What's new at CTI Academy

More this week

• New Content

  Five new missions, from HUMINT to malware

  Two Human Source Collection path missions put you in live direct messages with a NullBase seller, and the OSINT path adds a case on linking an online persona. On the Missions page, Sablefox goes from static analysis to attribution, and a new case covers infostealer session theft.

  Browse learning paths
• New Content

  More visuals in lessons

  Lessons in Cybersecurity Foundations, Human Source Collection, Attack Surface Management and Cyber Threat Intelligence gained diagrams, terminal examples and real-world captures, so ideas are easier to picture. We also corrected technical details and commands in several lessons.

• Improvement

  Help when a quiz question has you stuck

  After three wrong answers, a quiz question points you to the lesson section that covers it, and after five it highlights the paragraph. On the seventh try the answer is shown, so you can learn from it and move on.

• Improvement

  Shorter CTI missions and clickable choices

  The Cyber Threat Intelligence path missions are now shorter, friendlier case files, and your past completions are kept. When a step asks you to pick an option, you click a card instead of typing its label.

  Open the CTI path
• Improvement

  Today's mission fits your progress

  If you already solved the day's shared mission, your dashboard now gives you one of your own, or a module to finish when no missions are left. A lesson you left halfway now shows Continue lesson.

  Go to your dashboard
• Improvement

  Share your profile with a preview card

  Paste your profile link on LinkedIn, X, Slack or WhatsApp and it now shows a card with up to four numbers you choose. You can also add a badge to your CV or personal site that links back to your profile.

  Open your profile
• Improvement

  Simpler profile and account settings

  Edit profile now saves each field as you go, and a Public or Only you chip sets who sees each detail. You can make your profile private, hide it from search engines, change your username or delete your account yourself.

  Open settings
• Improvement

  Try Premium free for 3 days

  If you have not subscribed before, Premium now starts with a 3-day free trial. You add a card at checkout but nothing is charged today, and if you cancel before the trial ends you pay nothing.

  See plans
• Fix

  Certificates now print every name

  Names in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Korean and other scripts could print blank on certificates and profile cards. They now print correctly, and changing your name updates your learning path certificates automatically.

• Fix

  Smaller fixes

  Some learners saw a 'Request was throttled' message right after signing in; that is gone. AI insights now only recommend content you can open, and on a day a streak freeze saves your streak, the reminder no longer repeats yesterday's message.

More this week

• Improvement

  Streak rewards you can earn again

  If your streak breaks, the 3-day and 7-day rewards can be earned again in your next streak. Your weekly freeze is now used before your streak shields, and the dashboard tells you when a freeze saved your streak.

  Check your streak
• Improvement

  A one-letter typo no longer costs you a quiz answer

  A correct quiz answer with a single-letter typo now counts, as long as the typo does not turn it into a different word. You also see the correct spelling, so it sticks.

• Fix

  Mission evidence opens where you can read it

  Email evidence files now open as readable text in a new tab instead of downloading. The mission screen also shows the same difficulty as the mission card, and long sentences in three missions were split up.

• Fix

  Changing your email during sign-up works again

  If you picked 'Use a different email' on the sign-up code screen, your username was then reported as taken. Sign-up now continues with your new email and the username you chose.

More this week

• New Content

  Two new lab missions: Side Effect and Backchannel

  Side Effect hides malicious code in a take-home coding test and asks who planted it and how sure you can be. Backchannel follows a crew's forum brag through photo metadata to a leaked dataset. Lab services named in a mission are now clickable.

  Browse missions
• Improvement

  Search everything with Ctrl+K

  Press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on Mac) or use the search box in the top bar to find learning paths, modules, lessons, missions and simulators by name, and jump straight to pages like Lab VPN Access.

• Improvement

  Accents and defanged indicators are accepted

  Missing accents or a Turkish keyboard no longer cost you a point, and missions accept defanged indicators such as hxxp and [.] too. Earlier answers that should have counted were marked correct.

