Introduction to Cyber Security

Start here! https://www.coursera.org/specializations/intro-cyber-security

Is this worth the money? Has anyone taken it here?

I see coursera has a introduction to cyber security that gives a 7 day free trial https://www.coursera.org/specializations/intro-cyber-security?

any preference over the two?

Don't bother with bootcamps, some are good but most are scams.

Since you're totally green, consider taking some Cybersecurity Intro or Fundamentals courses on Coursera 1 [2]. See if you even like the subject matter. KhanAcademy also has some free online courses, but don't expect either of these sites to be very intense. Coursera will want you to pay $40/month to continue past the 7 day trial period. If you like books, there are also Net+ and Sec+ books that you can snag off Amazon. Get something well reviewed and avoid study guides, as sometimes that's all they are. 1 I won't say pirate the books, but an enterprising individual can find these pretty easily.

Then you might want to consider checking out your local community college, see if they offer courses or degrees on the subject. Many offer classes that can be taken in tandem with Net+ (a somewhat useless cert) or Sec+ (a less useless cert, which builds off of Net+ knowledge).

Once you get a grapple on these, THEN you can worry about specializing, blue team/red team, etc.

First, you should be commended for seeking out additional information on your own.

Khan Academy has a very basic intro to cybersecurity concepts: https://www.khanacademy.org/partner-content/nova/cybersecurity

But since you are taking the class, ask the teacher what you should catch up on and study on your own. Read the textbook.

Seriously, since the course could be anything, but is probably the "Algebra 1" equivalent of cybersecurity, and we don't know what you do and don't know already, its hard to identify what you need to focus on. "Cybersecurity" is a field with many broad domains of knowledge and literally hundreds or more of skills and tasks.

For example this is based on the NIST Cyber Workforce framework. Every white box is a completely distinct career path. http://www.nist80037rmf.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/nist-dod-8140.jpg

So it will be hard to give you guidance that won't "blow your brains out" by being way over your head, or be so dumbed down it is useless to you.

But here are some ideas:

• Coursera has a series of free courses: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/intro-cyber-security
• Get a Security+ study guide, it's the #1 intro cert for security and you may be able to sit for it after your class(es) anyway
• Listen to the Malicious Life podcast from the beginning, it's basically an oral history of malware and cybersecurity from the 1970s forward
• Listen to Darknet Diaries podcast, it is another oral history and is very high quality and very engaging
• Learn python
• Ask questions here

Good luck!