50 Cyber Security Online Courses You Should Know About

When I started working in the cyber security sector, I brought along my knowledge and experience with marketing, PR and startups.

But in order to really make the most of them, I had to learn about cyber security and REALLY get to know the field.

So I designed a mission for myself:

To find the best cyber security course for beginners that was out there!

The thing is, I had no idea how difficult that would be!

You’d think that, with all the millions of results that Google provides for every search, it would be easy to find the starting point I needed! But that’s not exactly the case… Finding the perfect cyber security training is difficult because of 3 reasons:

1. Quality courses for beginners are rare!

There are just not enough cyber security courses for beginners out there! When you want to learn in a very organized manner (like I wanted), you need more than articles and shallow information. 2. Technical lingo is difficult to assimilate without context.

If you can’t speak “cybersec”, you’ll have a difficult time getting stuff done.

I felt that from day one when I started out in this field.

So it took me quite some time to find the right course that would offer context and good examples that could make the professional jargon stick.

3. Delivering information without ACTING on it is USELESS!

This is a very common mistake I’ve seen while doing my research.

If the course isn’t designed to make you ACT ON IT, you’ll just browse through the information and be left with close to nothing in the end.

That’s why we had to do homework in school. That’s why I do my best to practice what I preach on this blog.

Because I want you to save you the hassle I went through, I decided to put together the list below.

What you can expect to find in this list of cyber security courses:

• Free or paid cyber security training resources delivered online
• Training options for both beginners and advanced professionals
• General and specific training possibilities, and link to help you search for a particular subject you may be interested in.

I don’t claim I’ve put together an exhaustive list, so I welcome any recommendations and additions you may find useful.

By combining our experiences, I believe we can arrive to a list that can be used along the road and passed along to those who’d like to SAVE TIME and EFFORT while trying to enhance their knowledge.

So let’s see what cyber security training options are out there and what you can complete online!

ONLINE CYBER SECURITY TRAINING FOR BEGINNERS

Do you have the time, but no money to invest in training yet?

I’m sure many of you are in this situation, which is why I’d like to suggest some FREE options when it comes to learning about cyber security:

FutureLearn Introduction to cyber security — I’ve taken this course myself, and it’s probably one of the best out there! The content is well structured, the assignments are easy to do and you’ll really get substantial knowledge from it.

Udemy is always a great platform to look for learning resources!

Here are some of the courses you can find on there: Cyber Security Cyber Criminals Want Your Information: Stop Them Cold! Security Awareness Campaigns (Lite)

If you’re looking for something specific, you can filter the courses on Udemy by applying several filters:

• By price
• By language
• By instructional level
• By features.

This way, you’ll get exactly what you need, without losing hours on end browsing through the courses listed on the platform!

Canvas Network Introduction to Cybersecurity

Concise Courses 8 Cyber Threat Trends You MUST Know You can find other options by browsing the course offering as well.

LEAP Cyber Security Fundamentals If you want to learn more about the LEAP platform, which is not as widely known as other MOOC platforms, I encourage you to do so.

If you have some budget for your training, you can consider the PAID options below:

Udemy Introduction to Cyber Security Be Safe — Cyber and Physical Security For Everyone

Concise Courses Malware Awareness Training Want to explore more options? Check this out!

CYBER SECURITY TRAINING ONLINE FOR ADVANCED PROFESSIONALS

If you didn’t start from scratch, like I did, and you want to become more proficient at certain cyber security specialties, the recommendations bellow might help.

FREE online training courses for cyber security professionals:

ISIS Laboratory — Hack Night — this course was developed from the materials of NYU Poly’s old Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Analysis course.

MIT Open Courseware Network and Computer Security

OpenSecurityTraining.info These training options include beginner, intermediate and advanced classes and they’re all FREE of charge!

Khan Academy Intro to Cryptography

Rapid 7 Metasploit Unleashed

Cybrary.it Cyber Security

This platform is an awesome resource for cyber security professionals, so I encourage you to discover more about it!

Coursera Designing and Executing Information Security Strategies Hardware Security Software Security Usable Security Internet History, Technology, and Security Information Security and Risk Management in Context Malicious Software and its Underground Economy: Two Sides to Every Story Cybersecurity and Its Ten Domains Cryptography

Coursera has plenty more options, being one of the biggest MOOC platforms in the world, so I encourage you to explore them according to your interest! Don’t forget to use the handy filters: categories, language, if it’s eligible for certifications or specializations and if the course is on demand.

Udemy Build Your Own Cyber Lab at Home CCNA Security 2015 Free Video Boot Camp: CCP And More!

Georgia Tech College of Computing Introduction to information security Looking to get more info about this particular program? You can find it right here.

SANS Cyber Access

OpenLearn An introduction to information security

Concise Courses 5 Stages of a Malware Attack Magic Quadrant Strategy and Tactics/ Gartner Analyst Defeat Advanced Malware Regulations and Standards: Where Encryption Applies Phishing User Awareness How To Protect Your Website From Bot Attacks!

Want more training options? Concise Courses has them!

If you’re a cyber security professional, you’ll certainly agree with me when I say that:

Investing in your continuous development is ESSENTIAL!

So if you’re already set on spending some money (wisely) on a great training program, I have made a list for you as well: Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute, CERT Division

They list 3 major categories of course and you can find them all listed on this page:

• Incident Handling
• Network Security
• Risk Assessment & Insider Threat.

CERT is a major institution when it comes to cyber security training, so you can fully rely on their resources to help you achieve your professional development goals!

SANS Institute also offers Online Security Training, so do check it out, because they’re as trustworthy as CERT in the field.

On Coursera you’ll find an entire specialization dedicated to Cyber Security, which will help you earn the following knowledge and abilities:

• Appreciation and understanding of commonly used cryptosystems
• Techniques for avoiding, finding, and fixing software vulnerabilities
• Incorporating principles of usability into the design of secure systems
• Hardware design and security vulnerabilities

The specialization is created and taught by professors and specialists from the University of Maryland, College Park.

edX Economics of Cybersecurity

Canvas Network Information Security and Risk Management: An Overview

Learning Tree Cyber Security Training

Stanford University Stanford Advanced Computer Security Certificate

Security Tube Security training online courses gives you two interesting subjects to study: SecurityTube Wi-Fi Security Expert (SWSE) SecurityTube Metasploit Framework Expert (SMFE).

PentesterAcademy Here you’ll find some very technical and very specific courses, such as:

• Python for Pentesters
• Scripting Wi-Fi Pentesting Tools in Python
• Wi-Fi Security and Pentesting

and more!

The Virus Doctor Advanced Techniques for Virus Removal

Infosec Institute As the name says, the Infosec Institute focuses on helping cyber security and IT professionals keep the extra-fast pace of the field they work in.

The list of courses if very appealing, as you can see from the sample below:

• Information Security
• Information Assurance
• IT Audit
• Microsoft
• Cisco
• 8570.1
• CompTIA
• Secure Coding
• Linux
• Project Management
• ITIL.

Conclusion

I really hope that this list of cyber security online courses gives you a good starting point to finding exactly what you need to improve your knowledge and skills!

I could’ve certainly used it when I was doing my research.

Should you have any recommendations, please send them in a comment below and I’ll be happy to add them to the list!

In case you’re also looking for online courses, as well as certification options, I have a resource that you may find useful as well: this list of the Best Information Security Certifications for 2015 put together by Ed Tittel!

And if you’re new to MOOC (massive open online courses), then this article about Coursera, Udacity and edX will help you get a better picture of how you can explore them to your benefit.

Originally published at heimdalsecurity.com on May 13, 2015.