It might not have the mischievous allure of an offensive role, but a defensive Blue Team role can be incredibly rewarding and is in higher demand by employers. However, knowing how to structure your defensive cyber security training can be difficult.
This is why we’ve created this list of 20 courses that we think cover everything you need to know to get started in a defensive cyber security role, from foundational knowledge to the latest Blue Team tools and techniques.
Whatever stage you’re at in your cyber security journey, you should find a course for you in this list of the 20 best Blue Team courses online.
Are you ready? Let’s go.
- Succeeding in Your Journey: Beyond the Best Blue Team Courses Online
- Best Complete Cyber Security Training
- Best Blue Team Certification Training Courses
- Best Foundational Knowledge for Blue Team Courses
- Best SOC and Blue Team Workshop Training Courses
- Best Tools for Blue Team Training Courses
- Best Reverse Engineering and Forensics for Blue Team Courses
- Best Purple Team Training Courses
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
Succeeding in Your Journey: Beyond the Best Blue Team Courses Online
These best Blue Team training courses have everything you need to beef up your security Blue Team skillset—especially if you follow them in order from the more foundational ones to the more specific ones.
However, access to such knowledge is useless if you don’t have a plan to keep you on track and moving forward.
That’s why we created the StationX Accelerator Program. We understand that learning and improving in IT and cyber security isn’t all about technical know-how but also dedication and perseverance, and there’s no better way to help with that than to have mentorship and community.
The Accelerator Program gives you access to mentorship, discussion forums, and mastermind groups with other motivated IT and cyber security learners and enthusiasts.
Still unsure whether you should be on Red Team or Blue Team? Check out our comparison:
Best Complete Cyber Security Training
If you’re considering entering the world of cyber security or have just started your journey, this four-part course is a great way to test the waters and see whether it’s for you and find the areas you enjoy the most. It broadly covers all major areas and aspects of cyber security.
What you learn in this course should apply to all major platforms, including Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and even firmware security. See why we consider it some of the best blue team cyber security training.
1. The Complete Cyber Security Course! – Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4
When taken in order, volumes 1-4 of this course should give you a firm foundation in cyber security.
Delivered by StationX CEO Nathan House, a cyber security professional with over 25 years of experience that includes advising companies such as BP, Shell, Vodafone, and Natwest, this course package features video lessons, a 200-page eBook, and access to a VIP Q&A Security Forum.
Starting with fundamentals such as encryption, OS security, and social engineering, the course moves on to more advanced topics such as firewalls, network monitoring, cell networks, and malware hunting. By the end, you should have a broad understanding of all major areas of cyber security and how they link together.
Volume 1:
What you’ll learn about:
- Overview
- Encryption
- Virtual machines
- OS Security and privacy (Linux vs Windows vs MacOS)
- Social engineering
Volume 2:
What you’ll learn about:
- Port and vulnerability scanning
- Firewalls
- Network attacks, architecture, and isolation
- Wireless and Wi-Fi Security
- Network monitoring
- Online tracking and browsers
Volume 3:
What you’ll learn about:
- Opsec (Operational Security)
- Live operating systems
- VPNs, Tor, and proxies
- SSH and I2P
- Bypassing firewalls
- Cell networks
Volume 4:
What you’ll learn about:
- File and disk encryption
- Anti-virus and end-point protection
- Threat detection and monitoring
- Malware and hacker hunting
- Operating system and application hardening
- Anti-forensics
Best Blue Team Certification Training Courses
CC, Security+, and CySA+ are great foundational cyber security certifications for the aspiring Blue Team operative. The three Blue Team training courses below should teach you everything you need to know to attain them.
2. The Ultimate ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) Course
If you’re looking for an ideal entry point into cyber security that will also give you a certification that demonstrates you know your fundamentals for Blue Team work, this course is for you.
ISC2’s Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) is a new certification perfect for those looking to transition into cyber security from another sector or a basic IT background.
What you’ll learn about:
- The fundamental principles of security
- How to respond to security incidents
- The principles of disaster recovery
- How to secure network devices and protocols, including firewalls and VPNs
- How to manage security operations, including security monitoring, incident response, and risk management
- Security compliance frameworks and regulations, such as HIPAA, PCI-DSS, GDPR, and how to ensure compliance
This course, delivered by Serkhan Dmirhan, a certified cyber security professional with over ten years of experience as an IT infrastructure specialist, features videos, end-of-chapter quizzes, and a 100-page study guide.
3. CompTIA Security+ Certification (SY0-701): The Total Course
CompTIA’s Security+ is the go-to certification for establishing and validating a broad theoretical cyber security knowledge base required for many Blue Teams. It covers a little more than CC and is slightly more advanced, but it’s still an entry-level cyber security certification.
