GroundRod Level 1

Course Overview

Content

    • Intro to INFOSEC, COMSEC and PERSEC

    • Identifying threats

    • Target devices

    • Defensive measures

    • Physical countermeasures

    • Operating system options

    • Unix/Linux history

    • Linux variants

    • UEFI & live system booting

    • Hardware specific concerns

    • Encryption overview

    • ** Encryption lab

    • Wireless security

    • IP, DNS, MAC and Ports

    • Peer to peer networking

    • VPN study

    • Intro to “darknets”

    • Metadata

    • Web browser study

    • Email

    • Email alternatives

    • Bitmessage, Tox

    • Throw away mail providers

    • Email security

    • ** PGP lab

    • Password study

    • Bitcoin and crypto-currency

    • Hashing and digital signatures

    • Steganography

    • ** Steganography lab

    • Burner phones

    • TAILs setup

    • Crypto wallet setup

    • Password manager setup

    • Case studies

    • Reading material & sources

    • Wrap up

Locations and Dates

Cost: $480

Course Length: 2 days (16-20 hours classroom, lab setting

Location: Camp Ponderosa (Montana)

Date: Oct 12 - Oct 13 (Saturday & Sunday)

Description

Entry level course that lays the foundation of digital tradecraft skills providing a defense in depth approach to threats ranging from the criminal hacker to the nation-state extrajudicial “snooping” level. The course studies the overlapping and complimentary concepts of security, privacy and anonymity.

This course was born out of the intelligence community and has been taught to personnel from USG units such as: NSA, CIA, JSOC, USASOC and various LEO agencies.

This is the only course of it’s kind currently available to US citizens.

Gear Packing Checklist

Course Checklist

  1. Personal laptop (or unit issued)
    - Macbook cutoff year is 2014

  2. Four USB drives

  3. 8-16GB in capacity,

  4. Spare extension cord,

  5. Note-taking materials.

Course Book Coming Soon…

Recommended Gear

SEPIO Secure Laptop  (Version 4)

  • 14 or 15.6 Full HD Touchscreen

  • Durable Chassis

  • AMD Ryzen CPU (Gen 5 +)

  • 8GB Crucial DDR4 3200 RAM (up to 32GB)

  • 256GB Crucial SSD Storage (up to 2TB)

  • Wireless & Bluetooth

  • USB 3.0, USB-C, HDMI, MIC and SD Card ports

  • Sepio Secure Operating System (built on Debian Linux)

  • Webcam blocker

Verus 7 Privacy Phone

  • Uses Nano SIM or ESIM card

  • Verus secure operating system (Built on CalyxOS and GrapheneOS)

  • Extensive privacy and security suite

  • Microphone and camera control 

Graybox Secure Router

  • Graybox runs opensource, Linux based firmware and has extensive hardening against attacks. VPN support is built in and easy to use, allowing you to shield your traffic from prying eyes. 

  • Once your VPN is activated, all devices that connect via the Graybox will enjoy the protection of the robust firewall, secure DNS and VPN connection.

Course Reviews

Groundrod Level 1 Course Products

GroundRod Level 1 Review (Article)

By Father Abraham

GroundRod 1 Course Review (Article)

By Tactical Wisdom

Meet the Instructor

K

K is a combat veteran, OGA veteran, INFOSEC professional, and firearms & tactics instructor. Creator of the GroundRod tradecraft courses.