The cybersecurity career field is hot right now. According to CyberSeek.org, the current total number of cybersecurity job openings is 504,316 nationally while the total employed cybersecurity workforce is 997,058. There is a high demand for fully qualified cybersecurity workers even with the large amount of workers currently employed. With those numbers only expected to grow more in the years to come, how do we bridge the gap of qualified candidates to open job openings? The best way to close the gap is to train and educate IT professionals to make an entrance into the cybersecurity field.
Training is a big component of ensuring there are enough qualified individuals, whether it be on the job training or professionally offered training, it is crucial to get people trained so that those vacancies can be filled. While there are many training companies that over cybersecurity training, only a handful are good enough to produce the kind of cybersecurity professionals that are in high demand. Here is a list of the best cybersecurity training sites that offer both online training as well as live classroom training options.
The Best Cybersecurity Training Sites
Cybrary
Launched in January of 2015, Cybrary is an online training resource for cybersecurity and other IT disciplines. There is both a free account and paid account (which can be fairly pricey) for individuals who want to dive deeper than what is offered for free. Cybrary gives its members access to high quality, exclusive cybersecurity and IT video learning resources that you can’t find anywhere else. Cybrary gives the learner the ability to learn anytime and anywhere with their mobile friendly platform. Course instructors are all industry experts and add real-world experience to their teaching.
InfoSec Institute
“Knowledge is power…” is prominently displayed on InfoSec Institute’s About Us page. The InfoSec Institute has over 15 years of experience in training individuals to become their best through cybersecurity training. Over 10,000 IT and security pros are trained each year through either live online or live classroom training. InfoSec Institute has trained students in over 185 countries and boasts a 93% exam pass rate! Gartner recently awarded InfoSec Institute with their Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice 2019 award, and also named them a leader in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant. For more information on their bootcamp offerings, click here.
EC-Council
The EC-Council was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. As founder Jay Bavisi watched the attacks happen in real time, he wondered what would happen if a similar attack took place from a cyber warfare perspective. It is a scary thought, but one that only gets closer to happening with each new data or security breach today. The EC-Council was formed to help train individuals in cyber warfare to be prepared to prevent incidents from happening, and to respond appropriately in the event something does happen.
EC-Council’s certifications speak for themselves and are highly sought after and respected by the IT community as a whole. They also offer classroom training as well as live online training.
SANS Institute
The SANS Institute was created in 1989 as a research and education organization. The training provided by SANS is created cooperatively by auditors, network administrators and chief information security officers from all different industries. SANS offers live classroom training on topics such as intrusion detection, advanced security essentials, securing Windows, Powershell automation, and many more. On top of live training, SANS also offers online training. Some of their most popular courses such as Cloud Security Architecture and Operations, Wireless Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking, and Defensible Security Architecture and Engineering. While the cost can be high for many of the training offerings through SANS, they all provide a big return on investment and should make it easy to get your company’s sponsorship.
National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS)
NICCS offers online cybersecurity training for government employees, students, educators, and industries. The Federal Virtual Training Environment (FedVTE) portion of NICCS provides free training for any federal government employees from topics such as analysis, ethical hacking, social engineering, root cause analysis, cyber supply chain risk management and so much more.
Does it Work for You?
Training companies will send you marketing emails and pamphlets upon request, it can get hard to decide which one to choose with all of the information at hand. What is most important is that you choose what works best for you. Do they offer the type of training you want? At the time of day you want? At the cost you want? Make sure you choose the type of training that works best for you, if you do you will get the most from your investment of time and money.
