LE No. 12: Home Labs with Neil Desai! CDA Live & DFIR, 100-3 Virtual SOC, Upcoming Content, DE&TH out of Early Access!

Welcome

Newsletter designed to keep readers informed about Level Effect's latest activities and announcements.

Brand Updates

SOC100-3 Virtual SOC Launch

The SOC100-3 Virtual SOC course becomes available at Tier 1 Analyst level starting February 15th. The kickoff stream will introduce the DFIR process while triaging an incident live. Additional incidents will be included in the course for hands-on experience. Pricing follows the PWYC model: minimum $19, suggested $29, with three certification exam attempts included.

CDA Winter 2025 Cohort

The Winter cohort begins March 10th with curriculum updates emphasizing expanded Log Analytics coverage after relocating Email content to the SOC100 series. An entire additional week focuses on log and event analytics for IR and threat hunting. Applications remain open for the 14-week instructor-led program.

DFIR Bonus Content

A DFIR module is coming soon as a bonus section to the CDA course, focusing on T2+ level content. The existing CDA curriculum already covers triage, incident response, and threat hunting with emphasis on host-based analysis, persistence, processes, and networking.

DE&TH Course Graduation

The Digital Evidence & Threat Hunting course has exited early access with substantial content loaded. While future updates are planned, "the early access price is going away **February 14th**." Pricing increases from $225 to $399 upon graduation.

SOC100-2 Certification

The SOC100-2 course concludes next week, unlocking the certification exam with announcements regarding question count and exam structure.

Content Highlights

Home Labs Instruction

A two-hour session with Neil Desai (25 years cybersecurity experience) addresses home lab construction strategies, including "pros/cons of each one" and budget-conscious approaches. Topics include avoiding common pitfalls, scoping labs to learning objectives, and building within budget constraints.

SOC/IR Tabletop Recording

A collaborative stream with Fletus demonstrates tabletop exercise importance, execution, real-time adjustments, and includes a live tabletop scenario with extensive practical content.

Upcoming Classes

- Cyber Threat Intelligence (February 8th, Class 27)

- Report Writing (February 9th, Class 28): Instructor Luke Rogerson teaches documentation across incident closure, DFIR reporting, and IOC/IOA communication

Community Recognition

Weekly recognition compiles student achievements and milestones.

Tools Discussion

The newsletter features discussion of DeepSeek as a significant development offering "significantly more performant" processing capabilities compared to alternatives.

Weekly Takeaway

"A falling knife has no handle."