Student Guides

New to the tools we use in CIS 350? Start here. Each guide walks you - step by step, assuming no prior experience - through one platform: how to get in, how to use it, and exactly how it fits the week’s activity. Keep the matching guide open in a second tab while you work.

Google Colab

The browser-based Python notebook used for every lab, the Week 1 tutorial, and every CTF starter. Nothing to install.

Open the Colab guide ->

Hacker101

Free, beginner-friendly security lessons from HackerOne, used in the Week 1, 2, 3, and 6 guided-lesson activities.

Open the Hacker101 guide ->

CTFd (Capture the Flag)

The scoreboard for the five CTF challenges (Weeks 8, 10, 11, 13, 15). Solve in Colab, submit the flag here.

Open the CTFd guide ->

CISA Tabletop Exercises

Discussion-based incident-response drills run in small groups (Weeks 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 16). No computers - just decisions.

Open the CISA guide ->

Plain-Language Reading

How to get the most out of the two short, jargon-free course paperbacks on AI and on cybersecurity.

Open the Reading guide ->

Logging in

The course site is private. If it asks you to sign in, here is the 30-second, no-password email-code process - and what to do if the code does not arrive.

Open the Login guide ->

These guides explain how to use the platforms. For what each week's activity actually asks you to do, see Weekly Activities.