Free learning
Free courses from the vendors and agencies themselves, our step-by-step home-lab guides, and the writeups that shaped the field.
Build Your Own Cyber Lab
Twelve step-by-step guides: VirtualBox and VMware basics, Kali, Parrot, Windows, Ubuntu, Active Directory, dual boot, firewalls, Metasploitable, a SIEM, Android and OT labs, and network analysis with Wireshark.
Start the seriesTools & Targets
Install and solve DVWA, Juice Shop, WebGoat, bWAPP and AI Goat, then learn Threat Dragon, Nessus Essentials, Snort and Suricata, Splunk and Wazuh hands-on.
Start the seriesNo-cost courses and learning paths run by the vendors and agencies themselves. The training is free; most certification exams are still paid.
Microsoft Learn, Security training
Free self-paced modules and learning paths for Defender, Sentinel, Entra ID, Purview and Azure security.
Security, Compliance & Identity Fundamentals (SC-900)
The free learning path behind Microsoft's entry-level security certification, a good first step into Microsoft security.
AWS Skill Builder
AWS's learning platform, with hundreds of free digital courses including Cloud Practitioner and security fundamentals.
AWS Security training
Security-focused learning plans and courses for securing workloads, identities and data on AWS.
Google Skills
Google's learning platform (formerly Google Cloud Skills Boost), with hands-on labs and paths, many free to start.
Google Cloud security training
Security learning paths for Google Cloud, from fundamentals to the security engineer track.
Cisco Networking Academy, Cybersecurity
Free self-paced courses such as Introduction to Cybersecurity and Networking Basics, with badges on completion.
IBM SkillsBuild
Free courses and learning plans in cybersecurity, AI and data, with digital credentials.
Fortinet Training Institute
Free self-paced security awareness and fundamentals courses, plus product training for Fortinet platforms.
Palo Alto Networks Beacon
Free on-demand learning on network, cloud and SOC security and Palo Alto Networks products.
Splunk free courses
Free self-paced eLearning on Splunk search, dashboards and security operations basics.
ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity, free training
The One Million Certified programme: free official online training and exam for the entry-level CC certification.
CISA training
Free cybersecurity training and exercises from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Web Security Academy
Free web application security training with interactive labs for every major vulnerability class.
OpenSecurityTraining2
Free in-depth courses on architecture, reverse engineering, firmware and vulnerability analysis.
Linux Foundation free courses
Free introductory courses on Linux, Kubernetes, cloud-native and open-source security.
Ten landmark pieces of public security research and incident analysis, written by the people who did the work. Each one changed how the field thinks about a class of attack.
Dependency Confusion
How publishing public packages with the names of companies' internal ones got code running inside Apple, Microsoft and dozens more. The supply-chain writeup that launched a bug class.
HTTP Desync Attacks: Request Smuggling Reborn
James Kettle's revival of request smuggling: front-end and back-end servers that disagree on where a request ends, turned into practical attacks.
A New Attack Surface on MS Exchange: ProxyLogon
The researcher behind ProxyLogon explains the Exchange architecture flaw that became one of the most exploited bugs of 2021.
A Deep Dive into an NSO Zero-Click iMessage Exploit
FORCEDENTRY taken apart: a zero-click exploit that built a computer out of an image decoder. Widely called one of the most sophisticated exploits ever seen.
Web Hackers vs. The Auto Industry
A team of web researchers finds vulnerabilities across a dozen car makers' platforms, from account takeover to remote vehicle commands.
Analyzing Solorigate
Inside the compromised SolarWinds DLL: how the SUNBURST backdoor hid in a signed update and chose its victims.
Backdoor in upstream xz/liblzma
The original mailing-list post that exposed the xz backdoor, found because SSH logins were half a second slow. A lesson in noticing anomalies.
Inside the Log4j2 Vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228)
A clear technical walk-through of Log4Shell: lookups, JNDI and why one log line could mean remote code execution.
Certified Pre-Owned
The research that turned Active Directory Certificate Services misconfigurations into a catalogue of domain-escalation paths (ESC1 onwards).
The Untold Story of NotPetya
Andy Greenberg's account of the most destructive cyberattack in history and how a Ukrainian accounting update shut down global shipping.