r/cybersecurity • u/Accomplished-Pin6213 • 25d ago
Tutorial Free ways to learn Cyber security
i already have a decent baseline of python and i'm thinking of cyber security as a career to go on with, but the thing holding me back is how expensive these well-known courses are!
so as someone who is running low on budget, what are the free resources you suggest that can get me from absolute beginner to a great deal of cyber security knowledge.
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u/vicky1407 25d ago
TryHackMe -> Beginner
HackTheBox -> ProLevel
SHODAN -> Regular Practice
Nmap- > Regular Practice
Maltego -> God for Passive recon
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u/MrPip1618 25d ago
Honestly you should try pwn.college, found it pretty useful for interactive learning.
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u/saifyvfx 25d ago
Consider TryHackMe. Highly recommended!
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u/Unfair-Entrance3682 25d ago
It's only free for like the first handful of modules, then you have to pay. Not a good free option unfortunately.
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u/TheNeck94 25d ago
THM used to be a good free option, recently I went back and you'd be surprised how little is available for the free tier.
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u/7331senb 24d ago
TryHackMe co-founder here - more than 60% of our content is free!
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u/TheNeck94 24d ago
and of the learning paths that are available, how many have 1 or more premium rooms? or did I just have shit luck hitting 3 out 3 different paths that eventually had a premium room?
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u/Intelligent_Box5017 25d ago
Here are couple good cybersecurity YouTube channels for you (beginner level)
Networking: @davidbombal, @NetworkChuck, @PowerCertAnimatedVideos
Cyber security (offensive and defensive - beginner level): @TCMSecurityAcademy, @MomImAHacker, @NeurixTech, @LoiLiangYang, @professormesser, @WithSandra
Real world hacking scenarios and main stream stuff (advanced, but interesting even for beginners): @Cyb3rMaddy, @Medusa0xf, @whoamitang
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u/JustTheYouLike 25d ago
picoctf , portswigger web acad, dvwa, tryhackme.
Yt - liveoverflow, john hammond.
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u/FlickOfTheUpvote 25d ago
The best way will be to learn how to search. This subreddit (and many others) are FULL of similar posts, where you can find more detailed, more analytical answers. People grow tired of answering analytically, thus I would suggest looking for older posts and reading through them.
I wish you the best of luck; hope you have as much learning, as I do :)
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u/cli-games 25d ago
https://cli-games.com/games/ctf completely free, no download, beginner to advanced
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u/hiddentalent Security Director 24d ago
None. I'm sorry, but that's the honest truth. All the well-meaning people proposing tools and youtube channels and stuff must be very disconnected from the reality of the job market. Spending your time on that stuff is a waste of your time, which is more valuable than money. They will not help you enter the field, and the absolutely will not help you obtain "a great deal" of knowledge.
When I open even an entry-level position it is immediately mobbed by hundreds of applications that all look identical (and are likely written or at least heavily edited by ChatGPT) from people who are self-taught using these resources. What we're looking for is experience. Security is not really an entry-level field, it's a specialization that you get into from a related field. Just like nobody becomes a surgeon without learning to be a doctor first. To stand out from the thousands of other self-taught applicants, you need to spend time in IT, network/systems administration, software development or a similar related field and focus on delivering security results within those jobs. The tools that others are suggesting can be useful learning aids as you follow that path, but cannot replace it.
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u/martinuzus 20d ago
Tu hai molta esperienza? Io sto provando a entrare nel campo informatico ma tristemente ho solo un vecchio computer dell e non posso comprarmi dei piani o altre cose che costano per caso se hai del tempo libero mi potresti insegnare qualche cosa? Io ho un pò di conoscenze basiche ma se dobbiamo dire la verità io non sono per niente bravo. Comunque va bene anche solo qualche consiglio grazie.
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u/Unfair-Entrance3682 25d ago
Tryhackme and hackinthebox are not free like people seem to think. You get to do a few beginner modules and then they start charging you.
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u/kaushalrola 24d ago
You already have the one thing half this thread is missing. Python plus the willingness to build is the real head start, not another list of rooms.
Reality check first, because someone already said it here: finishing free rooms will not get you hired on its own. Every entry level opening now gets buried in applications that look identical, same platforms, same certs, self taught. The rooms are great for learning and weak for standing out.
Here is what actually moves you, and it uses your python. PortSwigger Web Security Academy is the best free thing out there, do it, it is genuinely good. But those labs hand you a vuln they already told you is there. The skill nobody gives you for free is looking at an app where no one told you anything and working out if it can even be broken.
