The Certified CyberDefender (CCD) Blue Team Training & Certification, provided by CyberDefenders, is known for its vendor-neutral approach and hands-on methodology. Tailored for various cybersecurity professionals, including SOC analysts, security blue teams, threat hunters, and DFIR professionals, CCD covers multiple topics, such as defense strategies, threat hunting techniques, and forensic analysis, preparing learners to tackle real-world cyber threats effectively.
CyberDefenders is a platform for blue team training and certifications. They have introduced a new “Educational Mode” feature to its CyberRange. This enhancement aims to provide additional support to users during their lab sessions, offering guidance whenever needed.
The CCD certification exam, lasting 48 hours, emphasizes practical assessment across domains like threat hunting, perimeter defense, and forensic analysis. It evaluates candidates based on their ability to apply learned skills in simulated cyber incidents.
Furthermore, CCD offers access to diverse tools and practical labs, allowing learners to gain hands-on experience with tools like Microsoft Sentinel and Elastic SIEM. This practical approach ensures that learners can apply their knowledge in real-world scenarios.
Organizations can benefit from CCD training as it equips defenders with skills applicable to various scenarios, enhances efficiency, and significantly improves security posture.
For those interested in pursuing CCD, CyberDefenders offers a student discount, making its resources more accessible. With its focused training and challenging certification exam, CCD presents an opportunity for individuals to enhance their cybersecurity skills and become Certified CyberDefenders.
Difficulty: 3 out of 5.
A course and certification that is growing in popularity within the cybersecurity community among the Blue Team, as the testing portion is a fully practical exam that requires you to go through several areas of cybersecurity to figure out what happened. Topics include: SOC Fundamentals, Perimeter Defense, Threat Hunting (this is the meat of the course), Disk Forensics, Memory Forensics, Network Forensics, Incident Response, and Malware Analysis.
I went into this course having some basic knowledge and came out this course and exam with more than I expected. The training material doesn't hold your hand, as it gives everything you need to be successful in the course. And because of the way the training is done, you follow the crawl (lecture), walk (labs), and run (exam) methodology. Almost everything you learn and practice is used in the exam. And there are incentives to completing all of the material too.
As of the time of this writing, they were adding a Malware Analysis portion to the course, but it is not part of the exam. It's good knowledge that is in very early stages of becoming its own class, but if you really want to know more about that specialty, go check out TCM Academy's Practical Malware Analysis Techniques course instead.
Pros
- There is A LOT of material and it's all useful
- Introduction to a lot of tools that are well-known within the industry
- Builds upon foundations to further cybersecurity knowledge, skills, and abilities
- Provide tips on how to identify high-quality intel and low-quality intel
- Fully practical exam where you have to write in your answers and show your work, proving that you know what you're doing and that you CAN do it
Cons
- Cost is manageable, but won't be worth the full $800 until a few more updates are made to the course
- Parts of course and labs expect you to know when to conduct outside research
- Needs more labs dedicated to the training rather than their Blueyard Labs (labs open to free and pro members)
- Must finish with 4 months otherwise you have to pay for a time extension
- Some of the labs and material aren't tested, e.g. Vulnerability Scanners, Email Security Gateways
- Not yet widely looked for by HR and hiring managers