Cybersecurity Education, Research & Outreach Center

Getting Started in Cybersecurity

All levels

Generally valuable resources regardless of educational level.

• /r/netsec - A great community dedicated to providing a variety of resources which suit everyone from beginners to experts

Beginning/Middle School

The resources in this section are a good starting point for those just getting started in computer science/cyber security

• FutureLearn - Free course that provides an introduction to cybersecurity
• Blown to Bits - A free book focused around the history of bits and the impact of computer science in our world
• NOVA labs game - A small, fun game that teaches the basic types of cyber attacks
• Cybrary - Free, open source lessons for cyber security training.
• w3schools.com - Awesome resource for learning HTML, CSS, Javascript, and other web development skills
• CyberPatriot - National Youth Cyber Education Program

Intermediate/High School

This section is for those who already know some about cybersecurity, and want delve deeper into the subject

• PWN Adventure -  A first person MMORPG where hacking is encouraged and necessary (you will need to run your own server for this to work unfortunately)
• Hacker High School - A series of lessons that teach good ethics and common practices in cybersecurity
• 41 best security blogs - Want to stay up to date with what's happening in the security world? Bookmark some of these and read up
• NCSA - Offers a variety of resources for cyber security students
• Open Security Training - Similar to the Khan Academy, dedicated to sharing training information.
• The Iron Geek - Some good general security papers
• Books - Security books in a multitude of subjects
• NANOG - IT professional knowledge repository
• OWASP - The Open Web Application Security Project, contains massive resources on most attack types and security risks

Advanced/Collegiate

This section is for knowledgeable users who wish to truly get involved in security and develop career skills

• Hack This Site - Hacking challenges for all skill levels and multiple different skillsets
• RootMe.org - Hacking challenges and learning resources
• Learn Metasploit - Metasploit is one of the most widely used attack platforms out there, it is important to become familiar with it.
• Metasploitable Linux - An exploitable linux virtual machine. Use this or another VM for all testing. Do not attack real machines without explicit permission!
• Social Engineering Framework - Learn all about social engineering
• Learn tcpdump - A good primer for the tcpdump tool (used for network analysis)