Learn cybersecurity by doing it.
CyberAcad is a free, browser-based curriculum and hands-on training platform for the next generation of digital defenders. Interactive lessons, live labs, capture-the-flag challenges — no expensive hardware and no gatekeeping. Just a laptop and curiosity.
Middle & high schoolers
Built for students first. No prior experience required. Beginners start at the fundamentals.
Clubs & educators
A ready-made, zero-cost cyber curriculum and CTF platform for classrooms, clubs, and CyberPatriot teams.
Anyone curious
The door is open to any beginner who wants a real, hands-on path into cybersecurity.
From first login to first flag
Learn with interactive lessons
Work through browser-based lessons that introduce a concept and immediately put it into practice. No lecture videos, no passive watching.
Practice in real, sandboxed labs
When a lesson needs a terminal, CyberAcad spins up a live Linux environment in your browser on demand. Nothing to install, nothing to buy, isolated safely for each student.
Prove it in the Gym
Apply your skills against a growing library of capture-the-flag challenges across every category above.
Earn certificates
Completed coursework earns shareable certificates, a concrete record of the skills you have built, for a resume, a club application, or your own motivation.
What you'll learn
Our curriculum spans the disciplines students actually need — the same categories featured in boroCTF. Start with the fundamentals and work toward the advanced tracks at your own pace.
- Networking & Systems Fundamentals
- How computers and networks actually work: packets, protocols, the Linux command line, and the basics every security practitioner builds on. This is where beginners start.
- Web Exploitation
- How websites break: injection, broken authentication, and the classes of bugs behind real-world breaches, taught by finding and fixing them in a safe lab.
- Cryptography
- The math and mistakes behind keeping data secret, from classic ciphers to the flaws that make modern crypto fail when it is used wrong.
- Forensics & OSINT
- Reading the evidence left behind. File and memory forensics, plus open-source intelligence: finding what is hidden in plain sight.
- Reverse Engineering & Binary Exploitation
- Taking software apart to understand how it really runs, how memory corruption happens, and how attackers turn a bug into control. Our most advanced track.
boroCTF: our international competition
We build and run boroCTF ourselves — an international capture-the-flag competition that drew 2,000+ competitors from 93+ countries in June 2026, with more than a hundred original challenges written by our team.
How to get started
Students
Create a free account and open your first lesson today. No cost, no catch, ever.
Educators & clubs
Bring CyberAcad to your classroom, club, or CyberPatriot team. Reach out and we will help you get set up.
Supporters
Donations keep the platform free for every student. CyberAcad is a registered 501(c)(3), so gifts are tax-deductible.