Becoming Legit

[xor]

This is mainly for the younger folks out there or any one wanting to start a Microsoft lab for cheap. I know what you are going to say. Me, pay money for Microsoft products they have enough money I'll just hack or warez my stuff; screw Microsoft. I totally understand the way you feel, Microsoft sucks we all know that. In fact when I use to play D&D most of my characters were of CG alignment, and a few were CE(just for kicks and giggles) which is sort of the way I go through life myself. Not always playing by the rules for those none D&D'ers out there.

If you went through normal legit channels putting together a Microsoft lab with most of their products would cost you a small fortune. If you want to become a security professional you can't simultaneously break the law and then go an enforce the law. Some people I have in high respect in these forums have written books on IT ethics you should look them up.

So how does one put together a legit Microsoft lab without breaking the law, and without spending a small fortune. Well believe it or not Microsoft has programs to help with the cost of this. If you have ever sold, fixed, wrote code or otherwise sold computer services for money(traded for sex counts too :) ) you are a computer reseller and can therefore legitimately take advantage of these programs.

The program I'm referring to is called the Action Pack subscription under the Microsoft Partner section of the website https://partner.microsoft.com. For the price of a copy of Vista $295.00 you can own and have them licensed for demo and lab purposes the following list of software https://partner.microsoft.com/40013779. Perfect for setting up a legit pen test lab. It's a quarterly subscription where you get one big bundle of software, then updates every quarter and you end up becoming a registered Microsoft partner; I know yuck.

Just something to think about for those wanting to seriously get into the security biz.

xor

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: Becoming Legit

If you want to become a security professional you can't simultaneously break the law and then go an enforce the law.

i'm not disagreeing with your whole post... but i will say that this one sentence is tricky and i wouldn't assent 100% to your premise there.

i suspect many others might feel the same way, even if they don't say it out loud.

[Thorn]

Re: Becoming Legit

It's funny you brought this up. Just recently I found out about the MS Partner program, and registered with it. Last week MS held a Partner T2 meeting in the area, and it had a lot of information.

I'm contemplating getting the Action Pack, and will probably do so in the next few weeks. Aside from having a copies of MS Server 2003 and SBS 2003 to play with for security issues, the ability to replicate clients' server setups would allow for having a test environment for those that are too small for both test and production servers in-house. That translates into me being more productive and clients being happy. Happy clients pay the bills.

[DaKahuna]

Re: Becoming Legit

I will caution you that you only get a limited number of OS licenses. Don't think you are going to be able to set up a lab with four or five XP or Vista machines off of a Action Pack.

Also please note that this is a program for Microsoft Partners which requires that you be a business. I had to give my Action Pack subscription up when I shut down my consulting company.

[rizzo]

Re: Becoming Legit

I have a Technet subscription that gives me similar benefits as an individual. No requirement to be a business. I pay $349 and can download and get Product Keys.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx