Frequently asked questions
The questions students, parents, and teachers actually ask us. If yours is not here, send it over and we will answer it, and probably add it.
The basics
- Is CyberAcad really free?
- Yes, completely and permanently. There is no paid tier, no trial, and no upsell. Donations and grants fund the platform, not student fees. That is a structural choice, not a launch promotion.
- Who is it for?
- Mainly middle and high school students 13 and up, including CyberPatriot and CTF teams. You do not need any prior experience, because the curriculum starts at the beginning. Any beginner is welcome.
- Do I need special hardware or software?
- For almost everything, no. The lessons, the Linux terminals, and the network simulator all run in a normal web browser, and a school Chromebook is enough. The one exception is the CyberPatriot course: like the real competition, it has you run the practice image in VirtualBox, so it needs a Windows, Mac, or Linux computer you can install software on.
- How long does a course take?
- Every course lists its unit and lesson count on its own page. Lessons are self-paced and short, most of them five to fifteen minutes. The course catalog shows a rough time estimate for each one.
Age, safety, and accounts
- What is the minimum age?
- You have to be at least 13 to make an account. If you are under 18, our terms require a parent or guardian to have reviewed and agreed to them for you. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13, and we delete accounts we learn belong to younger children.
- What data do you collect about students?
- A username, an email address, a hashed password, and your progress: lessons completed, challenges solved, certificates earned. A real name, bio, and profile picture are optional. We never collect payment details, because nothing costs money, and we do not sell personal data. Our pages load a Google tag that tells us whether our Google ads lead to sign-ups. The full detail is in our privacy policy.
- Is it safe to teach students how attacks work?
- This is the same reasoning behind CyberPatriot, every university security program, and the profession itself: you cannot defend a system you do not understand. The browser labs run inside sandboxed environments we host, isolated per student, and the CyberPatriot practice image runs in a virtual machine on your own computer. Our terms prohibit using the platform to attack anything outside it, and we remove accounts that try.
Schools and clubs
- How can teachers use CyberAcad in a classroom or club?
- Request a class code and your students enroll into a shared course roster you can monitor. There is no cost, no license to negotiate, and no purchase order to raise. You do not need to know the material yourself, because the lessons teach it.
- Do you work with CyberPatriot teams?
- Yes. Our CyberPatriot Linux course walks through hardening a deliberately insecure Ubuntu image against a live scoring engine, written by competitors who reached Platinum. There is no Windows course yet. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Air & Space Forces Association, which runs CyberPatriot.
- What does the school have to provide?
- Devices with a modern browser and an ordinary internet connection. No inbound ports, no VPN, no special firewall rules. Everything reaches us over standard HTTPS.
Certificates and credibility
- Are the certificates accredited?
- No, and we will not pretend otherwise. A CyberAcad certificate records that a student finished specific coursework on our platform, and it carries a public verification link so anyone can check it is genuine. It is evidence of work done, not a professional qualification or academic credit.
- Are you a registered nonprofit?
- Yes. CyberAcad is a registered 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 41-5007585. Donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
- How is CyberAcad funded?
- Individual donations and grants. The largest recurring cost is the lab infrastructure every lesson runs on, which grows with each new student. Every dollar goes toward keeping the platform running and the curriculum growing, so it stays free.
- Who builds this?
- A small team of students. The founders competed in CyberPatriot and CTFs before building any of this, and we write and check every lesson ourselves. No security professionals review the lessons yet; if you are one and want to help, reach out through the contact page. Our story is on the about page.
Still stuck?
Teachers and club leaders should start with the educators page, which covers class codes and the questions administrators ask. Everyone else can use the contact form; it reaches a person.