Kaspersky avails cyber security training online as Covid-19 restricts in-person instruction

Kaspersky is on a mission to impart its threat-hunting expertise to IT security personnel everywhere.

The cybersecurity firm has launched a new online self-study course entitled, ‘Hunt APTs with YARA like a GReAT Ninja.’ IT security professionals interested in the topic can learn from the Kaspersky Global Research & Analysis Team’s best practices on threat hunting with YARA.

Participants will also receive access to a virtual lab where they can practice their new skills, analysing samples and testing YARA rules.

YARA is a tool that, among other things, makes it easier to identify and classify new malware samples. With the tool, security analysts can create certain patterns, or ‘rules’, and search for files that match them using security solutions.

Organisations recognise continuous education is essential to keep their security teams ready and effective. According to a recent study, 30 per cent of IT decision-makers in the META region cited improving their security specialists’ level of expertise as the main reason to increase their IT security budget.

However, the pandemic has put restrictions on real-world, in-class learning activities. Kaspersky has responded by moving its training on YARA to an online format.

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The video course is authored by the Kaspersky Global Research & Analysis Team (GReAT), a group of malware researchers and threat hunters. It provides recommendations on how to search for APT-related malware samples, as well as both new and zero-day exploits that the Kaspersky GReAT team has learned about through their research.

“YARA is an essential tool for discovering new, previously unknown attacks,” said Costin Raiu, director of the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky. “We have seen this in our work and research, as it helped us investigate APT attacks, cybercriminal malware or zero-day exploits. With this new online training, we are excited to make our experience and knowledge available to a wider audience,” he added.

Kaspersky has granted free, early access to the course for individuals from a variety of non-profit and non-governmental organisations. This includes groups that focus on gender-based violence, human and digital rights, cybersecurity research, cyber policy and diplomacy, as well as active and veteran armed forces personnel transitioning to roles in the IT security industry.