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 - Intermediate
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.
About this course
Schools, NGOs, clinics and small businesses hold valuable information: learner records, donor lists, beneficiary details, mobile money records and financial files. Attackers know that small organisations often have weak protection, so they are targeted more than most people expect. One stolen password or one infected laptop can stop the work of a whole team.
This course is about defence only. You will learn how to understand risk, protect accounts and devices, secure networks, e-mail and cloud storage, train people, respond to incidents and plan for improvement. You will not be taught how to attack real systems, and you must never test the security of any system you do not own or have written permission to test.
The course is practical and low cost. Each lesson ends with an activity you can do for your own organisation, school or community group. By the end you will have a risk register, a security checklist and a 90-day plan.
What you will learn
- Explain assets, threats, vulnerabilities and risk in plain words
- Build a simple risk register and rank risks by likelihood and impact
- Apply the CIA triad (confidentiality, integrity, availability) to everyday decisions
- Set up password policies, password managers and multi-factor authentication for a team
- Apply least privilege, patching, encryption and basic endpoint protection to devices
- Secure Wi-Fi, e-mail, cloud storage and backups using the 3-2-1 rule
- Run security awareness training and follow the six steps of incident response
- Describe breach duties under data protection law in general terms
- Draft a 90-day security improvement plan for a small organisation
Course content
5 modules · 18 lessons · 3 h 56 min · 6 quizzes
Module 1: Risk and the basics
Learn the language of security and how to decide what to protect first.
- Assets, threats and vulnerabilities 12 min
- Understanding risk in plain words 12 min
- The CIA triad and security policies 12 min
- Building a simple risk register 14 min
- Quiz: 7 questions
Module 2: Protecting accounts and devices
Control who can log in, what they can reach, and how laptops and phones are kept safe.
- Identity, access and least privilege 12 min
- Passwords, password managers and MFA 12 min
- Securing laptops: updates, protection and encryption 14 min
- Mobile devices and BYOD 12 min
- Quiz: 7 questions
Module 3: Network and cloud security
Secure the network, e-mail and cloud storage, and make sure you can recover from loss.
- Firewalls, Wi-Fi and VPNs 14 min
- Safe e-mail and cloud storage 13 min
- Backups and recovery that really work 13 min
- Quiz: 8 questions
Module 4: People and incidents
Train people, understand social engineering, handle incidents calmly and know breach duties.
- Security awareness and social engineering 13 min
- Ethical phishing simulations 12 min
- Responding to an incident 15 min
- Reporting, communication and breach duties 13 min
- Quiz: 7 questions
Module 5: Governance and improvement
Keep track of what you have, manage suppliers, monitor, plan for continuity and build a 90-day plan.
- Asset inventory and vendor risk 13 min
- Logging, monitoring and business continuity 14 min
- Your 90-day plan, checklists and careers 16 min
- Quiz: 7 questions
Final exam
30 questions. Pass with 70% or more to earn your certificate.
What you need
- Completion of the Online Safety and Cybersecurity Basics course (or equal knowledge)
- Comfortable use of a computer, e-mail and the internet
- An organisation, school or group to use as your practice case (real or imagined)
Further reading
More courses to explore
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.
- 17 lessons
- 4 h 17 min
- Certificate