Free Cyber Security Course with Certificate
Introduction to Cyber Security
4.46
Beginner level
3.75 learning hrs
Learn cybersecurity fundamentals, understand common cyberattacks, explore cryptography, and identify system vulnerabilities. Enroll in this free cyber security course to build foundational knowledge of digital security.
What you'll learn
About this course
This free cyber security course introduces you to the fundamentals of cybersecurity and the principles used to protect computer systems, networks, and sensitive information. You’ll learn the key concepts of system security, including the CIA principles of confidentiality, integrity, and availability, and understand why organizations implement security strategies. The course explores common cyberattacks, such as ransomware, botnet attacks, social engineering, cryptocurrency hijacking, and phishing, with examples including the WannaCry ransomware and Mirai malware attacks. You’ll also examine hacker motivations, cloud service providers, and the growing shift toward cloud storage.
The course also covers cryptography and its role in protecting sensitive information through encryption. You’ll learn about symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, message integrity, message authentication codes, Caesar ciphers, stream ciphers, block ciphers, and public-key systems. Further lessons explain authentication, authorization, and confidentiality, along with how to identify and mitigate security threats when designing a security system. You’ll also explore defensive programming, input validation, fraud checks, buffer overflow vulnerabilities, and a WhatsApp security case study. By the end, you’ll be able to explain core cybersecurity principles, recognize common cyberattacks, understand basic cryptographic methods, identify security vulnerabilities, and describe how security measures help protect systems and data. This course is suitable for beginners who want to learn cyber security online for free and build a foundation in cybersecurity fundamentals.
Course outline
What is Cyber Security?
This module gives you an introduction an definition to cybersecurity.
Key Concepts of Cyber Security
You will understand the criteria to satisfy to call a system secured and understand CIA concepts in cyber security with examples in this section.
Popular Attacks - Hacker Motivation
In this section, you will understand the organization's motivation to implement a secured cyber security strategy and the hacker's motivation to break into the system. You will also learn about various cloud service providers and why there is a shift to cloud storage.
Popular Attacks
This section will brief you on ransomware, botnet attacks, social engineering attacks, cryptocurrency hijacking, and phishing attacks.
Ransomware
This section will explain ransomware in detail with the WannaCry Ransomware cryptoworm attack for the bitcoin cryptocurrency example.
BotNet Attack
This section explains botnet attacks with Mirai malware for Linux systems to control bots remotely.
Phishing Attack
This section explains the phishing attack in detail, with the Ukrainian Power Grid attack to destroy physical machinery and banking examples.
Introduction to Cryptography
You will understand what cryptography is and why it is essential in network security. This section will also explain the basic cryptographic process to encrypt sensitive data.
Types of Cryptography
You will learn basic symmetric((private key) cryptography and asymmetric(public key) cryptography concepts in this section.
Message Integrity
You will learn message authentication code(MAC), cipher text, and data integrity concepts in this section, with an example.
Symmetric Key Cryptography
You will learn and understand Caesar cipher, stream cipher, and block cipher with solved examples in this section.
Public Key Cryptography
You will understand the "key pair" principle that public key cryptography works on with examples and solved problems in this section.
Security goals & Its Implementations - Authentication & Authorization
This section explains authentication and authorization, aiding data security and integrity, and concepts in detail.
Security goals & Its Implementations - Confidentiality
You will understand why it is essential for only authorized individuals to access, alter and delete data within a system, and also understand how it is maintained in this section.
Design a Security System - Part 1
In this section, you will learn to understand different types of threats, ID and mitigate threads, and model a security solution to protect the system against that threat.
Design a Security System - Part 2
You will understand the flow of the design, starting from security in software requirements, robust, consistent error handling, sharing requirements with the relevant team, handling internal errors, defensive programming, validation and fraud checks, and security policy for securing the data.
Buffer OverFlow & Vulnerabilities
This section explains how a small error in code and other vulnerabilities can be leveraged to overrun the security of a system with an example.
Case Study: WhatsApp Attack
This section explains a case study on WhatsApp to help you understand the overall cyber security concept.
Get access to the complete curriculum once you enroll in the course
This course is ideal for
- Beginners wanting to learn cybersecurity fundamentals.
- Students and job seekers exploring security careers.
- Working professionals responsible for data protection.
- Job seekers adding a Cyber Security certificate to their CV.
4.46
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Frequently Asked Questions
Will I receive a certificate upon completing this free course?
Is this course free?
What will I learn in this free cyber security course?
You’ll learn cybersecurity fundamentals, the CIA principles, common cyberattacks, cryptography, authentication, authorization, confidentiality, security system design, and software vulnerabilities. The course also includes real-world attack examples and a WhatsApp security case study.
