Passing the GCFA exam

Recently, I challenged the GIAC/SANS GCFA exam. And I am excited to say I passed and have obtained the GCFA certificate!

This was one of the more detailed courses I had taken in awhile. The IR and Threat hunting sections were not as new to me. However, the memory and forensics section were very deep and detailed. Normally, most organizations will contract out major forensic type of work to 3^rd party external partners. So, the forensics section was something I do not work on as often. But I found learning and getting the knowledge of various ways malware can hide in memory, or how to detect Time stomping attacks from malware was extremely fun and exciting to learn. Feeling incredibly grateful to learn about all these new attack techniques and detection mechanisms.

Prepping for the exam

I highly advise everyone take the SANS FOR 508 course. You can read my review of it here -> https://www.stealthbay.com/review-of-sans-for-508/

The course will prepare you for the exam and cover topics and tools that you will be tested on. There is a lot of material to learn in the course. So, dedicate a good amount of time towards learning the course material and all the concepts. The class itself was amazing especially when you get into Memory Analysis, File system analysis and the Anti-forensics sections.