Critical Knowledge

Build baseline cybersecurity knowledge, skills, and abilities to propel your cyber career. 

Enterprises leverage the capabilities of the 100% online Critical Knowledge enterprise solution to cross-skill, and upskill cybersecurity and cyber-enabled team members. Now you have an opportunity to experience this offering for your own personal benefit. Critical Knowledge aligns with the National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (NCWF) meaning that the skills acquired in this course will help you to build a firm foundation within the field of cybersecurity.  This offer includes:

Critical Knowledge Diagnostic exam
  • An engaging one-hour assessment of 36 questions designed to identify your strengths and weaknesses across subject areas
Critical Knowledge Training Modules:
  • Access to Units 1-7 in CyberVista’s 100% online environment
  • Access to practice labs in a hands-on, practical environment
  • Up-to-the-minute performance reporting using the Performance Tracker
Unit 1 – Network Fundamentals – A 9-hour course that covers the basic concepts and techniques found in computer networks.
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  • Describe network routing principles, including network architecture, media, protocols, and devices
  • Perform simple command line operations to demonstrate common network principles
  • Identify potential weak spots, vulnerabilities, exploits present in a given network
Unit 2 – Threats and Attacks – A 9-hour course that covers common types of cyberattacks, the common vulnerabilities they exploit, and the most effective countermeasures.
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  • Compare, contrast and categorize attack types and their attack vectors
  • Compare and contrast common countermeasures against different attack types
  • Identify general countermeasures to improve personal cybersecurity hygiene
Unit 3 – Network Security – A 4-hour course that covers security mechanisms and techniques commonly implemented in secure networks. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  • Describe common technologies and techniques that provide and increase network security and resiliency
  • Given a scenario, follow appropriate network security best practices and apply appropriate safeguards to design a secure network
Unit 4 – Security Engineering – A 5-hour course that covers general cryptography, identity and access mechanisms, and physical security controls. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  • Describe the importance of physical security as part of an organization’s overall security posture.
  • Given a scenario, apply the most appropriate cryptographic solution, such as hashing, symmetric, asymmetric, PKI.
  • Follow best practices to secure user and account management, including Need to Know and Least Privilege principles
Unit 5 – Risk Management & Governance – A 4-hour course that covers risk management, business continuity, governance, and compliance strategies employed by organizations. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  • Describe the importance and process of risk management as part of an overall cybersecurity posture as it aligns to business considerations.
  • Summarize the overall processes of business continuity and incident management and choose applicable actions and responses based upon role and scenario.
  • Describe how strategic goals are supported by policies, frameworks, and metrics.
  • Summarize and comply with applicable industry laws and regulations.
Unit 6 – Security Operations – A 3-hour course that covers basic security and business functions, strategies, and tasks. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  • Describe specific functions and roles related to security and business operations, including software system administration and development.
  • Recommend strategies for cohesion among the various functions to contribute towards better enterprise security.
  • Perform basic security-related tasks to safeguard the general IT environment of an enterprise.
Unit 7 – Offensive & Defensive Security – A 7-hour course that covers both offensive and defensive security concepts and practices employed by blue and red teams alike. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
  • Using the mindset of a penetration tester, perform basic offensive operations such as reconnaissance, vulnerability scanning, exploitation, and post-exploitation.
  • Using the mindset of an enterprise defender, perform basic defensive operations such as asset identification, classification, threat detection, threat mitigation and management.