• Improvement

  Faster dashboard and page loads

  Refreshing the dashboard no longer shows a blank screen while your data loads, and pages across the site download less code, so they open faster on slow connections.

• Fix

  Smaller fixes and security improvements

  Deleted notifications no longer come back after a refresh, long quiz answers are no longer cut off in the answer box, and sign-up buttons on path pages fit on phones. We also made behind-the-scenes security improvements.

More this week

• New Content

  Clean Slate closes the forensics case

  The last part of the law firm case, after Paper Trail and Short Memory, moves to the server. The Security event log has been cleared, and you reconstruct what the intruder did in the deal room before they cleaned up.

  Browse missions
• Improvement

  Every mission reviewed for fair answers

  We checked every mission against the answers learners actually gave, reworded unclear questions, fixed misleading hints and accepted more valid answers. A small typo in a longer word, such as a swapped letter, now counts too.

  Try a mission
• Improvement

  A weekly mission on every plan

  The weekly mission is now chosen separately for free and Premium members, so free members always get one they can open and play.

  Find this week's mission
• Improvement

  Names stay readable in translated lessons

  In translated lessons, the names of threat actors, malware and companies, such as APT41 or PlugX, now keep their original spelling instead of being rewritten in another script.

• Fix

  Attack simulator results now appear

  Finishing a set in the Attack simulator used to leave a blank screen. You now see your results, including the ATT&CK tactics you covered and where your answers sit on the kill chain.

  Open Simulators
• Fix

  No more logged-out flash on load

  Signed-in learners no longer see the logged-out homepage for a moment when the site opens, and coming back after an hour no longer signs you out. If we ship an update while you browse, the page reloads once instead of failing.

• Fix

  Cleaner hint cards and image captions

  The 'Reveal the hint?' buttons no longer need scrolling to reach, and the question no longer shows through the hint in mirror writing. Captions under lesson images no longer overlap the next paragraph.

More this week

• Improvement

  Always know where you are in a path

  When you open a lesson or mission from a path, a bar at the top shows your progress and names the next step. Back buttons and simulator exits take you back to the path.

• Improvement

  Explore every path before you sign up

  Anyone can open the Learning Paths catalog and each path's full outline without an account. When you then sign in, including with Google or GitHub, you land back on the page you were reading.

  See all paths
• Improvement

  Missions show the shape of the answer

  Mission questions now tell you what kind of answer they expect, such as an IP address, a date or a username, without giving it away. Long briefings scroll instead of getting cut off, and evidence opens as reference cards.

• Improvement

  Fairer quiz questions

  Quizzes now accept common alternative wordings and ignore a stray full stop. We reviewed the Cybersecurity Foundations and Cyber Threat Intelligence quizzes so the right option is no longer simply the longest one.

• Improvement

  Missions and simulators keep your streak alive

  Solving a mission question or finishing a simulator session now counts toward your daily streak, not just lessons. The streak counter in the top bar also updates right away.

• Improvement

  A sidebar you can collapse

  On desktop you can fold the sidebar into a slim icon rail to give lessons more room. Learning Paths now lead the menu, followed by Missions, Simulators and the Arena.

• Improvement

  Easier quests in your first week

  In your first seven days you get quests you can finish on your own, instead of goals like winning a duel or completing ten lessons.

• Fix

  Sign-in and welcome tour fixes

  A mistyped password no longer shows up as a CAPTCHA error, so you see the real reason right away. The intro tour stays closed once you finish it, and your tour progress follows you across devices.

• Fix

  Lessons you started open again

  Some learners who had already started a module saw 'This lesson is not published yet' when they came back. Lessons you are enrolled in now open as expected.

More this week

• Improvement

  Lessons reopen where you left off

  Coming back to a module now opens the first lesson you have not finished, instead of lesson 1. It works after a reload and on another device, so you no longer click through lessons you already completed.