What you’ll learn about:
- General security concepts
- Threats, vulnerabilities, and mitigations
- Security architecture
- Security operations
- Security program management and oversight
This course, featuring over 100 videos and end-of-chapter quizzes, covers everything you need to know to pass the Security+ exam. It’s delivered by ex-Navy cryptologist Lyndon Williams, cyber security author Dan Lachance, and best-selling IT author and CompTIA exam expert Mike Meyers.
4. CompTIA CySA+ (CS0-003) Complete Course
CompTIA’s Cybersecurity Analyst+ (CysA+) certification is ideal for those looking to establish the knowledge and skills required to perform in a junior Blue Team Security Operations Center (SOC) Analyst role.
CySA+ involves more applied knowledge than other foundational cyber security certifications such as Security+, giving it some additional practical credibility.
What you’ll learn about:
- Security operations
- Vulnerability management
- Incident response management
- Reporting and communication
This course, delivered by Jason Dion, an IT professional with over thirty years of experience, covers everything you need to know to pass your CySA+ exam. It features video lessons, a PDF study guide, quizzes, and a full-length practice exam.
Best Foundational Knowledge for Blue Team Courses
Certifications are important, but you can’t offer much to a Blue Team without the foundational cyber security knowledge to buttress them. The following introduction courses will give you this foundational knowledge and ensure you have a broad cyber security skill set well-suited to a Blue Team role.
5. Cyber Threat Intelligence – Basics & Fundamentals
Cyber threat intelligence involves understanding the motives, behaviors, and targets of those posing a cyber threat. It’s a crucial aspect of cyber security for Blue Teams because understanding attackers can show you how to prevent their attacks.
This course will give you a fundamental understanding of all aspects of cyber threat intelligence.
What you’ll learn about:
- Cyber threat intelligence basics
- Understand and use CTI-specific models (Cyber Kill Chain, Diamond Model, Mitre ATT&CK, Pyramid of Pain)
- Threat actor analysis
- Asset monitoring in the dark web
- C2 infrastructure hunting (pivot on SSL certificates and JARM fingerprints)
This course is delivered by Adrien Le Sech, a cyber threat intelligence analyst with a military background and publications about cyber threat actors. It features video lessons, example reports, quizzes, and practical tasks.
6. PKI Essentials – Understand the Security of Digital Identities
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is the primary service that most systems use to ensure and validate trust between each other. Whether for VPN, IoT, or other communication, every Blue Team professional should understand PKI.
This course not only explains how PKI works in theory but also puts this into practice, explaining how real-world systems and applications use PKI to establish trust and maintain security.
What you’ll learn about:
- Fundamentals of PKI and encryption
- Concepts of hashing and salting
- Digital certificates and management
- SSL and TLS
- Real-world applications and best practices
Featuring over 70 video lessons, this course is delivered by Anand Rao, senior technical instructor and cloud consultant.
7. Introduction to Encryption (Cybersecurity)
Encryption is a fundamental building block for many Blue Team disciplines, tools, and techniques, such as digital signatures and 2-factor authentication. This course, suitable for cyber security beginners, covers everything you need to understand the basics of encryption.
What you’ll learn about:
- What encryption is and how it works
- How digital signatures work
- How digital certificates work
- Password-based vs 2-factor authentication
This course is delivered by Mike Kurtze, a senior software engineer in cryptography with over 18 years of experience, and features practical exercises and video lessons.
Best SOC and Blue Team Workshop Training Courses
SOC Analysts and Blue Team operatives must have more than theoretical know-how; in fact, they must also have solid hands-on skills and experience. The courses below give you real-world defensive cyber security knowledge and techniques you can use in a Blue Team role.
Interested in becoming a SOC Analyst? Here are the best certs to get you started:
8. Blue Team Boot Camp: Defending Against Hackers
This course is an ideal way to take your cyber security learning into the realms of practical cyber defense, as it gives you hands-on knowledge about everything from risk analysis to ensuring and maintaining security and logging.
What you’ll learn about:
- Risk analysis and threat intelligence
- Endpoint security
- Network security
- Log aggregation and correlation
Featuring over 50 videos, this course is delivered by cyber security expert Jonathan Elliot, who condenses a tremendous amount of real-world Blue Team knowledge and techniques into one workshop training course.
9. Identity & Access Management - Azure Active Directory
Active Directory (AD) is the directory service used for Windows domain networks, and it authenticates and manages the network and security of all end-users on the domain. Microsoft Azure, instead, is a cloud computing platform that can host AD.
According to Microsoft, 95% of Fortune 500 companies were using Azure as of 2018. As such, it’s vital for the Blue Team cyber security professional to understand Azure AD, and this course gives you everything you need to implement and manage it.
