Hello Defender!

This newsletter is going to be focused on some major updates before we get back into the swing of things with content and community updates!

Let’s get into it!

Table of Contents

• Brand

  • Simply Cyber Fireside Chat Recording

  • Darkweb & APT Case Study Live Stream - Jan 10th!

  • New Instructors!

    • Jonathan Johnson

    • Neil Desai

  • 🚨 2025 Content Survey! ✍️

Brand

Simply Cyber Fireside Chat Recording

If you missed the Simply Cyber chat between Gerald and Anthony - you can catch the full recording below! Was a fun casual chat with plenty of AMA from the audience!👇

Darkweb & APT Case Study Live Stream - Jan 10th!

Hosted by Doug Kaluhiokalani, one of our SOC100 Instructors you’ve met and founder of CyberKata!

In Doug’s words:

“This will be a brief introduction into how to access and use the Tor browser for darkweb navigation. I will be starting off by telling the students to use this on a dummy machine and not your main or work computer. Download a VPN NordVPN has some protection on the free level. Then also go into what is Tor browser, how it was created, why it is used, and why are we using it in a SOC100 course. Where to download it and then doing a live demo of what it looks like accessing the browser and then showing them a certain darkweb hacker forum (a vanilla / mild one) like nulled.to or an .onion site.

Then showing them some of the services for sale making sure it is nothing explicit or graphic (like drugs, etc). Then going into how I use these sites to troll hackers and keep a pulse on the blackhat community or malicious actors to see what techniques and tools they are using to steal creds, money, atm cards, etc. Then using that information to create a runbook/playbook of how to defend against that attack and sandboxing it to see if it works.”

Twitch link to Friday Jan 10th (select “remind me”): https://www.twitch.tv/leveleffect/schedule?segmentID=1008e910-da75-408b-a5a6-b29af5484a11

We’ll also be posting a LinkedIn Event for this tomorrow on socials if you find that easier to remind yourself with.

New Instructors!

These two gentlemen bring almost 30 years of experience collectively together to our roster of Instructors, and we can't wait to see what they cook up for you. 🔥

Jonathan Johnson

Currently - Principal Windows Security Researcher @ Huntress

Jonny is a passionate security professional with a deep focus on Windows Internals, Reverse Engineering, and Data Analysis. Having worked in defensive roles and conducted in-depth research at organizations like SpecterOps, Red Canary, and Binary Defense. He has also designed and delivered training courses, equipping defenders with actionable skills and knowledge. In addition to sharing insights through blogs, Jonny contributes to the defensive community by creating tools like JonMon and EtwInspector, which assist researchers and practitioners in strengthening their defenses. Committed to advancing the security field, Jonny empowers defenders to be more effective, independent, and resilient against evolving threats.

Jonny will be partnering deeply with the Level Effect team as a Core Instructor. He will create and teach defensive based courses around SOC and Detection Engineering methodology and practical skills.

X - https://x.com/jsecurity101

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-johnson-7aa937135/

Neil Desai

Currently - Principal Security Strategist @ Graylog

Neil brings more than 20 years of cyber security experience. He has spent the past decade working with large customers helping them solve complex security issues. Currently he is helping Graylog improve their cybersecurity product offerings. He volunteers as a mentor with VetSec, and has previously mentored high-schoolers competing in the Cyber Patriot program.

Neil will primarily be contributing to the SOC100 content specifically around the SIEM pipeline and home lab virtual SOC content from setting it up, deploying it, optimizing it, and tuning it with his years of experience to provide best practices for you.

X - https://x.com/0x617075

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/neildesai1024/

🚨 2025 Content Survey! ✍️

We’d absolutely love for you to take 5 - 10 minutes and let us know what you want to see for content. Your requests and comments will directly help shape what we build into this year and beyond! Thank you in advance for filling it out. 🙏

Form link below! 👇