident handlers to the basic skills and processes they will need to perform their duties.

World leading course

This course is presented in association with Axenic, a member of the SEI (Software Engineering Institute) Partner Network, Carnegie Mellon University. SEI is a recognised world leader and one of the most respected names in computer, software and security research, development and education. Other courses in this series are:

Fundamentals of Incident Handling
Creating a Computer Security Incident Response Team