The GNFA Certification Will Teach You These Skills

If you're interested in learning more about cybersecurity and network forensics, the GIAC Network Forensic Analyst (GNFA) certification can be an excellent choice for you.

This certification program is designed to equip network security professionals with the knowledge and skills to perform examinations employing network forensic artifact analysis.

What is the GIAC GNFA certification exam?

The GIAC Network Forensic Analyst (GNFA) certification is one of the leading forensic analyst certifications, validating a practitioner's capability of performing examinations that involve network forensic artifacts. By earning the GNFA certification, you will demonstrate your understanding of the fundamentals of network forensics, normal and abnormal conditions for common network protocols, processes and tools for examining device and system logs, and wireless communication and encryption protocols. 

The GIAC GNFA certification exam covers network architecture, network protocols, and network protocol reverse engineering, encryption and encoding, NetFlow analysis and attack visualization, security event & incident logging, network analysis tools and usage, wireless network analysis, & open source network security proxies. 

The GIAC GNFA exam consists of 50-66 multiple-choice questions and must be completed within 2-3 hours. To pass the GNFA exam, a passing score of 70% is required. The GNFA certification is ideal for anyone with a solid background in computer forensics, information systems, and information security interested in computer network intrusions and investigations.

Here are the topics covered in the GNFA exam:

• Network architecture, network protocols, and network protocol reverse engineering
• Encryption and encoding, NetFlow analysis and attack visualization, security event & incident logging
• Network analysis tools and usage, wireless network analysis, & open-source network security proxies

Who can take the GIAC GNFA certification?

Any network forensics professional can pursue the GIAC GNFA certification. It is particularly beneficial for:

• Those with a solid background in computer forensics, information systems, and information security who are interested in computer network intrusions and investigations should attend this workshop.
• Incident response team members
• Forensicators
• Threat hunters
• Law enforcement officers, federal agents, and detectives
• SOC personnel
• Information security practitioners and managers
• Network defenders and engineers
• Information technology professionals

What you will learn

The GIAC GNFA certification (FOR572) covers the most critical skills for today's investigations, including many use cases that revolve around network communications. Many investigative teams employ proactive threat-hunting skills to uncover evidence of previously unknown incidents using existing evidence and newly acquired threat intelligence.

They sometimes get into real-time combat with an attacker, trying to contain and eliminate them. You can gain invaluable insight into attackers' intentions, capabilities, successes, and failures through the artifacts left behind by their communications.

The GIAC GNFA certification training program examines and characterizes the communications that have happened or are happening. Despite the remote attacker's best efforts, a system has to communicate over a network even when an undetectable exploit compromises it. When a computer system is compromised without data extraction and command-and-control channels, its value drops to zero.

The GIAC GNFA certification exam course focuses on efficiency and effectiveness and covers the tools, technology, and processes required to integrate network evidence sources into your investigations. Students will comprehensively understand network evidence through NetFlow analysis, pcap analysis, and ancillary log examination. Also, the GNFA course talks about leveraging existing infrastructure devices that might have months or years of evidence.

You will be able to

• Extract files from network packet captures and proxy cache files for malware analysis or data loss determination.
• Identify past network incidents using historical NetFlow data, which allows accurate incident scoping.
• Investigate an attacker's command-and-control abilities and actions by reverse engineering custom network protocols.
• Analyze SSL/TLS traffic captured by attackers to discover what data they extracted.
• Increase the fidelity of the investigation's findings using data from typical network protocols.
• Analyze the existing systems and platforms within a network architecture to identify opportunities to collect additional evidence.
• Investigate patterns of activity or specific actions using common network protocols.
• Integrate log data into an analysis process to fill knowledge gaps that are long past due.
• Find out how attackers intercept seemingly secure communications using meddler-in-the-middle tools.
• Investigate proprietary network protocols to determine what actions occurred on endpoints.
• Detect malicious activity by analyzing wireless network traffic.
• Learn how to optimize firewall configurations and intrusion detection systems during an investigation to increase the intelligence value of their logs and alerts.
• Utilize the knowledge you have acquired throughout the week in a full-day capstone lab.

GNFA course topics

Foundational network forensics tools: tcpdump and Wireshark refresher

Packet capture applications and data

Unique considerations for network-focused forensic processes

• Network evidence types and sources
• Network architectural challenges and opportunities for investigators
• Investigation of OPSEC and footprint considerations

Network protocol analysis

• Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
• Domain Name Service (DNS)
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
• Server Message Block (SMB) and related Microsoft protocols
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

Commercial network forensic tools Automated tools and libraries

NetFlow

• Introduction
• Collection approaches
• Open-source NetFlow tools

Wireless networking

• Capturing wireless traffic
• Useful forensic artifacts from wireless traffic
• Common attack methods and detection

Log data to supplement network examinations

• Syslog
• Microsoft Windows Event Forwarding
• HTTP server logs
• Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSes), and Network Security Monitoring (NSM) Platforms
• Log collection, aggregation, and analysis
• Web proxy server examination

Encryption

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS)
• Profiling TLS clients without an interception
• Introduction
• Meddler-in-the-middle
• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS)

Deep packet work

• Network protocol reverse engineering
• Payload reconstruction

The final words

Whether you are a consultant helping clients, law enforcement professionals who assist cybercrime victims and prosecute violators, an on-staff forensic practitioner, or a member of the threat hunters team, the GIAC GNFA certification course provides hands-on experience with real-world scenarios that will help you advance your career.

If you want to take the GIAC GNFA certification exam, CBT Proxy can help you pass the exam on your first attempt. To learn more about the GNFA exam, click the chat button below, and one of our consultants will contact you.