Cybersecurity Foundations

A New Cybersecurity Foundations Experience is Here!

Over the past three years, we've received a ton of feedback from students who took our Cybersecurity Foundations course. They wanted a more immersive experience that better prepares them for the Cyber Defense Analyst Program. Now, we're ready to unveil a better, more hands-on experience.

We're excited to release our new Cybersecurity Foundations course, available now.

We hope you enjoy the new course. We can't wait to hear what you think!

Free Cybersecurity Training for Beginners

The Cybersecurity Foundations training pathway consists of three separate courses (IT Fundamentals, Cybersecurity Fundamentals, and Compliance Fundamentals) designed for anyone who wants to explore the field of cybersecurity.

These courses provide a solid foundation in cybersecurity, covering topics such as operating systems, networking, cryptography, incident response, and compliance.

The entire training pathway takes around 16-20+ hours to complete, spanning around 40 videos and 65 guided labs with knowledge checks. Additional quizzes and challenges live throughout the course to test students' competency and knowledge. Students who enroll will get instructor and community support on our Discord server.

Digital badges are awarded after completing each course and a final Cybersecurity Foundations badge is awarded after completing all three.

Note: This course serves as a prerequisite for our paid course offering, the Cyber Defense Analyst Program. Cyber Defense Analyst students must achieve the Cybersecurity Foundations badge before enrolling.

Explore the Curriculum

Our Cybersecurity Foundations training pathway consists of a variety of videos, quizzes, and guided labs that cover IT, cybersecurity, and compliance basics. This free on-demand course will expose you to the core theory, practical skills, and training needed to begin your cybersecurity journey.

We recommend completing the training pathway in the order outlined below (IT Fundamentals, Cybersecurity Fundamentals, and Compliance Fundamentals), but if you've got a little cyber experience under your belt, you may be able to switch up that order, depending on what you want to learn.

IT Fundamentals

Course outcome: Students will develop basic competency of Windows, Linux, and Network Traffic Analysis, layering a solid foundation of good security being good systems administration first and foremost.

Windows Operating System
Objectives
- Learn how to use Windows and the basics of system administration including how to manage user accounts, permissions, and establish layers of access control.
- Understand how to access and interpret system information to troubleshoot issues and optimize performance.
- Explore essential system processes and services that play a crucial role in Windows operation.
- Learn how to manage scheduled tasks and set up automated processes for system maintenance.
- Develop fundamental competency of PowerShell and the command-line to manage and administer the operating system
Linux Operating System
Objectives
- Gain proficiency in navigating Linux and basic system administration, including managing files, directories, and the Linux file system through the terminal.
- Learn essential terminal commands and techniques for efficient file and directory navigation in the Linux command-line interface (CLI).
- Acquire skills in managing files, directories, and the Linux file system hierarchy.
- Learn to manage user accounts, groups, and assign permissions on a Linux system.
- Learn to manage and schedule cronjobs, basic scripting, and build your own security backup tool.
Networking
Objectives
- Learn how to find and interpret essential network information, including IP addresses and host details.
- Explore how to test for network connectivity and domain resolution.
- Acquire skills in interacting with web requests, APIs and working with remote network shares.
- Gain proficiency in inspecting and analyzing network ports and services.
- Understand the importance of network scanning, perform network discovery, and a basic network vulnerability assessment.
- Use Wireshark to complete several network traffic analysis scenarios including protocol inspection, and even export data to examine for indicators of compromise.

cybersecurity

Cybersecurity Fundamentals

Course outcome: Students will learn the fundamental knowledge of cryptography, log and event analytics, and cyber threat intelligence and how they help support mitigating common cyber threats and vulnerabilities.

Cybersecurity Industry
Objectives
- Gain insight into the various contexts in which security is applied, including physical, network, system, and data security.
- Explore the importance of security in different domains, such as personal, corporate, government, and critical infrastructure.
- Acquire foundational knowledge of essential cybersecurity concepts, principles, and terminology.
- Understand the fundamental elements of cybersecurity, including confidentiality, integrity, availability, and non-repudiation.
- Learn about common cyber threats, such as malware, phishing, ransomware, and social engineering attacks.
- Explore the impact of cyber threats on individuals, organizations, and society at large.
Cryptography
Objectives
- Learn the concepts of cryptographic hashing and encoding for data integrity and secure data representation.
- Acquire knowledge of classical ciphers and their historical significance in encryption.
- Understand symmetric encryption algorithms and how they protect data confidentiality.
- Learn the principles of asymmetric encryption, including public and private key pairs.
- Acquire skills in using digital signatures for authentication and non-repudiation.
Logging for Security
Objectives
- Acquire skills to inspect Windows and Linux system logs to interpret and detect security incidents.
- Learn the fundamentals of a SIEM with the ELK stack and its role in log collection, parsing, and visualization.
- Acquire proficiency in using ELK queries and filters to search, filter, and analyze log data effectively.
- Explore how to extract meaningful insights and detect suspicious activities from log entries.
- Understand the use of and how to crate custom signatures for identifying malware and specific threat patterns.
Cyber Threat Intelligence and OSINT
Objectives
- Learn how actionable, relative, and timely cyber threat intelligence is used in identifying, understanding, and mitigating cybersecurity threats.
- Acquire knowledge of different models and frameworks used for structuring and analyzing cyber threat intelligence data.
- Learn how to interpret and analyze public reports from reputable sources, and categorize threat actor behavior to tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).
- Utilize OSINT to gain insights and understanding about individuals, organizations, and events.
- Develop strong research skills learning how to craft effective queries with techniques like google dorking and apply first principles.

compliance

Compliance Fundamentals

Course outcome: Students will learn the overarching "why" of cybersecurity in the forms of governance, risk management, and compliance and will be able to audit compliance against frameworks and/or requirements.

Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance
Objectives
- Acquire foundational knowledge of cyber risk and its significance in cybersecurity.
- Understand how GRC frameworks and processes help organizations identify, assess, and mitigate risks.
- Explore the importance of proper asset inventory and configuration management for cybersecurity.
- Learn how to identify, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities to enhance the organization's security posture.

A good place to start your cybersecurity journey

Good security starts with good systems administration. Our Cybersecurity Foundations training pathway will help you learn those fundamentals to lay the groundwork to acquire additional skills.

A layered learning approach

You can't be successful in cybersecurity without knowledge in IT, compliance, and—of course—cybersecurity. This training pathway bridges the gap between little to no knowledge and cyber expert.

No set-up required

Get right into the course content to level up your cybersecurity skills—no tricky set-up steps or virtual machine configurations required.

Hands-on assignments in our cyber range

Apply what you know to complete assignments inspired by what cyber defenders do on-the-job. We'll provide you with free lab hours in our powerful cyber range to practice what you learn.

Additional cyber range time available

Want some more time in our cyber range to continue to hone your skills? No problem—you can buy additional cyber range time for 50 cents an hour. (This isn't our pathway to millions—it's just to cover the consumption costs and any support needed. We just want you to learn!)

An on-demand, at-your-convenience experience

This course is self-paced and designed to work around your schedule. Learn best at 2am after drinking a pot of coffee? We won't judge.

Join Us on Discord

Come join us as we talk cyber, privacy, tradecraft, tools, and other ridiculous and random things in our Level Effect Discord server.

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