The fundamentals

With networking under your belt, learn the core security concepts. This is roughly the CompTIA Security+ level, the common baseline for entry security roles.

Core ideas:

• The CIA triad: confidentiality, integrity, availability (covered in depth in our Defensive Security Essentials course)
• Threats, vulnerabilities, and risk, and how they differ
• Authentication, authorisation, and least privilege
• Encryption basics: protecting data at rest and in transit
• Common attacks: phishing, malware, password attacks, and how to defend against each

Resources

• Professor Messer Security+ (SY0-701)
• Pete Zerger Security+ (SY0-701)

Practice

Pick one common attack (phishing, ransomware, or password guessing) and write three sentences: what it is, how it works, and one way to defend against it.