Recommended Learning Path
Build a strong cybersecurity foundation one step at a time.
Each Playing Cyber Defense workshop is designed to stand on its own, so you can begin with the topic that interests you most. But for students who want to build their knowledge in a deliberate progression, we recommend following the path below.
The journey begins with the mindset of a defender, then moves through access control, networking, and cryptography before bringing everything together in a two-day exploration of cybersecurity threats and defenses.
Your Path Into Cybersecurity
Explore the workshops that build a strong foundation for the two-day course.
How to Think Like a Cybersecurity Defender
Learn how defenders think.
Cybersecurity is not just about tools and technology. It is about understanding risk, supporting the mission, making tradeoffs, and preparing for failure.
This workshop introduces the mindset that guides effective cybersecurity decisions. You will learn why perfect security does not exist, why prevention alone is not enough, and how defenders balance prevention, detection, and response.
An excellent starting point for anyone beginning a cybersecurity journey.
View course →IAAA: The Foundations of Access Control
Learn how systems decide who gets access.
Every access request begins with four questions: Who are you? Can you prove it? What are you allowed to do? What record is left behind?
This beginner-friendly workshop introduces identity, authentication, authorization, and accountability. You will explore passwords, authentication factors, permissions, privileges, and logs while learning how attackers take advantage of weak access controls.
A practical introduction to the trust and access decisions behind modern systems.
View course →An Introduction to Networking
Learn how systems communicate.
Cybersecurity depends on understanding how devices exchange information. This workshop explains how networks, protocols, addresses, and packets allow computers to communicate.
You will learn how data moves through the network stack, how binary and hexadecimal represent information, and how tools such as Wireshark make network activity visible.
Networks were designed to share information—not to keep it secret.
View course →An Introduction to Cryptography
Learn how information and trust are protected.
Once systems can communicate, they need a way to protect those communications. This workshop introduces encryption, hashing, keys, certificates, digital signatures, and other cryptographic technologies.
You will learn how cryptography protects confidentiality and integrity, supports authentication, and creates trust across untrusted networks. Concepts introduced in earlier workshops—such as passwords, authenticators, and network traffic—are explored here in greater technical depth.
Explore how modern systems protect data, communications, and identity.
View course →Fundamentals of Cybersecurity Threats and Defenses
Bring everything together.
This two-day course is where the full picture comes into focus. You will explore how attackers take advantage of vulnerabilities, malware, weak identities, exposed networks, cloud systems, endpoints, and human behavior.
More importantly, you will learn how defenders combine security controls, evidence, and decision-making to reduce risk. The course builds upon the earlier workshops while remaining accessible to students who are new to cybersecurity.
Bring the foundations together by examining how threats and defenses interact across an entire environment.
View course →Understand the Mission. Defend the Environment.
Start by learning how defenders think. Then build your understanding of access, communication, and protection before applying everything to the threats facing modern organizations.
You do not need to complete every workshop before taking the two-day course. Each class is designed to be approachable on its own. Following this path, however, will give you the strongest possible foundation and help each new topic connect naturally to the one before it.