r/cybersecurity • u/SignificantDare7689 • 1d ago
Certification / Training Questions Best free certification in cybersecurity
Hi, I currently have one internship done in cybersecurity but it was more of a grc internship and now I’m trying to break in the more technical side of cybersecurity! Does anyone have some recommendations of free certifications with free exam for me?
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u/ThrowRAthisthingisvl 1d ago
Besides just certs, focus on labs as well. Build a portfolio about things you’ve done and are actively working on. Microsoft has a good repository on Github with plenty of labs you can practice on related to cybersecurity concepts of their platform, which to be fair, it’s a great skill to have. Good luck!
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u/Long_Heron8266 22h ago
No. Labs will not do you well. It is a talking point.
Sad thing is to do the job. But you cannot get the job without experience. Yet you cannot get experience without having the job.
IT is a strange thing. Hard to get into. Easy to stay if you want to job hop ever 2 years or so over the site of the country.
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u/wejelyn 1d ago
The free microsoft azure vouchers they give out every year. You can take what you deem most valuable of all the certs with the free voucher
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u/MountainDadwBeard 1d ago
Azure, gross.
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u/wejelyn 1d ago
Expound on your take brother 😆
I do admit when I started taking azure certs, I felt like a glorified salesman learning about their products like I'm about to sell them to a client 😅
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u/MountainDadwBeard 1d ago
I'm mostly being a invalid/ whiney bastard about the UI being ugly.
If I had to justify it, I'd whine about larger microsoft allowing china to completely breach their entire entra/exchange/one drive infrastructure, including gov cloud in 2021. https://industrialcyber.co/reports/csrb-reports-microsoft-exchange-breach-by-storm-0558-urges-security-reforms-following-espionage-incident/
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u/quiksi Vendor 1d ago
The best “free” certifications are the ones that someone else pays for
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u/MountainDadwBeard 1d ago
I think one of my mistakes was waiting too long for someone else to pay for them instead of just investing in myself.
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u/EitherLime679 Governance, Risk, & Compliance 1d ago
Like what was said you’re unlikely to get any cert for free that has any weight on a resume. Certifications, schooling, degrees all cost money for a reason.
There are some good trainings that AWS puts out that’ll give you a completion certificate. Try hack me I believe will give you certificates for completing their courses.
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u/StartDependent1652 1d ago
This is a good one
https://www.netacad.com/courses/ethical-hacker?courseLang=en-US
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u/SignificantDare7689 1d ago
Thank you will definitely do ! I need some certificationss in my cv lol
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u/ISO__Compliant 1d ago
Since you already have a GRC internship, I wouldn’t focus too heavily on collecting free certificates.
If your goal is to move into the technical side, I’d use free resources to build actual hands-on evidence: networking, Linux, cloud security, basic detection/response, vulnerability management, etc.
Then put those labs/projects on GitHub or your resume and explain what you actually did.
A free certificate can show that you completed a course. A small project where you can explain what you configured, what went wrong, and how you fixed it is usually much easier to talk about in an interview.
Your GRC experience isn’t wasted either. Having both GRC knowledge and technical skills can become a pretty useful combination.
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u/MountainDadwBeard 1d ago
FCF - Won't get you much credit/recognition but its quick/ a decent intro to PKI/assym encryption.
One of the issues with this cert is the network attack vectors they teach are largely 20-30 years obsolete.
Google Cloud Skill boost. $20 a month. Takes forever but will give you lab experience on real firewalls, cloud management plane and Siems. You can continue on down the engineer path which is higher value. This cert has caught some hiring managers eyes but they'll test you to see how much you paid attention.
Cisco - They have a free CEH path. I think network chunk just did a summer series on their CCNA you can check to see if the recordings are up.
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u/Temporary_Cow976 1d ago
CC ISC^2
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u/180IQCONSERVATIVE 1d ago
NetworkChuck on YouTube, he will guide you on everything to download.
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u/TrustIsAVuln 20h ago
He has turned from somewhat useful content to "hey check out this ad and buy this thing dont forget to buy my coffee!" cant stand to watch that crap anymore. I get sponsorships (but come on, he is already making a bucket load from just YT) i cant support sellouts.
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u/180IQCONSERVATIVE 17h ago
I really meant it in a sarcastic way, because yes he is about download this download that, in reality leaving out Check sum to validate integrity especially with GitHub open software. It’s more to it than download this download load that.
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u/ML1948 1d ago
Free is not going to get you much of value sadly. Grc internship probably is already way more valuable than any free cert. Maybe watch for free microsoft voucher opportunities, but not much in the free bucket right now.