LE No. 15: CDA Launch Rate Ends March 31, Giveaway, OSINT & Detection Engineering Streams, Community Instructors!?

1. Brand

CDA Launch Rate Ends March 31st & Giveaway

The special introductory pricing of $499 for the Cyber Defense Analyst program concludes this month, after which pricing increases to $799. Level Effect plans to announce a merit-based giveaway next week, requiring participants to complete SOC100-1 and pass the associated exam before eligibility.

CDA Winter 2025 - Last Call

Registration remains open for the CDA Live cohort starting next week. Leadership provided encouragement messages to incoming students addressing common concerns about readiness and self-doubt.

Community Instructor - Fletus Poston

Fletus Poston joins as the organization's first Community Instructor. This new volunteer role involves providing mentorship and guidance within the Discord community. Poston brings years of experience and has been actively supporting members in the Discord channel.

2. Content

Unlocking the Power of OSINT - March 7th, 1PM EST

Fletus Poston will lead a stream demonstrating practical applications of open-source intelligence, showcasing real-world use cases and techniques.

Detection Engineering - March 8th, 12PM EST

Greg Ake presents detection engineering content originally planned as CDA bonus material, now incorporated into SOC100-5 to broaden access beyond analysts completing the Virtual SOC experience.

SOC100 Class 31 Recording

This session covers open-source contribution workflows, the 2025 job market evolution, and hands-on GitHub fundamentals including forking, cloning, and pull requests—free resume-building experience.

YouTube Shorts Launch

The organization released its first short-form video content, clipped from recent live streams, with plans to expand this format starting in April.

3. Community

Students continue earning certifications, with community members providing positive testimonials about training quality and effectiveness.

4. Tools

Curated resources shared include:

- Windows run commands reference

- Subnetting guides from multiple sources

- CS50 Harvard programming course

- Windows Defender ransomware testing video

5. Takeaway

"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards." - Soren Kierkegaard