How to spend (IT security) training budget

Question

I am a mobile security engineer and we have a training budget of 1100&euro; per employee at our company.I can't really think of anything I'd really need, but I also don't want it to go to waste. Also there are so many good free resources available online.Do you have suggestions on how to best spend it?Ideas I had: - Books (I mainly read online blogs) - Hardware (I have a tablet for reading, a raspberry to deploy mini projects and testing devices) - Certifications (Don't really need them currently and not a big fan of the time constrained certs as I'd have to renew them) - Courses (There are a lot of good free courses I can do) - Access to platforms (e.g. Hack The Box, TryHackMe, ...) - Soft skills trainings

WalterGR · Accepted Answer

> booksO'Reilly Learning[0] is amazing. (Of course, your employees would have to read the books...)https://www.oreilly.com/online-learning/It's $499 per year per user.[0] Formerly O'Reilly Safari Books Online.

rschachte · Answer

Udemy Personal Plan. Unlimited video courses. Many courses for many things, I learn a lot in there. There are varying degrees of depth. Everything from compilers, x86 reverse engineering to Next.JS dev

badrabbit · Answer

I would say SANS but you can't afford it. Even blackhat briefs only cost more (they have trainings+defcon too). Beyond entry level stuff, either you need $3-8k/person or you stick with free videos and blogs that are nowhere near as good but still better than nothing.I don't know what your title means, do you work with apps or secure the infrastructure apps talk to? If your focus is strictly on software/code security disregard my advice (although since you mentioned tryhackme, my opinion might still be relevant)

paskozdilar · Answer

I just started working in the industry a couple years ago so please take what I say with a grain of salt - but in my experience, learning from a skilled person is much more efficient that any other form - a person can adapt the topic to your level of understanding, immediately clearing any misunderstanding. So wouldn't it be more efficient to hire a skilled person in your target field to teach you?

rdubs333 · Answer

I am working on a STEAM Innovation/Creativity drawing test for team building exercise. If you would like to experience it we can jump on a call.
MTREES.io
There is a free manual about product and systems design and a pay for test that humans take and come up with a product or a creative solution. Then share the results and crown the queen!

eswat · Answer

Look for courses/certifications that don't need to be renewed but are still highly recognized, like stuff from Offensive Security (though they don't have anything mobile specific).

aviditas · Answer

I would do a combination of making a lab environment for hands-on exploration and quality low cost training like from the BHIS folks at antisyphon training. antisyphontraining.com

methusala8 · Answer

you said : Courses (There are a lot of good free courses I can do).Can you mention any good courses which are free?

xyzzy123 · Answer

You could send the team to a good local-ish security conference, with nice accomodation.

How to spend (IT security) training budget

> books
O'Reilly Learning[0] is amazing. (Of course, your employees would have to read the books...)
https://www.oreilly.com/online-learning/
It's $499 per year per user.
[0] Formerly O'Reilly Safari Books Online.

Udemy Personal Plan. Unlimited video courses. Many courses for many things, I learn a lot in there. There are varying degrees of depth. Everything from compilers, x86 reverse engineering to Next.JS dev

Look for courses/certifications that don't need to be renewed but are still highly recognized, like stuff from Offensive Security (though they don't have anything mobile specific).

I would do a combination of making a lab environment for hands-on exploration and quality low cost training like from the BHIS folks at antisyphon training. antisyphontraining.com

you said : Courses (There are a lot of good free courses I can do).
Can you mention any good courses which are free?

You could send the team to a good local-ish security conference, with nice accomodation.