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Introduction to cyber security: stay safe online
Introduction to cyber security: stay safe online

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

Introduction to cyber security

Introduction and guidance

Introduction to cyber security: stay safe online is an informal, introductory course for people who want to feel more confident about their online safety. This free online course will help you to understand online security and start to protect your ‘digital life’, whether at home or work. You will learn how to recognise the threats that could harm you online and the steps you can take to reduce the chances that they will happen to you.

Part of this practice will be the weekly interactive quizzes, of which Weeks 4 and 8 will provide you an opportunity to earn a badge to demonstrate your new skills. You can read more on how to study the course and about badges in the next sections.

Like most courses these days, Introduction to cyber security: stay safe online has learning outcomes. These are not as complicated as they sound, but are simply what we hope you will achieve by the end of the course. After completing this course, we hope that you will have a better understanding of:

  • implementing a plan to protect your digital life
  • recognising threats to online safety
  • taking steps to reduce the risk of online threats
  • concepts including malware, viruses and Trojans
  • network security, cryptography and identity theft.

Moving around the course

The easiest way to navigate around the course is through the ‘My course progress’ page. You can get back there at any time by clicking on ‘Back to course’ in the menu bar.

It’s also good practice, if you access a link from within a course page (including links to the quizzes), to open it in a new window or tab. That way you can easily return to where you’ve come from without having to use the back button on your browser.

Get careers guidance

This course has been included in the National Careers Service [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] to help you develop new skills.