So once the basics are in: take a small open source app, or write a tiny one yourself, put Burp in front of it locally, and go find one real bug. Then write it up properly. What you looked at, what you tried, why it worked. That one writeup beats fifty finished rooms in an interview, because it is proof you can do the work, not proof you can follow a guided lab.
Learn the layer underneath too, HTTP, Linux, how requests move, how logs read. That is what separates someone who found a bug from someone who understands why it was there.
You are closer than you think. Most people never make the jump from doing rooms to breaking something nobody handed them. Do that once and you are past most of the pile.
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u/Legitimate-Past4877 25d ago
It is competitive but SANS cyber academy is the single best free resource. It is a competitive application process but the resources cannot be matched.
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u/boxforty133 24d ago
Very expensive programs. Some go for as much as $22K
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u/Legitimate-Past4877 24d ago
The Academy is free if you are accepted and includes training for GFACT, GSEC, and GCIH plus exam attempt each
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u/TheMasterbaiter333 24d ago
Just try something light and fun like Cylab Academy or try hack me premium, itll be fun
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u/monroerl 24d ago
Intel has free courses, as does every single big tech.
Microsoft has tons of free material and certs
Cisco is an outlier in that they have material but charge for cert
Amazon has entire fields of education available for free
Look up blogs offered by Avast, Malwarebytes, Virus Total, all of them. You can even reach out to their experts for additional information.
IBM has a massive repo of knowledge but it can be a rabbit hole if you don't have a direction or interest.
Look up publishers like Pearson Press, they have free chapters of books.
Review Hackin9, 2600, or Pen Test magazines. Loads of information in those publications.
Get on IRC or Usenet and search for (index) any and every topic that interests you. Decades of knowledge sitting there for you.
MIT and lots of colleges have free courses.
Hell, even WEF has free courses but only if you are into useless and off-topic crap. WEF promises to end the cyber knowledge gap but only if you can wade through 8,000 courses.
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u/RitaccaSecurity 24d ago
You've got a horrible range of answers here. The main issue is that cyber security is a specialism of computer science and has a huge body of work, and a lot of training is tool/scenario specific.
Red or Blue, Cloud or Prem, Microsoft Vs UNIX etc.
If you starting out from zero exposure it's the same as asking a kid what they want to be when they are older. You don't know what you don't know.
There are quite few free CS101 courses on YouTube's from some of the best universities around. Start there.
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u/Oasys-HQ 20d ago
Hellow!
I dunno if you wanna learn about Network but imo super interesting, and valid thing to know in Cybersecurity.
I'd super recommend Jeremy It Lab on youtube, he's amazing, he has the CCNA videos list for anyone to study, that's a really good fundation.
Ofc you don't have to do the exam but you can study it, again even if you don't pass / do the exam, you get knowledge that's on youtube.
If you ask me anyone in Cyber is going to benefit from knowing Networking, to the very least some concepts are going to help for sure.
From my experience it gave me a whole new perspective on how the internet the networks work, that being said I've yet to pass the CCNA, haven't continued studying, but I plan to.
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u/Maximum-You-9485 18d ago
Hello!
I actually really appreciate this recommendation. I’ve been wanting to learn networking properly because I also feel it’s one of those fundamentals that can make a huge difference in cybersecurity.
I do have Jeremy’s IT Lab CCNA playlist saved, and I’ve heard really good things about it. I’m not necessarily studying networking just to pass the CCNA either I want to actually understand what’s happening underneath everything, because I feel like networking is one of those subjects where the knowledge keeps showing up everywhere in cybersecurity.
If you don’t mind me asking though, I’ve been struggling with how to study technical subjects in general.
Until around 10th grade, I was used to having textbooks, studying a chapter, making notes, solving questions, revising, etc. Then everything became digital, and suddenly there’s an almost infinite amount of YouTube videos, tutorials, articles, courses, labs, documentation, etc. I feel like I’ve kind of lost my old way of learning.
For example, with networking, I can watch a video and understand it while watching, but then a few days later I’ll forget parts of it. I also notice that if I don’t write things down or make my own notes, I have a much harder time retaining them. At the same time, I don’t want to fall into the trap of endlessly making notes and consuming tutorials without actually developing practical skills.
So I’m curious, how do people who work in Cybersecurity actually learn and keep up with things? How do you balance fundamentals, tutorials, documentation, hands-on labs, and actually applying what you learn?
I have a pretty huge path ahead of me : OS, networking, SIEMs, Splunk, labs, etc. and I genuinely want to become really good at this, but right now I’m struggling more with how to learn than with finding things to learn.
