This blog post was updated on Nov 8th, 2020.
Cybersecurity professionals experience their first attack on the job. To ensure they are prepared, alert, and productive, it is best to invest in regular cyber security training.
The best way to train your team is in a dedicated cyber security training and simulation center. Although it should be a part of your SOC training regimen, your access to such training may be limited. Cyber security training centers require a budget and taking your team offsite. Why not provide them with training opportunities they can perform right from their desk in the SOC?
Cyberbit’s incident response training team gathered the top 5 free online cybersecurity training courses and tools, so you can scale up your SOC training activity without taking your team to an offsite simulator.
5 Free Cyber Security Training Online Courses and Tools
Cybrary.it
Cybrary launched in 2015 with the goal of providing the opportunity to learn cybersecurity skills online by anyone, anywhere. Cybrary is a growing community that provides open source collaboration to improve cyber security training and educational opportunities – for free.
Cybrary provides a large variety of online courses, divided by skill type and career level. Cybrary also offers micro certification courses, which allow analysts to learn and improve specific skills such as vulnerability management, dynamic malware analysis and much more. These are backed up by practice labs, tests and assessments, giving your team hands-on training without leaving the office. Most of Cybrary is free and accessible for all to use, yet there are business solutions available for a fair annual fee for team training and business purposes.
Open Security Training
Though the design is simple, OpenSecurityTraining.info is one of the most comprehensive, professional and robust online cyber training directories out there, dedicated to sharing training material for computer security classes on any topic. On the website, you can find over 63 days of open source class materials, 29 different classes taught by 24 different instructors. The classes are divided into three levels – beginners, intermediate and advanced, each featuring lessons for the desired skill level.
Courses and classes on OpenSecurityTraining.info touch many cyber security subjects starting from network forensics and hunting, secure coding and up to exploit research and malware reverse engineering. Unlike other tools, OpenSecurityTraining.info allows you to focus your incident response team on improving specific skills relevant to their day to day activity.
All materials on OpenSecurityTraining.info is licensed under an open license, allowing anyone to use the material however they see fit, as long as they share modified works back to the community.
ICS-CERT Virtual Learning Portal
Every enterprise has an industrial control system (ICS) – either at the heart of their business, or as supporting infrastructures. No matter which type of organization you are, your team needs to be familiar with these systems, and know how to respond to industrial cyber attacks.
The ICS-CERT works to reduce risks within and across all critical infrastructures. The Virtual Learning Portal (VLP) is a one of a kind e-learning system that sheds light on one of the most difficult, and neglected topics of cyber security and provides online training for those involved in the security of Industrial Control Systems (ICS).
There are 11 online sessions, exploring the bits and pieces of industrial cyber security – from current trends and threats, to secure deployment and architecture of ICS. The goal is to secure the convergence between IT and OT, revealing different attack methods and vulnerabilities in these environments. These courses were built by the Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (DHS ICS-CERT) and are free for all to use.
Open Cyber Challenge Platform
The Open Cyber Challenge Platform (OCCP) is a free, configurable, open-source virtualization platform for cyber security educators and challenge event coordinators. Unlike other resources mentioned here, using OCCP requires a bit of IT expertise to install and prepare the virtualization environment and scenarios. Nonetheless, OCCP offers thorough and elaborate documentation which provides all necessary information regarding the environment and its installation.
Once the OCCP is up and running, it allows you to run immersive training scenarios mimicking real life attacks. You can train your incident response team both in blue teams and red teams scenarios that teach and evaluate cyber security skills, such as: network defense, penetration testing, incident response, malware analysis, digital forensics, and secure programming. The OCCP platform is open and customizable, allowing your team to upload and create new scenarios from scratch, or modify existing ones. Changes and additions are uploaded to the OCCP database for others to use.
Cyberbit
Cyberbit addresses the gap in skills and lack of experience common among cybersecurity professionals by providing hands-on training using a combination of Cyber Labs and simulated cyberattacks. Cyber Labs help you to develop and enhance your cyber knowledge and individual technical skills before applying your skills against live-fire simulated cyberattacks. Cyber Labs on Cyberbit include topics around Windows Forensics, Linux Forensics, the Cyber Attack Lifecycle, MITRE ATT&CK, and more.
Simulated cyberattacks on Cyberbit immerse you in a virtual SOC experience, complete with a virtual corporate grade network and commercial grade tools. Simulated cyberattacks are injected into the environment, allowing you to experience a cyberattack across the compete Cyber Attack Lifecycle. Cyberbit has the largest catalog of on-demand simulated cyberattacks, allowing you to experience a Ransomware, Trojan, SQL Injection, or many other attack types at your convenience as the platform is cloud hosted.
Cyberbit is useful for Red, Blue, and Purple teams and has both Cyber Labs and simulated cyberattacks for a variety of experience levels, from novice to advanced, and can be used to train both teams and individuals. Cyberbit is currently offering a free training session to qualifying organizations, led by certified Cyberbit trainers to give your team a live cyberattack experience.
Next Steps Towards Ongoing Cyber Security Online Training
Now is the time to begin building and planning your cybersecurity training framework. Start today by mapping your security challenges and the skills needed to meet them. Then, map the gaps between your incident response team’s current skills and those needed to successfully meet the challenges.
Download a FREE copy of The Ultimate Cyber Training Framework
Yaniv Bar-Dayan is Cybersecurity Evangelist at Cyberbit.