Affordable or Free Cybersecurity Training Resources
The news of a “cybersecurity manpower shortage” has always been a problem, and it hits the media regularly and sometimes even in the mainstream press. What is clear is that competition for a small number of security professionals with five to ten years of experience is not a desirable way to augment the cybersecurity workforce. If so, what is the preferred method? That is, training or hiring security personnel with short experience.
If you search the Internet, you will find many free or inexpensive educational materials. It improves the skills of thousands of in-house workers and makes it easier for job seekers to prove their worth at a relatively low cost. The educational materials listed below are by no means exhaustive. Do you have any other favorite material? If so, please let me know so I can add it here.
Cybersecurity: Cylibrary
Cybrary , a start-up in scalable distance virtual learning , offers a premium service with courses that help employees and job seekers earn Comp TIA A+, CompTIA Security+, CCNA, CISSP and other entry-level security certifications.
Job seekers thinking of entering the information security field will benefit from taking several free courses offered by Cylibrary for a few weeks. Some paid courses are also worthwhile. It is also quite cost-effective to provide industry and government with low-seat, enterprise subscription services, enhancing the skills of thousands of employees to take on rudimentary cybersecurity roles.
Cybersecurity: hack the box
Ambitious job seekers looking for an Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) certification should consider a variety of free lab virtual machines from Hack the Box . You can get the experience for free, or at least a lot cheaper, without having to spend a fortune with an OffSec lab.
In order to sign up only eager people, Hack the Box unusually requires aspiring users to hack a login form. It's a cute and quirky way to filter out random people.
Hack the Box offers a number of free lab machines, while older machines and detailed guides are available for $12.80 per month. Enterprises and universities can use various rate plans according to the number of users and time range.
Cybersecurity: Pentester Academy
For anyone aspiring to be part of a penetration team, the Pentester Academy is the right source of information to learn the basics of penetration testing. Examples include x86 assembly and shellcode, metasploit, buffer overflow, forensics, and PowerShell.
The subscription fee is $99 and a monthly subscription is $39. It also offers an enterprise plan (and Pentester Academy also runs a network of labs where you can learn and practice as an infiltration team, but it's quite expensive at $399 per month for 30-day access).
Cybersecurity: SANS Cyber Aces
Famous for its tearfully expensive courses, SANS also offers free courses on basic cybersecurity such as operating systems, networking, and system administration. It is ideal for teaching security issues as an attribute to employees with limited IT skills. After completing this expedited course, you are ready for the in-depth course.
According to SANS's website, " SANS Cyber Ace Online is an online course that teaches the key concepts involved in evaluating and protecting information security systems. Courses are taught by SANS, the world's largest and most trusted company in information security education and security certifications." was developed".
The more cybersecurity staff you have, the more students will be willing to pay for SANS's outstanding but expensive advanced courses. This high-quality, free course is aimed at nurturing potential future students, but it will be of great benefit to organizations struggling with manpower shortages.
Cybersecurity: OWASP Broken Web App Project
Cybersecurity learning is mostly self-learning. What the learner can achieve by reading and learning the book is very limited until they start to break and fix things on their own. The best way to learn to defend is to implement an attack.
The OWASP Broken Web Applications Project is an easy way for application developers, novice penetration testers, and security-conscious executives to practice attacks in the safety of their laptop's virtual machine.
The OWASP Broken Web Applications project is packaged with a virtual machine that contains a number of deliberately broken web applications and textbooks that help learners master multiple attack vectors. You can start with the easy and work your way up to the more difficult to gain a better understanding of web application security.
This well-organized project is free and ideal for those who want to learn web application security on their own.
Cybersecurity: Offensive Security's Free Metasploit Course
Offensive Security, the developer of Kali Linux and OSCP certifications, offers free online courses on Metasploit, an automated attack tool used by almost everyone these days .
According to the website, "This course is the perfect starting point for information security professionals who want to learn penetration testing and ethical hacking, but are not yet ready to take a paid course. I'll teach you how to use it, and this free online ethical hacking course will be a great quick reference for penetration testers, red teams, and other security professionals."
Given Offensive Security's reputation for quality technical practice, it seems like a decent course. This online course is free and requires only small, optional donations in return.
Cybersecurity: No Starch Press Book
Books are an inexpensive source of information for self-study. Few publishers offer technical books as good as No Starch Press. The 'Hacking and Computer Security Series' features top information security experts.
Georgia Widman's 'Penetration Testing' and Sikowski and Honig's 'Practical Malware Analysis' are essential learning materials for information security prospects. No Starch's book comes with a DRM-free electronic edition at no extra cost.
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