Recently, I wrapped up four cybersecurity courses that left me with some thoughts and a stronger skillset. Here’s the lowdown:
- Cyber Threat Intelligence Practitioner by arcX
Straightforward, affordable intro to cyber threat intelligence. It covers the core intel analysis concepts, pretty aligned with what I saw at the university courses on the subject. Great for beginners, but if you’ve already dipped your toes in CTI, there’s not much new here. Also, it’s UK-centric, with a brief section on local legislation. No hands-on labs, and the final exam is a basic knowledge check. That said, I liked it enough to pick up their Advanced CTI course right after. - Advanced Hands-On KQL for Threat Hunting and Detection Engineering by Blu Raven
If you’re into detection engineering or threat hunting with Microsoft tools, this is gold. Mehmet Ergene is a KQL beast. Yes, much of what he covers is in the docs, but the way he teaches it, with clean examples and real-world logic, elevates it. Labs included. You’ll be writing your own advanced queries in Sentinel in no time. Only complaint? I wish it were longer. - Investigating Windows Endpoints by 13Cubed
Richard Davis (formerly of SANS) delivers heavy-hitting forensic knowledge at a fraction of SANS pricing. The course is dense in the best way. I rewatched several vids just to let things sink in. It’s lab-heavy, and you’ll need decent hardware to run them. You can just absorb the theory and save labs for the final exam, but honestly, you’d be missing out. Dive into the hands-on. Final exam was solid, though I wouldn’t have minded it being harder. Still, this was my main prep for… - SANS FOR508 and the associated certification, GCFA
My first SANS course. Easily the most intense learning experience I’ve had. FOR508 is stacked with knowledge: incident response, threat hunting, digital forensics, you name it. Expect long days and mental fatigue, but it’s worth every second (and every dollar. This one ain’t cheap). You’ll need time after the course to digest everything, redo labs, and prep for the GCFA. But the impact this can have on your career? Huge. Best course I’ve taken to date.
Someone once said, “Cybersecurity is not a spectator sport.” Couldn’t agree more. If you’re not getting hands-on (labs, CTFs, real environments) you’re just collecting buzzwords.
Certs? Sure, they help you get past HR. But if your goal is to learn, go for courses that are:
- High-quality
- Affordable
- Practical
The biggest thing I realized while grinding through these courses?
You get out what you put in.
You can coast through a course, scrape by, slap the cert on your LinkedIn, and call it a win.
Fuck that.
Do the hard work. Learn the material. Use what you’ve learned. Prove you know your stuff. It’s not supposed to be easy, but why would you want it to be?