Making Sense of Cyber

Overview

The objective of the Making Sense of Cyber course is to provide a comprehensive but necessarily high level overview across industry standard technology and platforms, illuminating the technology and its specific cyber challenges without technically challenging the learner to hands-on labs.

The course takes the learner back to computer basics to build the individuals understanding common technology platforms through to the network layer and on via virtualisation technologies, cloud systems, telecoms and modern communications. Closing the second day with a module focused on the benefits and pitfalls of encryption. Day three, introduces the global business of cybercrime and its various lucrative forms. A module focused on the common methods of attack provides the learner with an insight into many of the most popular attack vectors today, including attacks against industrial control systems. Followed by a session underpinned by open source intelligence and the tools and technologies of the dark web.

Each day provides insight into the technical subject matter with the crucial security subtext, enabling the learning to ask the right question, at the right time. Knowledge check ‘white board’ exercises, where delegates work in groups to discuss and provide solutions to scenarios offering an explanation with a rationale in each instance of why this is important from a security perspective. Plus homework questions based on the modules of the day, for delegates to take away complete and discuss model answers at the start of the next day.

During the delivery we will provide the delegates with access to recorded video demonstrations of the technical subject matter, case study materials within the applicable modules, which will enhance the learners experience whilst preserving any technical confidence as there are limited requirements for the learner to undertake ‘hands-on’ labs.

Objectives

Day 1

• OSI Protocol Stack
• TCP/IP
• Network Architecture
• Network Security
• Internet Primer

Day 2

• Telecoms & Modern Communications
• Virtualisation & Cloud Technologies
• Encryption

Day 3

• Common Methods of Attack
• Industrial Control Systems Attacks
• Digital Footprints & the Dark Web

Outline

The three day course delivers individual modules as described below.

Day 1

Introduction & Course Objectives

OSI Protocol Stack

• Switched networks, packet switching vs circuit switching, packet routing delivery, routing, internetworking standards, OSI model, and 7 layers.

TCP/IP

• TCP/IP protocol suite, types of addresses, physical address, logical address, IPv4, IPv6, port address, specific address, network access control, network address translation

Network Architecture

• Network fundamentals, network types, peer-to-peer & server based networking (advantages & disadvantages), local area networks, wide area networks.

Network Security

• Security and network layers, IPSEC, SSL / TLS SSH, Firewalls (packet filtering, state full inspection), application gateways, ACL’s.

Internet Primer

• How does data travel across the internet? End to end examples for web browsing, send emails, using applications – explaining internet architecture, routing, DNS.

Day 2

Telecoms & Modern Communications

• Telecoms security (3, 4 & 5G), Satellite, VoIP, wireless LAN, Wi-Fi Security, IoT.

Virtualisation & Cloud Technologies

• Virtualisation definitions, virtualisation models, terminologies, virtual models, virtual platforms, what is cloud computing, cloud essentials, cloud service models, security & privacy in the cloud, multi-tenancy issues, infrastructure vs data security.

Encryption

• Uses of encryption technology, symmetric / asymmetric key encryption, public and private keys, weaknesses, decryption, hashing, digital signatures, PKI, certificates authorities, data at rest and in transit, understand anonymity and encryption applications.

Day 3

Common Methods of Attack

• Threat actors, evolution of the threat capability, cyber exploits, malware, DDoS (Inc. Botnet), cross site scripting, input validation, buffer-overflow, targeted attacks (techniques & resources), stages of an advanced persistent threat (APT), cybercrime vs state sponsored attacks, application exploits and internet infrastructure attacks.

Industrial Control Systems Attacks

• Industrial control systems, specifics risks and threats, attacks against control systems (Shodan labs) countermeasures.

Digital Footprints & the Dark Web

• Internet analysis, search engines, tools for finding information on people and companies Tor & Tor hidden services (THS), Bitcoin practicalities plus other virtual currencies, understand the attacks against Tor, advanced Dark webs features.

Prerequisites

here are no prerequisites for this course, however, participants are expected to have a basic understanding of computers and the internet.