海角社区

When the annual hacker convention kicks off in Las Vegas, Nevada, in August, an 海角社区 cybersecurity team might be the only university-based team to host a workshop for some of the nation鈥檚 foremost cybersecurity experts.

DEF CON is the world鈥檚 largest and longest-running hacking conference and features talks, workshops, and competitions. 海角社区鈥檚 workshop, 鈥淓ffectively Detecting Modern Malware with Volatility 3,鈥� will teach how to defend against the sophisticated, memory-only malware techniques used by highly organized cyberattackers, such as ransomware and advanced persistent threat groups, which regularly target critical infrastructure鈥攁 core focus of cybersecurity research and education at 海角社区.

鈥満＝巧缜� computer science students who choose the cybersecurity concentration gain first-hand experience with this type of analysis during their courses and research,鈥� said Andrew Case, director of research at the cybersecurity firm Volexity, industry liaison and adjunct professor of cybersecurity at 海角社区, and leader of 海角社区鈥檚 DEF CON team. 鈥淭his means our students and graduates are immediately effective at the frontiers of their field and able to deliver hands-on workshops at premiere cybersecurity conferences, such as DEF CON.鈥�

Two 海角社区 doctoral students will teach the workshop together with Case.

Lauren Pace from Covington, Louisiana, has already taken and taught the highly technical Malware Analysis and Reverse Engineering course at 海角社区 and helped Case teach a similar workshop at last year鈥檚 DFRWS conference, held at 海角社区.

鈥淚鈥檓 incredibly excited to now be assisting with the Volatility 3 workshop at DEF CON, and very thankful to Andrew for the opportunity,鈥� Pace said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 great to have an introduction to leading workshops without the full responsibility of being the primary instructor. This will also be my first time attending DEF CON and I鈥檓 thrilled for it to be in this capacity, representing 海角社区.鈥�

Daniel Donze from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has already been working as an instructor at 海角社区 for three years while working on his cybersecurity Ph.D. and serving as a red team advisor for the free, NSA-supported 海角社区 Cybersecurity Clinic for small businesses in Louisiana. This fall, he will teach the highly technical Software Vulnerabilities and Exploit Development course at 海角社区.

鈥淚t鈥檚 always exciting to be able to give back to the community, whether through teaching, conference presentations, or workshops,鈥� Donze said. 鈥淢alware has evolved to evade traditional forensics tools by covering up its tracks. However, memory forensics provides insight into systems as they run, making it much harder for malware to hide.鈥�

Modern malware regularly conceals itself by hiding in the volatile memory of victim systems. Unlike traditional malware, which persists long-term on infected devices, memory-focused malware becomes untraceable upon reboot and avoids detection by traditional investigation techniques and tools. Such stealthy tactics require the use of advanced analysis methods, such as memory forensics, which is part of the cybersecurity curriculum at 海角社区.

鈥淥ur workshop will teach how to use Volatility 3, which is the most widely used open-source memory forensics framework, to quickly detect, analyze, and help with remediation from sophisticated attacks, such as ransomware deployments and digital espionage,鈥� Case said. 鈥淭he workshop is a mix of lecture and several hands-on labs, so attendees immediately learn the skills to find and remediate threats within the corporate networks they鈥檙e hired to protect.鈥�

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