Is this free cyber security course suitable for beginners?
Yes. This free cyber security course for beginners starts with an introduction to cybersecurity and its core principles before covering common attacks, cryptographic methods, and security implementation. It helps learners build foundational knowledge without requiring advanced cybersecurity experience.
Which topics are covered in this free cyber security course Online?
The course covers cybersecurity concepts, hacker motivations, ransomware, botnet attacks, social engineering, phishing, cryptocurrency hijacking, cryptography, message integrity, authentication, authorization, confidentiality, threat mitigation, security system design, and buffer overflow vulnerabilities.
What cybersecurity skills will I gain from this course?
You’ll develop foundational skills in recognizing common cyber threats, understanding security principles, identifying system vulnerabilities, explaining encryption methods, and understanding how authentication and authorization protect sensitive information.
Will I learn encryption and cryptography in this course?
Yes. You’ll learn the basics of cryptography, including symmetric and asymmetric encryption, public-key and private-key concepts, message authentication codes, and message integrity. The course also covers Caesar, stream, and block ciphers with solved examples.
Will I learn about different types of cyberattacks and how they work?
Yes. You’ll study ransomware, botnet attacks, social engineering, cryptocurrency hijacking, and phishing. The course uses examples such as the WannaCry ransomware attack, Mirai malware, and the Ukrainian Power Grid attack to explain how these threats affect systems and organizations.
Will I understand how to protect systems from security threats?
Yes. You’ll learn how to identify and mitigate threats, model security solutions, and understand security practices such as defensive programming, error handling, input validation, and fraud checks.
Will I learn the difference between authentication and authorization in cybersecurity?
The course explains both concepts as security mechanisms. Authentication verifies the identity of a user, while authorization determines which resources or actions that user is permitted to access.
Will I learn how to identify software vulnerabilities in this course?
Yes. You’ll explore how coding errors and vulnerabilities, including buffer overflow, can compromise system security. The course also explains how security design and defensive programming help reduce these risks.
How does this course help beginners build cybersecurity fundamentals?
Yes. This course helps beginners build a strong foundation in cybersecurity by introducing essential concepts and gradually covering cyberattacks, cryptography, and security implementation. It provides a structured starting point for learners who want to learn cybersecurity for free without prior experience.
What are the steps to enroll in this free online cyber security course with certificate?
Enrolling in Great Learning Academy's Introduction to Cyber Securityfree course is a simple and straightforward approach. You will have to sign-up with your E-Mail ID, enter your user details, and then you can start learning at your own pace.
Who is eligible to take this course?
Anybody interested in learning the Cyber Security concepts and cryptographic techniques to secure data within an organization can take up the course. But you will also have to know basic networking and cyber security mechanisms concepts to take this course up. Enroll in this course today and learn for free online.
Why choose Great Learning Academy for this free Cyber Security training?
Great Learning is a global educational technology platform committed to developing skilled professionals. Great Learning Academy is a Great Learning project that provides free online courses to assist people in succeeding in their careers. Great Learning Academy's free online courses have helped over 4 million students from 140 countries. It's a one-stop destination for all of a student's needs.
This course is free and self-paced and also includes solved problems, presented examples, and case study to help you comprehend the numerous areas that fall under the subject and awards you a certificate to showcase your skills. The course is conducted by topic experts and carefully tailored to cater to beginners and professionals.
Can I sign up for multiple courses from Great Learning Academy at the same time?
Yes, you can enroll in as many courses as you want from Great Learning Academy. There is no stricture to the number of courses you can enroll in at once, but since the courses offered by Great Learning Academy are free, we suggest you learn one by one to get the best out of the subject.
Is there any limit on how many times I can take this free course?
Once you enroll in the Introduction to freeCyber Security course, you have lifetime access to it. So, you can log in anytime and learn it for free online at your convenience.
What knowledge and skills will I gain upon completing this course?
You will understand the basics of cyber security, hacker motivation, motivation to secure data within the organization, different attacks, and cryptography concepts. You will gain a hold on designing a mechanism to secure the system against threats using different cryptographic methods such as MAC, Caesar cipher, stream cipher, and block cipher after you have completed this data mining course.
Will I have lifetime access to this free course?
Yes, once you enroll in this Cyber Security free course, you will have lifetime access to this Great Learning Academy's free course. You can log in and learn at your leisure.
What are the prerequisites required to learn this free cybersecurity course for beginners?
Introduction to Cyber Security is a beginner-level course. Before you begin with this course, you will have to do a little homework on basic computer skills, networking, and cyber security measures if you do not have a thorough understanding of it.
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