Python 6: Cybersecurity Fundamentals

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course provides a practical introduction to cybersecurity principles, best practices, and the use of Python to automate security tasks. Students will learn to detect vulnerabilities, analyze threats, and develop secure applications while understanding the legal and ethical frameworks of cybersecurity.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain the core principles of cybersecurity and identify common cyber threats.
• Apply security best practices to protect applications, networks, and sensitive data.
• Leverage Python for automating security tasks, penetration testing, and data protection workflows.
• Detect and mitigate vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, phishing attacks, and weak authentication mechanisms.
• Design, build, and deploy simple yet effective security tools using Python.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What's covered in this course:

1. Introduction to Cybersecurity

• 1.1 Understanding the importance of cybersecurity in today’s world
• 1.2 Key terms: threats, vulnerabilities, exploits, and countermeasures
• 1.3 Cybersecurity domains: network, application, cloud, and endpoint security
• 1.4 Overview of common attack types (phishing, malware, DDoS, MITM, ransomware)
• 1.5 The role of Python in security automation and analysis

2. Networking and Security Fundamentals

• 2.1 Basics of TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP/HTTPS
• 2.2 Understanding ports, protocols, and firewalls
• 2.3 Encryption basics: symmetric vs asymmetric, hashing
• 2.4 Secure communication with SSL/TLS
• 2.5 Using Python to capture and analyze network packets

3. Python for Security Tasks

• 3.1 Essential Python libraries for cybersecurity: Scapy, Requests, Cryptography, Paramiko
• 3.2 Writing Python scripts to automate vulnerability scans
• 3.3 Parsing and analyzing security logs
• 3.4 Automating password strength checks and hash cracking simulations
• 3.5 Building simple network monitoring tools

4. Web Application Security & Python

• 4.1 Common web vulnerabilities: SQL injection, XSS, CSRF
• 4.2 Testing web applications with Python and automation tools
• 4.3 Writing scripts to detect and report insecure endpoints
• 4.4 Introduction to OWASP Top 10 and mitigation strategies

5. Ethical Hacking Fundamentals

• 5.1 The penetration testing lifecycle
• 5.2 Reconnaissance and scanning using Python
• 5.3 Exploitation basics (for educational purposes only)
• 5.4 Post-exploitation cleanup and reporting

6. Security Automation Projects

• 6.1 Automated vulnerability scanning tool
• 6.2 Real-time network traffic alert system
• 6.3 Simple incident response bot using Python
• 6.4 Securing a small web app with Python-based middleware

7. Legal, Ethical, and Career Aspects

• 7.1 Cybersecurity laws and compliance requirements
• 7.2 Responsible disclosure and ethical hacking codes of conduct
• 7.3 Career paths in cybersecurity and required certifications

AUDIENCE

This course is designed for individuals with basic Python knowledge who want to start a career in cybersecurity or strengthen their ability to protect systems and data.

PREREQUISITES

Completion of Python 1 - Fundamentals, Python 2 - Data Science, OOP, and UI