SkillsToSecure
Menu
Practical cybersecurity education · Built for beginners

Start Your Cybersecurity Career with Real, Hands-On Skills.

Learn the fundamentals, build your first homelab and create practical projects you can confidently explain to employers.

Free PDF by email. Ongoing updates are optional.

YOUR FIRST PRACTICAL PROJECT

Free · Windows · No SIEM required

Your First Windows Security Log Investigation

Find successful and failed logons in Event Viewer, compare the evidence and write your first investigation summary.

  1. 01Set up a safe local lab
  2. 02Find events 4624 and 4625
  3. 03Compare account, time and logon type
  4. 04Write an evidence-based summary

Learn → Build → Prove → Progress

Turn learning into work you can explain.

01

Learn

Understand the fundamentals: networks, operating systems and security.

02

Build

Practise in a small, safe lab with a question to investigate.

03

Prove

Document your evidence, decisions and what you learned.

04

Progress

Use your work to explain your skills and guide your next step.

Guided learning paths

Know what to learn next.

Start with the foundations, practise analyst skills, then turn your projects into career evidence. These free roadmaps give you a suggested order and a useful first step.

View all paths

Hands-on first

A small investigation. A useful piece of evidence.

Your first project can be simple. Read a Windows log, explain what happened and record what you still don’t know. Use the included template to turn your findings into a portfolio summary.

What you leave with

  • A timeline of your own lab activity
  • A comparison of successful and failed logons
  • Sanitised evidence and an honest explanation
  • A portfolio summary you can discuss
Free resource · 28 pages

Start with a clear cybersecurity career plan.

Get the Cybersecurity Career Starter Kit: a roadmap, skills checklist, homelab guidance, six beginner project ideas and a progress tracker.

Your Starter Kit request does not require newsletter consent. Privacy notice

We use your email to send the kit. The optional checkbox requests ongoing tips and updates; you can unsubscribe from those emails.

Why SkillsToSecure

Practical learning with a purpose.

Tom Rutt created SkillsToSecure to help beginners navigate cybersecurity learning, practise in their own labs and explain their work clearly.

Courses in development

Keep building while training takes shape.

Complete training products are planned, with no enrolment or launch dates announced. Explore the free content now or request course updates.

Personal updates from Tom

The SkillsToSecure Newsletter

Follow my cybersecurity journey: what I’ve been up to, what I’m learning, and my thoughts on careers, studying and certifications. Personal updates, about every two weeks.

My journey, thoughts and lessons along the way. Unsubscribe anytime.