What you’ll learn about:
- Azure Active Directory (AD) and Hybrid Azure AD
- How to monitor Azure AD
- OAuth Vs OpenID vs SAML
- Onboarding SaaS-based enterprise applications
- Azure multi-factor authentication
This course is delivered by Anand Rao, a cloud consultant and senior technical instructor. It includes over 40 videos and a document with other resources to continue your AD learning.
10. CIS Critical Security Controls – Introduction
The Center for Internet Security (CIS) is a nonprofit organization that standardizes many best practices for cyber security. Critical Security Controls are best practices to help organizations improve their cyber security.
Understanding and learning these guidelines is crucial for the Blue Team professional who wants to effectively improve an organization’s cyber security, and this course teaches all you need to know.
What you’ll learn about:
- 19 different CIS Security Controls
- Understanding the core principles and importance of each control
This course, featuring video lessons explaining every CIS Security Control, is taught by Kenneth Underhill, a cyber security expert who sits on multiple cyber security and advisory boards, other than being the executive producer of the Cyber Life TV show.
Best Tools for Blue Team Training Courses
Cyber security professionals, including Blue Team professionals, will be ineffective without a well-rounded tool kit. For a Blue Team role, getting used to an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), a firewall, and a packet analyzer is a good place to start. The courses below will cover all three, teaching you how to use Snort, pfSense, and Wireshark.
Want to try out some more cyber security tools? Here are some of the best:
11. Snort Intrusion Detection, Rule Writing, and PCAP Analysis
Snort is a free and open-source network intrusion detection system (NIDS) developed by Cisco that works with both Linux and Windows. This hands-on course gets you using Snort for intrusion detection, rule writing, and analyzing captured network packets.
Curious about which open-source NIDS is best? Check out our comparison:
What you’ll learn about:
Delivered by StationX, this course includes video lessons, written material, and labs that you can follow along with to solidify your learning.
12. pfSense Fundamentals - Secure Your Network With pfSense
FreeBSD-based pfSense is a free and open-source operating system that can be installed on any computer or VM to make a dedicated router and firewall for a network. It’s one of the most popular firewalls, so Blue Team professionals will benefit from understanding it. This course covers all pfSense fundamentals.
Curious about which open-source firewall is best? Check out our comparison:
What you’ll learn about:
- General firewall and pfSense fundamentals
- pfSense features
- Installing and configuring pfBlockerNG, Snort, Suricata
- Configuring a DMZ
- How to backup, restore, update, and troubleshoot pfSense
This course, featuring over 50 video lessons, is delivered by Ted LeRoy, an enterprise security architect and online instructor with over 20 years of IT experience, including firewall administration.
13. Master Wireshark 3 in 5 Days
Wireshark is the most popular network packet analyzer and is a great tool for any Blue Team operative’s arsenal. This five-day crash course will get you up to speed with the tool, including how to use it practically to inspect and analyze common types of network packets.
Want something quick to refer to when using Wireshark? Check out our cheat sheet:
What you’ll learn about:
- How to troubleshoot and secure your network with Wireshark
- How to capture and interpret common communication protocols with Wireshark
- How to capture and analyze HTTP, FTP, DNS, DHCP, ARP, SMTP and ICMP traffic
- Deep packet inspection and analysis for famous protocols
This course includes over thirty videos, split into five days, and is delivered by Mohamad Mahjoub, a cyber security expert, writer, and trainer.
Best Reverse Engineering and Forensics for Blue Team Courses
A crucial technique in a Blue Teamer’s tool kit is reverse engineering, where you take some software and break it down to analyze its function and purpose. If you don’t do this with malware, you might not know how best to respond to it. The courses below cover how to reverse all kinds of malware on different systems using different tools and how to professionally report your findings.
14. Reverse Engineering and Software Protection
Learning to reverse engineer software to study its protection is a great way for Blue Team professionals to get general experience with reverse engineering software. This course shows you how to do so with a popular malware analysis tool, the x64dbg debugger—via its Scyllaide plugin.
What you’ll learn about:
- How to unpack programs and bypass anti-debuggers
- How to use x64dbg debugger with ScyllaHide plugin
- Dumping unpacked executables from memory
- Fixing Import Address Tables (IAT) after dumping memory
- Modifying program behavior
- Patching programs
This course, featuring video lessons and guided techniques, is delivered by Paul Chin, a college lecturer with over 20 years of experience teaching computing and IT.
15. Reverse Engineering with Radare2
Radare2 is a great framework for reverse-engineering executables, in large part because it’s free and open-source. The most popular alternatives, such as IDA Pro, are very expensive. This course will get you up to speed with Radare2 utilities and guide you through using them to reverse engineer and patch binaries.