• Improvement

  Missions accept more ways to write an answer

  Articles, hyphens, plurals and British or American spelling now count the same, so 'the hash' is accepted like 'hash'. Technical answers such as URLs and email addresses are still checked exactly.

  Try a mission
• Improvement

  Leaving a mission now asks first

  The exit arrow sits close to the step buttons, so a mis-tap could end your session. Leaving an unfinished mission now asks you to confirm. Your progress is saved either way.

• Fix

  Certificate pages keep your app menu

  Opening a certificate from your profile used to show a page that looked logged out, without your sidebar. You now stay inside the app, and shared certificate links still open for anyone.

• Fix

  Hint cards no longer show mirrored text

  After you revealed a mission hint, a backwards 'Hint revealed' label could appear over the hint text and block taps. It is now hidden while the card flips.

• New Content

  New missions: Origin Story and Trusted Sender

  Origin Story starts from one saved phishing page and asks who is behind it, long after the domain was blocked. Trusted Sender, now part of the Phishing Investigation path, is a supplier statement that passes SPF and DKIM; the headers and gateway log tell the real story.

  Browse missions

More this week

• New Content

  New missions: Noise Floor and Notice Period

  In Noise Floor you take over a SOC shift after 52 overnight alerts and find the real intrusion hidden under the noise. In Notice Period you check whether anything left with an engineer who joined a competitor.

  Browse missions
• Improvement

  Pause Premium instead of cancelling

  Need a break? You can pause your Premium membership from Plan & Billing instead of cancelling. You are not charged while it is paused, and your progress stays exactly where it is.

  Open Plan & Billing
• Improvement

  Share your invite link in one tap

  The Invites tab on your profile now has share buttons for LinkedIn, X, Telegram and email, plus your phone's own share menu. Your invite code copies with a single tap.

  Invite a friend
• Fix

  Finished modules now unlock the next one

  Some learners passed every quiz in a module and still found the next one locked. That is fixed, and certificates you earned keep working even after we add new lessons to a course.

• New Content

  More emails in the Phishing Triage simulator

  The Phishing Triage simulator has a much larger pool of emails to judge, so your daily set keeps bringing fresh lures, headers and indicators to work through.

  Open Simulators
• New Content

  New CTI missions: Blown Cover and Glass House

  Blown Cover follows a sock puppet operation inside a ransomware group's leak site and recruitment channel. Glass House asks who runs a commodity loader, starting from a clean sample and the operator's first wallet.

  Browse missions
• Improvement

  Student pricing when your school is not listed yet

  If your university is not a partner yet, the University Partnership page now sends it for review instead of mailing a code that would not work. Once your school is approved, you get a notification and can request your code.

  Check your school

More this week

• Improvement

  AI insights now cover your simulator drills

  Your AI performance analysis now looks at how you handle the SOC, Phishing and Attack simulators, not just quizzes. Terms like stage names and skill categories explain themselves when you hover or tap.

  See your insights
• Improvement

  Simulators on your dashboard

  Your dashboard has a Simulators card that shows today's progress in each simulator, so you can jump straight into a drill. The welcome tour for new members visits Simulators too.

  Try a simulator
• Improvement

  Manage your subscription in one place

  You can cancel, resume, see invoices and update billing details without leaving CTI Academy. The top of the card tells you plainly what happens next, such as your renewal or end date.

  Open Plan & Billing
• Improvement

  Read replies from our team in full

  When we answer your feedback or contact message, the reply now arrives by email and in your notifications. Long notifications open in place, and recent ones stay in the menu after you read them.

  Open notifications
• Fix

  Mission cards show their real difficulty

  Mission cards could show the wrong difficulty, often Easy across the board. Each mission now shows the level it was designed for, and the daily mission is always one you can open on the free plan.

• Fix

  A tidier mission play screen

  Step markers no longer cover the mission title, and the speech bubble no longer fades back in after a wrong answer. Long missions get a compact step picker, and descriptions keep their paragraph breaks.