Become a Defender

Defensive Security focuses on understanding what needs to be protected and implementing security measures to prevent, detect, and mitigate the impact of potential attacks. Defenders work to gain visibility into systems, identify weak points, and ensure that systems remain available and protected, aligning with the goals of confidentiality, integrity, and availability (the CIA triad) you learned about earlier in this module. The goal is to be prepared for incidents and respond when they occur.

In the previous room of this module, Become a Hacker, you explored security from the perspective of an attacker. Ethical hackers use the same techniques as malicious actors to identify weaknesses and help organizations improve their defenses. Defenders, often referred to as the Blue Team, need to understand how attackers think, what they target, and how attacks typically unfold. By identifying critical infrastructure, understanding attackers' goals, and applying defenses, defenders help protect their clients' systems.

Learning Objectives

• Understand what defenders protect and why visibility matters
• Identify key parts of a client's environment
• Learn basic methods used to protect common systems and services
• Feel confident starting your defensive security journey

Prerequisites

This room is beginner-friendly and does not require any prior defensive cyber security knowledge; however, some familiarity with computer systems and defensive concepts will help you feel more comfortable during the hands-on tasks.

• The CIA Triad
• Computer Types