Data breaches occur nearly every day. From very large retailers, down to your fantasy football website, and anywhere in between, they have been compromised in some way. How did the attackers get in? What did they do with the data they compromised? What should I be concerned with in my own business or my systems? This course is the second course in the Practical Computer Security. It will discuss types of threats and attack vectors commonly seen in today’s environment. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but threats are all over the place! This course isn’t designed to insight fear that there is no hope for keeping systems and business secure, but rather educate you on how attacks are carried out so that you have a better sense of what to look out for in your business or with your systems.

Computer attacks and data breaches are inevitable. It seems like every day a data breach occurs and the victims of the data breach suffer. Their information is stolen or posted online. The company’s or businesses who had the breach go on, learn a little from the attack, and just give credit monitoring out as if nothing happened. What if you could help prevent a data breach in your organization? This is the third course in the Practical Computer Security specialization. This course looks at detection and mitigation of threats and attack vectors and discusses how to use tools and principles to protect information. By the end of the course you should be able to make suggestions on what type of detection and mitigation strategy is right for your systems or business given the known threats and attack vectors. You should be able to discuss what features you want in a firewall, or how cash registers or sensitive data systems should be secured. The project at the end of the course will allow you to apply what you have learned to argue what type of detection and mitigation strategies should have been employed by companies and businesses that have suffered a data breach.

I’ve heard this before – “I’m not sure my computer security practices are working”. I reply “Have you tested them?” This course is the fourth and final course in the Practical Computer Security specialization. In this course, you’ll learn how to proactively test what you have put in place to protect your data. In the first week you’ll be able to discuss the basics of deterrents and how to “trick” attackers into believing they’ve hit a goldmine of data away from your real systems. In week 2, you’ll be able to understand and discuss the steps of penetration testing methodology. In week 3, you will be able to understand and apply what you have learned on your own systems to test whether your systems are secure or not. In week 4, we’ll discuss planning for your own methodology that you can apply to your own systems. And finally in week 5, we’ll finish up with a project that will allow you to test your skills in a safe environment.