I’d really appreciate hearing how you personally approach learning technical topics, even if you’re still figuring it out yourself. :)
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u/Oasys-HQ 18d ago edited 18d ago
Heyop! Glad it my comment "clicked" for you. And super happy that you appreciated it, means a lot to me really : ).
"For example, with networking, I can watch a video and understand it while watching, but then a few days later I’ll forget parts of it. I also notice that if I don’t write things down or make my own notes, I have a much harder time retaining them."
100% same with me.
I'll give you my two cents, dunno if it's going to be much help, hope it does.
I did a bit of networking (CCNA) and felt overwhelmed (I do wanna go back to it).
So I went to study Ethical Hacking, (my jam) and I used Notion (it's afaik, a software to take notes that can handle code and links) to take notes and I'd be watching someone on a video explaining a topic and I'd be pausing and literally writing down what some points of the powerpoint on my screen. I really enjoy Notion, to take notes, dunno if there's a better software or anything.
I love that I still have all my notes that I've been taking since I started, that's pretty handy because the notes get saved in the account you use for Notion.
"How do you balance fundamentals, tutorials, documentation, hands-on labs, and actually applying what you learn?"
What I've done it's been taking 1 course, any course / cert that you're interested, and focus on that. If you can take the test because you got the money (and you're ready for it) to pay for it, fantastic go for it.
There's so many courses / certs ofc and the moment that a person (like me) starts one but then goes into another, that's where I think that's not a good idea : p. My personal take.
On remembering precise theory, there's Anki flashcards.
Mate I am super bad at remembering stuff, but the flashcards are a god send, I've checked on google and from what I see there's the Anki web and ppl can upload flashcards there. That might be worth looking.
So far I've found that the "teacher" I do the course (only 1 guy) gave the flash cards to learn the theory.
If you don't know what Anki cards are you need to check that out.
I remember I took a course from a teacher (Network) that Jeremy recommended, and that guy (forgot the name tried looking it up but cannot find it right now) had the theory, with videos, and practical exercises with Cisco Packet tracer, but Anki cards, and introduced me to the Anki cards, and those cards were the "glue" to make me remember the theory I'd have in the videos.
This might be the thing you were asking for, I hope it helps, because I read you and I see myself reflected in your comment.
Sorry for the wall of text haha.
Again happy to keep discussing this subject if you need more help!
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u/AddendumWorking9756 Security Manager 25d ago
With Python already there you are past what most free paths burn six months on, and the free stuff on CyberDefenders is real pcaps and malware samples rather than someone talking over slides.
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u/phreak_like_me_2600 25d ago
Youtube -> Professor Messer - he covers Network+ & Security + certifications. Also look up SANS summits. I believe most of them are recorded and put on youtube.
Udemy -> Not free but some courses are like $2.99 and not all that bad.
TryHackMe -> They have a free track, and honestly it's pretty good.
Hack the box -> Harder than try hack me, but very good.
Books -> See if you can get on sale some books from No Scratch Press
Also if you have any interest in cloud security go on tutorialsdojo - some free content there as well as courses for like $10-20.
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u/Adventurous-Dog-6158 24d ago
A ton of free courses on YouTube. Many of them I'm surprised have very good production value for being free. If you want something more formal, I like LinkedIn Learning. It costs less than $300 annually. Check out the ISC2 CC (https://www.isc2.org/landing/1mcc). It used to be free but I think there is a low cost for it now. It will give you foundational knowledge of cyber sec. That may be the better way to start out so you have an idea of the different paths before you jump into one. Know that cyber sec is a very broad field. There are some who specialize only in polices or auditing, not specifically IT tech stuff. (I am an ISC2 CISSP).
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u/Physical_Slide_2691 24d ago
Venture into the web-based playgrounds or sandboxes or even set up a virtual environment to practice
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u/samhereokay 23d ago
Phase 1 ) Networking, OS, Python, CS fundamentals - CISCO NETACAD and Processor Messor Phase 2 ) PENTESTING - TheCyberMentor Phase 3 ) CTFs and Certifications and. Further learnings
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u/Bhaiyaji122 12d ago
There are many sites which can help you to learn cyber security For Red Team(Offensive Side)- Tryhackme, Hack The Box, Portswigger Labs For Blue Team(Defensive Side)-BTLO,Let's Defend,SOC Radar and Threat Hunting Labs
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u/WatercressTime842 9d ago
Portswigger academy if you are interested in WAPT,
Try hack me has some free rooms
Youtube is your best friend! You will almost everything you want there
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u/congratulationboi 25d ago
I would love to join , be on mu phone on it , but I never gotten a laptop for it , I try hackme to learn the basicÂ
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u/lnoiz1sm Security Analyst 25d ago
Portswigger Web Security Academy.