SecureByDefault helps IT support professionals, cybersecurity beginners, and cloud learners build hands-on skills through Linux lessons, guided learning paths, practical labs, and real-world security examples.
Beginner-friendly. Practical. No fear-mongering.
Free, practical, and built to actually get used, not downloaded once and forgotten.
The commands, logs, and security basics that make Linux feel less scary, with a 7-day practice plan built in.
56 free questions across 7 roles, with real answers you would actually say out loud. Come back before every interview.
A free 4-week challenge to build proof you can troubleshoot, document, and communicate like a support professional.
Want more than the kit? The full curriculum, every lesson, project, and troubleshooting scenario, is free on GitHub.
Beginner Linux commands, logs, SSH, permissions, and server basics, explained without the overwhelm.
Practical security habits, phishing lessons, MFA, passwords, and real-world fixes you can actually apply.
How support tickets, troubleshooting, documentation, and soft skills connect directly to security work.
VPS basics, Linux servers, SSH, firewall rules, logs, and safe beginner hardening.
Breakdowns from real logs, real incidents, and the specific practical lesson behind each one.
Safe AI use, shadow AI, prompt safety, and data-handling guardrails for everyday work.
Built by Ron Mercier, a Cloud and Cybersecurity Engineer with hands-on experience in IT support, Linux-based cloud infrastructure, security investigations, log analysis, and practical cybersecurity education.
SecureByDefault exists to make Linux, cybersecurity, cloud, and IT support skills easier to understand without fear-mongering, confusing roadmaps, or fake hacker drama.
The full curriculum is free and open source. You can see every lesson, project, and troubleshooting scenario on GitHub.
The SecureByDefault Brief helps beginners and IT professionals build practical Linux, cybersecurity, cloud, and IT support skills one useful lesson at a time. No scare tactics. No fake guru energy. Just skills that actually help.
$ cat this_week.txt
LINUX: A command worth knowing
SECURITY: One practical fix
SKILL: Something you can use
FREQ: Weekly. No spam.
$ _
Free. Useful. No spam. Your inbox has suffered enough.
Practical tools and hands-on labs, grouped by what you would actually use them for. Not random picks, just resources worth knowing as you build real skills.
Some links may earn SecureByDefault a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools that fit the use case described.
The hands-on hacking platform used by security professionals and red teamers worldwide. Labs cover penetration testing, cloud security, active directory attacks, and real-world exploit chains. Used by hiring managers to evaluate actual skill.
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