Attackers break things, but the people who keep organisations safe are the defenders. This module looks at the two ideas that sit under almost every defence: protecting data with cryptography, and watching for trouble with a dedicated security team.
You'll start with cryptography: the difference between hashing, symmetric encryption, and asymmetric encryption, and where each one is used, from storing passwords to securing websites. Then you'll see how defenders work in practice, through the Security Operations Center (SOC) and the SIEM tools that collect logs, raise alerts, and support incident response.
Knowing how defences work makes you a better tester, because you understand what a report needs to fix. In the final module, Reporting & Careers, you'll learn how to present your findings and plan your path into the field.
A beginner crash course covering symmetric and asymmetric encryption, hashing, and some older algorithms you will still hear about.
freeCodeCamp course on hashing with SHA-256, AES encryption, RSA public and private keys, and securely storing passwords.
A full explainer of what a SOC is, what the team does, and why it matters for keeping an organisation secure.
How a SIEM works inside a real SOC, from log collection and correlation to detection use cases and deployment models.