What you’ll learn about:
- How to use Radare2 to reverse engineer binaries
- Disassembling binaries
- Navigating in the binary
- Debugging executables
- Patching executables
The hands-on course is delivered by Geri Revay, a cyber security professional working for Siemens AG and a consultant for various banking, insurance, telco, and car production companies.
16. Reverse Engineering .NET with dnSpy
The dnSpy debugger can reverse engineer and patch assembly files using the popular .NET development framework. This course will help those looking to become a Blue Team professional capable of reverse engineering infected binaries for many organizations. It covers everything from .NET deconstructing to patching and protecting.
What you’ll learn about:
- Patching with dnSpy
- Serial phishing
- Creating keygens
- .NET software protection
- De-obfuscation
- How to protect .NET programs from being reversed
Delivered by experienced IT college lecturer Paul Chin, this course includes detailed follow-along video guides that should get you started with reverse engineering .NET binaries.
17. Introduction to Malware Analysis for Incident Responders
While also covering static malware analysis, this course primarily focuses on dynamic malware analysis. This is a method for discovering what malware is doing, which is important for Blue Team professionals to respond to incidents to quickly prevent further damage.
This course shows you how to perform such malware analysis in virtual Blue Team labs.
What you’ll learn about:
- The different types of malware
- How to do static malware analysis
- How to do dynamic malware analysis
- Building a safe malware analysis environment using FlareVM
- Performing analysis on real-world malware
This course is delivered by experienced IT professional Jason Dion and features over 20 lessons and follow-along videos.
18. Digital Forensics for Pentesters – Hands-on Learning
The field of digital forensics identifies, analyzes, and reports electronic data, including deleted data. Blue Teams will often need to perform such forensic investigations to detect hackers and remove malware. This course will give you hands-on experience with the entire process, from imaging devices to reporting on your analysis.
What you’ll learn about:
- How to forensically image devices
- Recovering deleted data from various operating systems
- Producing professional and legal digital forensic reports
- Handling digital media before and during investigations
- Utilize various forensic tools for digital forensic investigations
This course is delivered by Prof. K, a cyber security expert who has worked in IT for over two decades. It includes video tutorials, lab files, and guides for hands-on applied learning.
Best Purple Team Training Courses
A Blue Team that doesn’t understand Red Team techniques is likely to be blindsided by an unexpected attack or exploit. That’s why prospective Blue Team professionals must know some Red Team tactics. The courses below teach the most important offensive methodologies and frameworks for a Blue Teamer to know and understand.
19. Anatomy of a Cyber Attack: Beginner Hacking with Metasploit!
The Metasploit Framework, a sub-project of Rapid7’s Metasploit project, is one of the most popular tools for making and running exploits against target systems. This course gives a broad enough overview of the Metasploit hacking methodology so that Blue Team operatives can know what they might be up against.
What you’ll learn about:
- Basic hacking methodologies, tools, and techniques
- How to do research and reconnaissance
- Network vulnerability probing
- Implementing exploits
- Privilege Escalation
- Maintaining access and covering tracks
This course, delivered by IT professional Jason Dion, includes video lectures, follow-along labs, and practice quizzes.
20. MITRE ATT&CK Framework Essentials
MITRE’s Adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Common Knowledge (ATT&CK) is one of the most popular frameworks and methodologies for classifying and understanding Red Team techniques and strategies.
This course will give prospective Blue and Purple Team professionals a solid understanding of the MITRE ATT&CK framework, which will help identify, understand, and counter advanced threats.
What you’ll learn about:
- The structure and purpose of the MITRE ATT&CK framework
- How to identify and analyze cyber threats using the framework’s matrix of tactics and techniques
- How to apply the MITRE ATT&CK framework in practical scenarios
- Seeing how the framework is applied in actual cyber incidents and threat hunting operations
- Adapting the MITRE ATT&CK framework to address new and emerging threats
This course is delivered by Anand Rao, an IT professional with over 15 years of experience, and features video lessons, case studies, follow-along labs, quizzes, hands-on exercises, and real-world scenarios.
Conclusion
These are the best Blue Team courses online.
They should cover you whether you’re a current Blue Team operative, an IT professional looking to switch to cyber defense, an offensive cyber security professional looking to switch teams, or even if you’re relatively new to IT and cyber security.
Your journey doesn’t have to end with these courses, though. If you join the StationX Accelerator Program, you’ll be able to access all of these courses in addition to 1,000+ other courses, projects, and labs.
The Program will also grant you access to our exclusive mentorship program and community discussion forums, which should help you stay on track with your IT and cyber security learning.