Some of us at e2e-group have been studying the CESG-certified Introduction To Cyber Security provided by The Open University.

Hosted by FutureLearn, this course aims to provide a high-level overview of some essential Cyber Security concepts. We think it does a great job of doing so… and did we mention it’s free?

This course is aimed at people new to the world of Cyber Security, and easily makes understandable complex concepts such as Datagrams, Cryptography, and Malware (to mention only a few!).

However, even as a IT professional, I have been impressed by how well the course been put together, covering (but not limited to) Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, and Honeypots. I have definitely benefitted from studying this course, and it has been very useful when learning about these topics in much finer detail.

Often, studying an online course can be a very solitary task. Here, this isn’t the case. Following the course over 8 weeks with other learners provides a welcoming and interesting environment to discuss new ideas and put some of that learning into practice - usually in the form of group discussions.

The layout and interface of the course is good – whilst very modern, it is still very easy to use. Short videos at the start of each week provide a grounding and ‘link back’ to course guide Cory Doctorow, and multiple-choice questions are dotted throughout - providing a helpful idea where it might be useful to read a page again!

I would definitely recommend this course – especially to the average user. It’s interesting and fun, but also provides a really good introduction to the world of Cyber Security. Well done, Open University and FutureLearn!

This course runs fairly regularly, so sign up and have a go!