The key tools in the security analysis of most military and government assets are tools that perform Vulnerability Scans and a tool that measures Secure Configuration against official checklists. In the DOW they are called Secure Tecnical Implementation Guides (STIG) and they are provided at https://www.cyber.mil .

I wiill be using

• putty-cac as a PKI enabled SSH Client
• Tenable NESSUS Essentials for Vulnerability Scans
• Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) Compliance Checker for STIG checklist compliance.

Laptop/Desktop

You will need a dedicated laptop for the project on which to load the above software. A laptop is recommended for the mobility but I have successfully used a desktop as well. What I don’t recommend is a computer that undergoes frequent change such as student classroom computers, nor do I recommend using a corporate or government computer that has strict controls on it. Most of the work is via SSH PUTTY so that even older computers will be sufficient as long as they meet the reqiurements of Nessus Essentials and SCAP Compliance Checker (SCC)