
Identify unique dynamic features of malware through behavior extraction to classify and cluster samples into malicious groups using sandbox analysis and memory dumps.
Identify persistence techniques used by malware, including registry keys, services, and scheduled tasks. Explore memory hash dumping, file infector activity, and passive DNS for crime scene mapping and behavior classification.
Explore VirusTotal as a public, free-to-use platform (with paid options) to analyze samples, download data, and automate with the API using Yara rules and retro hunts.
Analyze how hacking forums recruit with criminal intent, discuss malware, and expose threat intelligence researchers to risks like law enforcement infiltration and jail for malware development.
Develop binary-level detections with Yara by analyzing strings, Unicode indicators, imports/exports patterns, entry points, sections, and file size to identify polymorphic malware.
Extract and analyze VBA macros from malicious email attachments using Didier Stevens tools, decoding base64 streams to reveal embedded macro behavior.
Analyze how malware evades sandbox detection through delay execution using native APIs like sleep, and how researchers extract features such as mutexes and behaviors to classify and cluster samples.
Learn how clustering classifies cyber threat samples using static features and DNS data to form buckets for persistent threats, memory scrapper, and malware, revealing infrastructure and attack vectors.
Identify targets in attribution by analyzing sectors, locations, and threat groups. Assess data exfiltration patterns and motives, from intellectual property to political pressure, across industries and nations.
Pivot within a compromised network using passwordless ssh key access, vnc, and encrypted tunnels for stealthy lateral movement and exfiltration, plus internal reconnaissance and port scans.
Explore exfiltration strategies to profile threat actors by analyzing techniques, traffic patterns, and data post parameters, including man-in-the-middle, fake encrypted channels, and custom encryption.
Explore how hacking forums are taken down through long-term law enforcement infiltration and international cooperation, with cautions for researchers to avoid risky discussions that could lead to arrest.
The Cyber Security Threat Intelligence Researcher Certification will help you acquire the skills needed to find out who is behind an attack, what the specific threat group is, the nation from which the attack is being launched, as well as techniques being used to launch this attack.
You will know how to take a small piece of malware, find out who is responsible for launching it, the threat actor location and also how to take down that threat actor, with the support of your local law enforcement.
In today’s cyber security landscape, it isn't possible to prevent every attacks. Today’s attackers have significant funding, are patient, sophisticated, and target vulnerabilities in people and processes as well as technologies. With organizations increasingly relying on digitized information and sharing vast amounts of data across the globe, they have become easier targets for many different forms of attack. As a result, every company’s day-to-day operations, data and intellectual property are seriously at risk. In a corporate context, a cyber attack can not only damage your brand and reputation, it can also result in loss of competitive advantage, create legal/regulatory noncompliance and cause steep financial damage.
Today’s secure environment will have vulnerabilities in it tomorrow, so an organization cannot allow itself to become complacent. There is only so much an organization can do by defending itself against threats that have already occurred. If an organization only reacts to new threats as they come up, are likely acting too late. It is important to understand and prioritize cyber threat intelligence processes, and how they can be integrated into an organization’s security operations in a way that adds value.
Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is an advanced process enabling organizations to gather valuable insights based on analysis of contextual and situational risks. These processes can be tailored to the organization’s specific threat landscape, industry and market. This intelligence can make a significant difference to organizations' abilities to anticipate breaches before they occur. Giving organizations the ability to respond quickly, decisively and effectively to confirmed breaches allows them to proactively maneuver defense mechanisms into place, prior to and during the attack.
In this course, we’ll introduce you to the 8 phases of threat intelligence: