Mossé Cyber Security Institute - 2022-07 Progress Update
I started working through the free Mossé Introduction to Cyber Security (MICS) certification course on June 18th, 2022 to see what this platform was all about.
Not going to lie: these courses are way over my head and I wasn’t sure about committing to doing them at first. I don’t have an extensive background in IT and there are no solutions provided or write-ups to refer to. Some of the exercises have been quite challenging and I imagine they will just get more challenging as I go!
However, the amount of practical knowledge I have learned in a very short amount of time has been exciting and surprising! I have had to troubleshoot errors, learn terminology, understand fundamental concepts, and iterate on the same exercise many times before finally grasping what I was doing! These courses teach practical skills over theoretical knowledge which is exactly what I was looking for! So I enrolled in 8 of them!
Thankfully, I am fine with iterating through an exercise many times and failing a couple of times until I fully understand it! The exercises are reviewed and marked by trained cyber security instructors who give feedback and guide you in the right direction if you when you fail exercises. When you fail an exercise, you keep learning and keep iterating on that exercise until you’re successful! MCSI also has forums where you can reach out if you get stuck!
These certifications have no expiry date or renewal fees, and the costs cover both the training plus the milestone and completion certifications.
Certification Overview
I am currently studying with Mossé Cyber Security Institute (MCSI) via their Online Learning Platform (OLP) to complete the following curriculums:
MCSI Introduction to Cyber Security (MICS)
MCSI Remote Cybersecurity Internship (MRCI)
System Administration Fundamentals (MSAF)
Certified Blue Teamer (MBT)
Certified Threat Hunter (MTH)
Certified DFIR Expert (MDFIR)
Certified Reverse Engineer (MRE)
Certified Threat Intelligence Analyst (MTIA)
Company: Mossé Cyber Security Institute
The training for these courses is 100% practical and comprehensive. I must do research and develop solutions to exercises in the same way that a certified professional would do it in the field: by troubleshooting, testing, and succeeding through trials and errors (MCSI does not make the answers available). MCSI's robust training offers me an enhanced opportunity for in-depth learning. This style of challenging training leads to a wider spectrum of subject mastery.
This Certificate provides an online portfolio evidencing my demonstrated capabilities which I develop in the courses, along with reports making it transparently straightforward for any employer wishing to vet my knowledge and skills.
Track my progress by reviewing my online portfolio:
My Current Portfolio Summary
Current Level: 5
Total Points: 31
Total Exercises: 30
Career Development Milestones: Cybersecurity Learner - Level 2
Certification Details
Below are some of the skills that each of these certifications teach, along with the exercise completion certificates for each task that I have completed in the Introduction course so far!
Title: MICS - Introduction to Cyber Security
Difficulty: Beginner
Length of training: 100+ hours
CPE points: 69
Price: Free
Some of the skills that this Certificate teaches:
Discover active attack campaigns
Perform network reconnaissance
Extract data from search engines and social media
Employ basic operational security procedures
Classify binaries with YARA
Develop a password policy and a risk matrix
Build a home security lab
Title: MRCI - MCSI Remote Cybersecurity Internship
Difficulty: Beginner
Length of training: 150+ hours
CPE points: 86
Price: $49 usd
Some of the skills this remote internship programme imparts:
Perform network vulnerability scans
Exploit vulnerabilities with Metasploit
Identify and exploit web application vulnerabilities without tools
Write custom offensive security tools to aid Red Teaming operators
Assess the security settings of Windows machines and harden them
Hunt for malware using YARA
Hunt for threat actors on Windows networks using Python
Defend web applications against common vulnerabilities
Title: MSAF - System Administration Fundamentals
Difficulty: Beginner
Length of training: 200+ hours
CPE points: 104
Price: $450 usd
Some of the skills that this Certificate teaches:
Deploy and manage virtual machines
Create network architecture diagrams
Harden Windows workstations and servers
Manage Windows networks using Group Policy Objects (GPOs)
Manage local and network firewalls
Install backup software and recover from incidents
Administer and protect Unix machines
Title: MBT - Certified Blue Teamer
Difficulty: Intermediate
Length of training: 600+ hours
CPE points: 186
Price: $450 usd
Some of the skills that this Certificate teaches:
Deploying and managing incident mitigation strategies and tools
Investigating and containing security intrusions Windows systems
Analysing suspicious binaries and malware samples
Identifying “unknown unknowns” in the network
Producing usable and actionable threat intelligence that assists business leaders make cyber security investment and divestment decisions
Developing custom security tools to defend large-scale enterprise networks
Title: MTH - Certified Threat Hunter
Difficulty: Intermediate
Length of training: 600+ hours
CPE points: 208
Price: $450 usd
Some of the skills that this Certificate teaches:
Capturing digital forensics logs in large-scale computer networks
Using Python Pandas to hunt for indicators of compromise at scale
Using YARA to hunt for malicious binaries at scale
Performing deep-dive digital forensics investigations and write rapid incident response reports
Rapidly reverse engineering malware to extract indicators of compromise
Building professional tools to deliver engagements in the field
Title: MDFIR - Certified DFIR Expert
Difficulty: Intermediate
Length of training: 600+ hours
CPE points: 206.5
Price: $450 usd
Some of the skills that this Certificate teaches:
Perform digital forensics investigations on Windows systems
Use memory forensics to identify and analyse modern APT samples
Perform network forensics on PCAP files to investigate intrusions
Analyse files, executables and malware samples
Identify and track adversary infrastructure based on IOCs generated from an investigation
Title: MRE - Certified Reverse Engineer
Difficulty: Intermediate
Length of training: 600+ hours
CPE points: 227
Price: $450 usd
Some of the skills that this Certificate teaches:
Employ a systematic approach to malware analysis
Perform static, dynamic and behavioral analysis
Deobfuscate protected malware samples
Manually decompile binaries back to C code
Produce descriptions of how APT samples work
Develop high-fidelity indicators of compromise (IOCs)
Title: MTIA - Certified Threat Intelligence Analyst
Difficulty: Advanced
Length of training: 600+ hours
CPE points: 259
Price: $450 usd
Some of the skills that this Certificate teaches:
Understand an organization's exposure to cyber attacks and which threat actors may target it
Baseline enterprise assets and extract tactical and technical intelligence at scale
Identify malware infrastructure and track attack campaigns
Discover new threat actors and malware samples that could target organisations you defend
Safely probe, infiltrate and monitor adversary campaigns
Use Structured Analytics Techniques to attribute cyber attacks
Produce threat intelligence products such as reports, briefings and IOCs
Plan For This Month
I will be working on the System Administration Fundamentals (MSAF) certification over the next month. I am going to try to complete the “Virtualization Fundamentals” exercises (completed 6 out of 9 so far) and the “Network Fundamentals” exercises (completed 0 out of 4 so far)!
My plan is to share my progress in order to hold myself accountable and help keep up the motivation. I will make a weekly update post on LinkedIn, but I imagine the progress will be slow so I plan on making a longer, more detailed blog post once per month.