Automated Network Defense Training
Learn how to defend large-scale network infrastructures by building and maintaining IDS/IPS and mastering advanced signature-writing techniques. Cyber threats are increasing at an alarming rate every year and the ability for organizations to defend against full-scale, distributed attacks quickly and effectively has become much more difficult. An Intrusion Detection/Prevention System (IDS/IPS) affords security administrators the ability to automate the process of identifying attacks among the thousands of connections on their network, provided the system is properly configured and the signatures are well written.
Automated Network Defense
Course Overview
This course teaches how to defend enterprise infrastructure at scale using a combination of tools and platforms such as IDS/IPS, firewalls, and SIEMs. Configuring and tuning these systems properly maximizes their effectiveness at catching and stopping threats while reducing alert fatigue for analysts and responders. Students learn to identify gaps in coverage, write basic and complex signatures, manage rule sets for optimization, use chain rules to detect multistage events, and implement decoding and fingerprinting capabilities to overcome evasion techniques.
Course Outline
- Explain the benefits and limitations of different security technologies (IDS/IPS, firewalls, VPNs, web proxies, etc.)
- Identify optimal platform deployment and gaps in coverage
- Write basic and complex IDS signatures to identify malicious traffic flows, and tune them to reduce false positives
- Use reassembly and pre-processing engines to automatically reconstruct streams of network data prior to analysis
- Apply decoding and other tools to overcome attacker evasion techniques
- Implement automated fingerprinting of encrypted traffic flows to detect anomalous or malicious flows
Intended Audience
- Incident Responders who need to understand and react to IDS alerts
- Network Defenders seeking to automate threat detection
- IDS administrators who wish to improve their signature writing skills
- Security Operations Center Staff seeking to automate traffic analysis
- Penetration Testers looking to reduce their network visibility
Prerequisites
- A strong understanding of
- TCP/IP networking
- Network Forensics
- Investigation I and II
Follow-On Courses
Related training topics
Justify your training
Use this sample request letter — copy it into an email to your manager and personalize the bracketed details to make the case for the time and budget.
Sample training request letter
Subject: Request for Defensive Cyber & Blue Teaming training from Applied Technology Academy
[Decision Maker Name],
I'm writing to request time and budget approval to complete Applied Technology Academy's course, Automated Network Defense Training. The information below outlines how this training benefits our organization, the tasks I'll be able to perform after completing it, and relevant cost and funding details.
Course Description
Learn how to defend large-scale network infrastructures by building and maintaining IDS/IPS and mastering advanced signature-writing techniques. Cyber threats are increasing at an alarming rate every year and the ability for organizations to defend against full-scale, distributed attacks quickly and effectively has become much more difficult. An Intrusion Detection/Prevention System (IDS/IPS) affords security administrators the ability to automate the process of identifying attacks among the thousands of connections on their network, provided the system is properly configured and the signatures are well written. Applied Technology Academy is an award-winning, SBA-certified woman-owned training provider (est. 2008) whose instructors are active practitioners; the course is hands-on with virtual labs and a learn-by-doing methodology.
Course Objectives
Once I've completed the course, I'll have hands-on, job-ready skills in defensive cyber & blue teaming that I can apply immediately to our work.
Expected Organizational Benefits
After completing this course, I will be better equipped to apply these skills directly to our projects, reduce our reliance on outside expertise, strengthen our team's capabilities, and share what I learn with colleagues.
Expected Cost & Funding
Course fee: [request an itemized quote at the link below]. Applied Technology Academy supports multiple funding paths that may reduce or cover this cost: GSA MAS purchasing and government purchase orders, military credentialing funding (Army CA, AF COOL, CG COOL), VA GI Bill and VR&E, ATA Flexible Spending, and student financing. Private team cohorts are available if colleagues should attend with me.
Conclusion
This training provides practical, hands-on experience I can apply immediately to strengthen our work in defensive cyber & blue teaming. Additional course information is available at https://appliedtechnologyacademy.com/automated-network-defense-training/.
Thank you for your consideration,
[Your Name]
Related Defensive Cyber & Blue Teaming courses
Design training around your team, not the other way around.
Talk to a training advisor about private cohorts, funding paths and program management.