Cybersecurity Endpoint Protection

Endpoint Security Concepts

A practical foundation for protecting laptops, desktops, mobile devices, servers, and cloud-connected endpoints

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Quick Course Facts
18
Self-paced, Online, Lessons
18
Videos and/or Narrated Presentations
6.1
Approximate Hours of Course Media
About the Endpoint Security Concepts Course

Endpoint Security Concepts is a Cybersecurity course that builds a practical foundation for protecting laptops, desktops, mobile devices, servers, and cloud-connected endpoints. Students learn how endpoints are targeted, how core controls reduce risk, and how security teams monitor, investigate, and respond to common endpoint threats.

Build Practical Cybersecurity Skills With Endpoint Security Concepts

  • Understand endpoint types, ownership models, risk profiles, and their role in modern security programs.
  • Learn how malware, phishing, credential attacks, and user-driven compromise affect endpoint environments.
  • Apply core controls including antivirus, endpoint protection platforms, EDR, host firewalls, patching, and secure baselines.
  • Develop practical response skills for alert investigation, containment, recovery, and endpoint security program planning.

Endpoint Security Concepts provides a practical foundation for protecting laptops, desktops, mobile devices, servers, and cloud-connected endpoints.

This course introduces the essential Cybersecurity principles behind endpoint defense, beginning with the role endpoints play in modern organizations. You will explore how different endpoint types create different risks, how ownership models affect control decisions, and why endpoint visibility is central to protecting users, data, and business systems.

Through focused lessons on the threat landscape, you will examine malware behavior, infection paths, phishing, credential theft, and other common compromise patterns. The course then moves into practical controls such as endpoint protection platforms, antivirus concepts, endpoint detection and response fundamentals, host firewalls, local segmentation, patch management, system hardening, application control, encryption, and mobile device management.

You will also learn how endpoint logging, telemetry, alert context, and investigation workflows support day-to-day security operations. By the end of Endpoint Security Concepts, you will be able to think more clearly about endpoint risk, select appropriate defensive controls, and contribute more confidently to Cybersecurity monitoring, response, and program strategy.

Course Lessons

Full lesson breakdown

Lessons are organized by topic area and each includes descriptive copy for search visibility and student clarity.

Foundations

2 lessons

Lesson 1: The Role of Endpoints in Modern Security

18 min Preview
This lesson establishes why endpoints are central to modern security programs. Learners examine what counts as an endpoint, why endpoints create both business value and security exposure, and how endp…

Lesson 2: Endpoint Types, Ownership Models, and Risk Profiles

17 min
This lesson establishes how endpoint security decisions change based on the type of device, who owns it, where it is used, and what data or access it carries. Students will learn to classify common en…

Threat Landscape

3 lessons

Lesson 3: Threats Targeting Endpoints

20 min
This lesson maps the main threats that target endpoints: malware, ransomware, credential theft, phishing-driven compromise, exploitation of vulnerabilities, malicious scripts, unauthorized remote acce…

Lesson 4: Malware Behavior and Infection Paths

21 min
This lesson explains how malware behaves after it reaches an endpoint and how infections commonly begin. Learners examine the practical differences among viruses, worms, trojans, ransomware, spyware, …

Lesson 5: Phishing, Credentials, and User-Driven Compromise

19 min
This lesson explains how phishing and credential theft turn normal user activity into endpoint compromise. Learners examine how attackers use email, messaging, fake login pages, malicious attachments,…

Core Controls

3 lessons

Lesson 6: Endpoint Protection Platforms and Antivirus Concepts

20 min
This lesson explains how endpoint protection platforms and antivirus tools reduce risk on laptops, desktops, servers, mobile devices, and cloud-connected workloads. It focuses on the practical control…

Lesson 7: Endpoint Detection and Response Fundamentals

22 min
This lesson introduces Endpoint Detection and Response, or EDR, as a core endpoint security control. It explains what EDR collects, how it detects suspicious behavior, and how security teams use it to…

Lesson 8: Host Firewalls, Network Controls, and Local Segmentation

18 min
This lesson explains how host firewalls, endpoint network controls, and local segmentation reduce the damage an attacker can do after reaching a laptop, desktop, server, or cloud-connected workload. I…

Hardening and Maintenance

3 lessons

Lesson 9: Patch Management and Vulnerability Reduction

21 min
This lesson explains how patch management reduces endpoint risk by closing known weaknesses before attackers can exploit them. Learners will examine the practical patch lifecycle: asset visibility, vu…

Lesson 10: Secure Configuration Baselines and System Hardening

22 min
This lesson explains how secure configuration baselines turn endpoint hardening from a one-time checklist into a repeatable operating practice. Learners will see how baselines define the expected stat…

Lesson 11: Application Control, Allowlisting, and Script Restrictions

20 min
This lesson explains how application control, allowlisting, and script restrictions reduce endpoint risk by limiting what can execute on laptops, desktops, servers, and managed cloud-connected devices…

Data and Device Protection

2 lessons

Lesson 12: Disk Encryption, Data Protection, and Device Loss

18 min
This lesson explains how endpoint data remains protected when a laptop, desktop, mobile device, removable drive, or server is lost, stolen, or improperly retired. It focuses on full-disk encryption, f…

Lesson 13: Mobile Device Management and Remote Endpoint Control

19 min
This lesson explains how Mobile Device Management and remote endpoint control help organizations protect laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, and other distributed devices without needing physical…

Access and Trust

1 lesson

Lesson 14: Identity, Least Privilege, and Endpoint Access

21 min
This lesson explains how identity and access decisions shape endpoint security. Learners will connect user accounts, device trust, authentication strength, authorization, and privilege levels to pract…

Monitoring and Operations

2 lessons

Lesson 15: Endpoint Logging, Telemetry, and Alert Context

22 min
This lesson explains how endpoint logs and telemetry help security teams understand what happened on a device, what may happen next, and how much confidence to place in an alert. Learners will examine…

Lesson 16: Investigating Common Endpoint Alerts

23 min
This lesson shows how analysts investigate common endpoint alerts without jumping straight to assumptions. It focuses on practical alert triage for malware detections, suspicious processes, blocked sc…

Response and Resilience

1 lesson

Lesson 17: Containment, Recovery, and Incident Response Workflows

24 min
This lesson explains how endpoint security teams move from detection to action when an endpoint is suspected or confirmed to be compromised. It covers containment choices, evidence preservation, recov…

Program Strategy

1 lesson

Lesson 18: Building an Endpoint Security Program

22 min
This lesson explains how to build an endpoint security program as a managed business capability rather than a collection of tools. It focuses on program goals, scope, ownership, risk prioritization, o…
About Your Instructor
Professor Michael Edwards

Professor Michael Edwards

Professor Michael Edwards guides this AI-built Virversity course with a clear, practical teaching style.