Monday, April 25, 2016

Windows Malware and Memory Forensics Training coming to NYC, Amsterdam, and Reston!

We're excited to announce the dates and locations for three new public offerings of Windows Malware and Memory Forensics Training by The Volatility Project.

The following courses are now open for registration:
  • June 27th - July 1st in NYC
  • August 29th - September 2nd in Amsterdam
  • October 3rd - 7th in Reston/Herndon, VA
You can request an invite through our web form or contact us via voltraining @ memoryanalysis [dot] net (pgp). All three of these locations have sold out early in the past, so please contact us ASAP if you wish to attend.

Also, students in our recent Reston course wanted to share some of their feedback with you:
I thought I understood Windows internals until I attended this course. Attend if at all possible! Troy A. (Malware Analyst)

Thanks for a great training. Its one of the best (if not the best) I've been to.  Billy M. 
The course is put together in a way that all skill levels and experience will get valuable information.  Jeremy S. (Senior Research Analyst)

It is one of the greatest forensics classes I ever attended.  Ali K. (IT Security Consultant)
We look forward to meeting all the talented analysis and investigators that attend our classes!

Friday, April 8, 2016

Airbnb Donates $999 to the 2016 Volatility Plugin Contest!

Thank you to Airbnb for donating $999 to the 2016 Volatility Plugin Contest and their continued support for open source memory forensics development.

When we announced the contest a couple days ago, the cash prizes for the top three contest winners were $1500, $500, and $250. In light of Airbnb's donation, we decided to augment the values for the top three and extend the cash prizes for the 4th and 5th place contributors, resulting in not only higher rewards but more cash winners.

1st: $1800 or a free seat at Windows Malware and Memory Forensics
2nd: $800
3rd: $450
4th: $100
5th: $100

Participants who place will still receive the designated shwag (t-shirts, stickers, sync stops, books, etc). Thanks again to Airbnb for their generous donation and support!

Monday, April 4, 2016

The 2016 Volatility Plugin Contest is now live!

This is a quick update to announce that the 2016 Volatility Plugin contest is now live and accepting submissions until October 1st. Winners of this year's contest will be receiving over $2,000 in cash prizes as well as plenty of Volatility swag (t-shirts, stickers, mugs, sync stops, etc).

The purpose of the contest is to encourage open memory forensics research and development. It is a great opportunity for students to become familiar with memory forensics, develop a master's thesis or PhD project, as well as gain experience that will be very desirable by future employers. For those already in the field, submitting to the contest is a great way to gain experience and visibility in the memory forensics community. After the contest is over we promote the work in our conference presentations, blogs, and social media.

If you are looking for inspiration or to see the past winners, please check out the pages from 20132014, and 2015. You will find projects that allow for inspection of virtual machines guests from the view of the host, recovery of in-memory browser artifacts, methods to detect stealthy rootkits, and much more.

If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to us. 

We are looking forward to another year of innovative open source research!