Top-7 Cyber Security Courses Online

“Cyber Security is so much more than a matter of IT.” ― Stephane Nappo

The amount of compromised data in August 2019 composed of 114,686,290 breached records. Your photo gallery or credit card information could be a part of this data, as well as your company’s G Suite files that the whole department has been working on for months.

The possibility of being attacked leaves no one in the world feeling completely safe anymore. Whether businesses or individuals, we are all in the same boat when it comes to the risk of data loss.

The growing risks leave us with the fact that cybersecurity education is not a matter of choice anymore – it’s a matter of necessity. Also, there is a shortage of cybersecurity skills in the world, which makes it a plentiful field to make a career.

This is why we compiled this list of the best cybersecurity certificate programs. The list will save your time and make a choice easier.

All you have to do is select online cybersecurity programs you need depending on your goals:

1. To protect personal information and feel safe while surfing the internet;

2. To train your employees and protect company data from human mistakes and, therefore, costly data breaches;

3. To pursue a career in the cybersecurity field and find a course to get started.

3 Basic Cyber Security Training Courses For Everybody

The best cyber security courses online listed below contain the information everybody must know to keep their data safe in the high-risk online environment. You don’t need to have any specific knowledge or experience to pass these courses.

Also, they are great for tasting the waters if you are taking the first step in the cybersecurity field, so don’t hesitate!

Security Awareness Training from Advisera

Advisera offers lots of tools like books, courses, and guidelines for those who want to know more about compliance standards and become security-aware.

A big plus of this cyber security certification course is that you can get all the information for free if you don’t want to purchase a certificate. But it works only for individual users. In case you want to train your employees, you may need to use a company account to be able to set scheduled lessons for your staff.

Price: Free for individuals, from $9.90 to $199 for business accounts.

Duration: Depends on your pace and schedule.

Format: Bite-sized videos with short quizzes after each topic.

This course covers a broad range of security topics, explaining it in a simple language. Here are only seven out of 26 topics:

Insider threats
Passwords
Security of mobile devices
Social engineering
Viruses
Email security
Human error

To start the course, you need to register and choose the type of account you need. There are two types to choose from: an individual account and a company account. Here is the difference between them:

With an individual account, you can pass the course at your own pace without any time limits;
With a company account, you can schedule lessons, determine the frequency of the lessons, and track the progress of the employees. This option has a free 30-day trial and then charges price depending on the subscription type and the number of users:
Up to 5 users – $9.90/month
Up to 20 users – $29/month
Up to 50 users – $50/month
Up to 200 users – $199/month

The more licenses you buy, the more features you get.

The course is well balanced with information and examples, which are provided in a short video format. At the end of each topic, you’ll be taking a quick quiz to test your knowledge.

Phishing Simulations from Cyber Aware

Phishing simulation is a program designed for business owners and employers to train their staff to identify phishing scams. Given that phishing accounts for 90% of data breaches, this simulation must be a part of every company’s security education.

Price: —

Duration: up to 12 months

Format: Hand-picked phishing simulations automatically sent to the email. In case of falling for a scam, you or your staff are getting an email with a related lesson.

What you are getting by enrolling your stuff to this simulation:

Easy staff management: you can choose the type and timing of the attacks
Results tracking: you’ll get detailed reports which can bring you insights to take action on
Automatic enrollment into phishing training for failed users to cover their blind spots, so they don’t fall victim in the future

Cyber Security for Beginners from Heimdal

This is a free cybersecurity certificate online program for everybody who wants to feel safer online. It doesn’t require any previous knowledge and provides you with basic and essential information and tips. Here you will learn how to:

– Travel the www safely

– Bulletproof your online accounts

– Keep your, and your loved ones’ devices secure from cybercriminals

– Acquire an understanding of how the cyber attack works

– Detect and identify security threats and loopholes in your system

– How to backup your devices to never lose data.

Price: free

Duration: 5 weeks

Format: you get lessons in your email every two days. At the end of every lesson, you get a question that is related to the topic to check your knowledge.

4 Cybersecurity Certificate Programs For Pioneers in the Field

There are a lot of career opportunities for cybersecurity experts. The gap between the growing flood of high- and low-quality hackers and lack of skilled security specialists makes this field a real plum. So if you are already superficially familiar with IT basics and thinking about starting a career in cybersecurity, these courses may help you to start your way off.

The next set of courses will suit you if you have a basic understanding of IT management and concepts and want to deepen your knowledge.

