So last time I posted I had started a new consulting gig.  Well the honeymoon ended and I realized it was going to be a dead end.  Spent more time worrying about billable hours than actually concentrating on work and study topics.  Luckily a job posting came up from a recruiter friend of mine.  The job was for a Network Security Admin.  After reviewing the position I thought to myself, wow I actually have most of these skills for a change.  And figured what the hell! 

So the recruiter helped me get my resume much more beefy looking so it actually reflected my abilities better.  Next thing I know they bring me in for the first interview.  Cool part was they accommodated my work schedule so I didn't need to take any time off.  Infrastructure manager liked me and I got the call for a second right away.  Again they accommodated my schedule.  The recruiter was also feeling very positive about it.  After another week or 2 I get the offer.  As a bonus it was more than I was asking for.  I didn't want to be too greedy with my first official Info Sec job. 

So here I am 2 weeks into the job, well 3 but again they accommodated me by allowing me to take time off for a pre-scheduled wedding trip for a good friend of mine.  My current duties, for now, revolve around Patch Management and Anti-virus management.  Might seem like a glorified Sys Admin but for one very little if any desktop work, and two, lots of room to grow the duty list.  The team is cool as well and all pretty knowledgeable. 

After talking with a friend of mine, he told me I was heading into Information Assurance.  That led me to GIAC and GCWN.  So my current path will be to obtain GCWN.  New boss said he will approve SANS SEC505 for next year's budget.  Its nice having a boss that says "go pick a training course."  So for now its back on my MCITP track, then GCWN.  After that I may go back to CCNA.  Eventually I would like to pick up the CISSP.  They seem to be very supportive for education so why not take advantage? 

I would welcome any advice from anyone in this area of expertise.  I think my biggest hurdle will be getting a good patch management policy and procedure in place.  We have a virtual lab for testing, but I don't think they use it very often. 

Sorry about the length of this

Thanks man!  Looking forward to the adventure.

Thanks Mallaigh.  I've worked with WSUS for a bit.  Found it to be useful half the time   Mostly found that if there was an update to the updater, it would cause problems.  So one of the solutions we are implementing is a method to force updates using a management appliance. 

Unfortunately the previous admins have left the AD in shambles, so I recommended we straighten that out before we worry about why some machines don't always update.  My idea is, can't patch it if we don't know if it really exists.

I am looking forward to our new patch management appliance.  I'm hoping it works a bit faster at discovery than a GFI scan/assessment.

You're welcome Triban.  Sometimes I wish I had AD for my network, other times I'm glad I don't (I run a mixed environment).  Yeah, WSUS isn't perfect but it certainly helps, although I haven't had the chance to fully roll it out due to other projects (rolling out the group polices for WSUS is certainly something I wish I had AD for).