Online Safety and Cybersecurity Basics
Protect your money, accounts, phone and reputation online. Learn to spot scams, build strong passwords, guard your privacy and know where to get help.
- 20 lessons
- 4 h 15 min
- Certificate
Online safety - Advanced
Defending Systems: Security Operations and Incident Response
Move from security basics to security operations: harden Windows and Linux, manage patches and vulnerabilities, segment networks, monitor logs, respond to incidents and handle evidence and data protection duties.
About this course
Every organisation that uses computers needs someone who can keep them safe day after day, not only when something goes wrong. This course teaches the work of a defender: the person or small team who reduces risk, watches for trouble, and leads the response when an incident happens. It suits IT officers in schools, NGOs, clinics and small businesses, and anyone preparing for a career in security operations.
The course is strictly defensive. You will learn risk assessment, hardening, patching, least privilege, multi-factor authentication, network segmentation, logging, monitoring, backups, incident response, basic forensics and data protection duties. You will not be taught how to break into systems. Never test or scan any system that you do not own or do not have written permission to test, because doing so can be a crime.
Each lesson ends with an activity you can do on your own equipment or a practice machine. By the end you will have a hardening checklist, a logging plan, a backup and recovery plan and an incident response playbook for a realistic organisation.
What you will learn
- Explain defence in depth and describe the daily work of a security operations team
- Carry out a structured risk assessment using an asset inventory and a recognised framework
- Harden Windows and Linux computers using safe, documented baseline settings
- Run a patch and vulnerability management cycle and prioritise fixes by risk
- Apply least privilege, role-based access and multi-factor authentication
- Design network segmentation and explain how firewalls and intrusion detection fit in
- Plan logging and monitoring, and explain how a SIEM turns events into alerts
- Build and test a backup and recovery plan with clear recovery targets
- Lead an incident through its phases and handle digital evidence correctly
- Describe data protection and breach duties under Ugandan law in plain terms
Course content
5 modules · 17 lessons · 4 h 17 min · 6 quizzes
Module 1: The defender's foundations
Understand how security operations work, how to assess risk with a framework and how policy and governance guide the technical work.
- Defence in depth and the work of security operations 14 min
- Risk assessment with an asset inventory and a framework 15 min
- Security policies, standards and governance 13 min
- Understanding attacker behaviour to defend better 14 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Module 2: Hardening systems and controlling access
Reduce the attack surface of Windows and Linux computers, manage patches and vulnerabilities, and apply least privilege with multi-factor authentication.
- Hardening Windows computers 16 min
- Hardening Linux servers and desktops 16 min
- Patch and vulnerability management 15 min
- Least privilege, role-based access and multi-factor authentication 15 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Module 3: Network and endpoint defence
Divide networks into safe zones, use firewalls and intrusion detection wisely, and defend against phishing and malware at the e-mail and endpoint layers.
- Network segmentation and firewalls 16 min
- Intrusion detection, secure remote access and Wi-Fi 15 min
- Defending against phishing and malware 15 min
- Quiz: 7 questions
Module 4: Logging, monitoring and recovery
Collect and protect the right logs, understand how a SIEM produces alerts, and build backups that you have actually tested.
- Logging: what to collect and how to protect it 15 min
- SIEM concepts: from events to alerts 15 min
- Backups and recovery that actually work 16 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Module 5: Incident response, forensics and the law
Respond to incidents in clear phases, handle evidence correctly, and meet legal and awareness responsibilities including data protection duties.
- The incident response lifecycle and playbooks 16 min
- Forensics basics and evidence handling 15 min
- Law, data protection and a security awareness programme 16 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Final exam
25 questions. Pass with 70% or more to earn your certificate.
What you need
- Completion of Cybersecurity Essentials for Organisations (or equal knowledge)
- Completion of Networking Fundamentals: IP Addressing, Routers and Wi-Fi
- Comfortable use of Windows and willingness to use a Linux practice machine or virtual machine
Further reading
More courses to explore
Cybersecurity Essentials for Organisations
Learn defensive security for schools, NGOs and small businesses: assess risk, protect accounts, devices and networks, respond to incidents and build a 90-day improvement plan.
- 18 lessons
- 3 h 56 min
- Certificate