Introduction to Cyber Security from Coursera

This is a specialization from Coursera that consists of four courses, where you can choose those you need and skip the other ones. As always with Coursera, all courses are free if you don’t need a certificate and a homework check. In case you want to earn a certificate from University, you have to complete all courses within the specialization, do all the homework, and present a final project.

The specialization will be an excellent chance to understand the main concepts and terms of cybersecurity, especially for the non-tech specialist who works in this field.

Price: Free if you don’t need a certificate, $39/ month if you want to obtain a certificate from University.

Duration: Around two months depending on your pace

Format: Short video lectures and reading materials on Coursera.org with periodical testings.

Here are the four courses you can take:

Introduction to Cyber Attacks: You will learn a fundamental understanding of all the threats in www. It includes parsing of malicious programs like Trojan horse, worms, different types of network attacks. All presented with real examples.
Cyber Attack Countermeasures: Teaches about cyber defense and basic cryptography.
Real-Time Cyber Threat Detection and Mitigation: Teaches you how to prevent, detect, and mitigate common attacks in real-time.
Enterprise and Infrastructure Security: Deploys more in-depth topics like blockchain, infrastructure protection, enterprise compliance frameworks, and cloud security hyper-resilience approaches.

This set of courses goes beyond the basics, which makes it more suitable for business owners or would-be cybersecurity professionals. The suggested time frame is nine hours per week for two months.

Cyber Security School VIP membership from StationX

StationX is a platform that offers multiple cybersecurity-related courses for different levels and goals. You can buy one course (which can cost from $90 to $2000) or purchase a subscription for a discounted price of $149/year. This subscription gives you access to all courses on the platform available 24/7. The certificates and support are included in this price.

Price: Subscription for $149/year

Duration: Year

Format: Short videos and additional materials for self-passage

If you are relatively new to the subject, we advise you to choose The Complete Cyber Security Course to cover all bases. The course consists of four modules:

Hackers Exposed: You will find out methods that stop hackers, block tracking, and prevent government surveillance.
Network Security: In this module, you will learn more about how to secure network: firewalls, password managers, and more.
Anonymous Browsing: All you wanted to know about anonymous browsing.
Endpoint Protection: Discover how to use antivirus software, learn about malware, encryption and application control.

After you finished this course, you can search for more specific directions you are interested in to make a career. By purchasing a subscription, you gain full access to all courses, including newly added, so the options are extensive.

Essentials of Cybersecurity from edX

This is a professional program that consists of 4 courses. You can enroll in each of them or take the whole course. The main idea behind the course is to tell you everything about the career paths and opportunities you can pursue in the cybersecurity field. This course is an excellent solution if you are stepping into the ground and want to be aware of your prospects and options.

After this course, you will gain a full understanding of a landscape, different sectors, and roles, competencies you must obtain and pathways you may take.

Price: $356 for the whole specialization; free for a separate course without a certificate and $99 with it.

Duration: 2-4 months

Format: Bite-sized videos presented on a platform you can go through at your own pace.

The cyber security certification course consists of four modules:

Introduction to Cyber Security: Get introduced to the main terms and concepts, learn to identify threat actors, understand the main threats companies can face.
Cybersecurity: The CISO’s View: You’ll know about the pillars and rules that assure cybersecurity, find out about the role of the Chief Information Security Officer.
Building a Cybersecurity Toolkit: Acquire a set of skills and competencies to become upscale cybersecurity professional.
Finding Your Cybersecurity Career Path: Get a full understanding of your opportunities and paths in cybersecurity and accomplish a project that will help you to understand the career path that fits you.

Social Engineering From Scratch from Udemy

This cyber security course from Udemy is designed for learners with the necessary IT skills who want to become an ethical hacker and never fall for social engineering tricks again. No hacking or programming experience is needed.

Here you’ll learn how to hack into secure computer systems using social engineering the way Black Hat hackers do. You’ll also find out the methods to protect systems from such attacks.

Price: $190

Duration: 12 hours on-demand with lifetime access to materials

Format: Short videos

What you’ll get from the course:

On-hands experience creating attacks against real computers

A theory behind every technique that lets you modify them creating new attacks for different scenarios
Gather all needed information (websites, emails, social accounts and other) about the targets – companies or people.
Create different kinds of malware for Windows, Mac OS, Linux & Android.

These courses will help you gain the knowledge you need to become the specialist you want. Choose wisely, and good luck!

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