Texas Cyber RangeCyber Academy
🎓 Free Forever · No Hustle

BVTech Cyber Academy

Want to learn cybersecurity and networking but tired of $2,000 "bootcamps" that overpromise? This is the opposite. Free lessons and hands-on labs, no upsells, no hustling curious people out of their money. Learn at your own pace and take your skills to the range.

Jordan's promise: Everything here is genuinely free. I learned a lot of this the self-taught way, and I'd rather hand it forward than gate it behind a paywall. If it helps you land a job or protect your own business, that's a win.

🌱 Start Here

Beginner Cyber Lessons

1

How the Internet Actually Works

IP addresses, DNS, ports, and packets — the plumbing behind everything, explained in plain English.

Greenhorn
2

Passwords, Hashing & MFA

Why "Password123!" falls in under a second, how hashing works, and why MFA stops most attacks cold.

Greenhorn
3

Phishing & Social Engineering 101

The psychology behind scams and the tells that give them away. Pairs with our Scam Museum.

Greenhorn
4

The CIA Triad & Core Concepts

Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability — the framework every security decision comes back to.

Greenhorn
🔌 Hands-On

Networking Labs

N1

Build Your First Network

Subnets, gateways, and switches — wire up a small office network from scratch.

Outlaw
N2

Reading a Packet Capture

Open a real .pcap in Wireshark and follow a conversation across the wire.

Outlaw
N3

Firewalls & Segmentation

Why a flat network is dangerous, and how to wall off the important stuff.

Ranger
N4

VPNs & Remote Access Done Right

The secure way to let people work from anywhere — and the mistakes that get businesses breached.

Ranger
🧪 Simulator Challenges

Packet Tracer Challenges

P1

Cable the Office

Connect PCs, switches, and a router correctly so every device can talk.

Outlaw
P2

VLANs & Inter-VLAN Routing

Separate departments onto their own VLANs and route between them safely.

Ranger
P3

ACLs: Allow & Deny

Write access control lists to permit the right traffic and block the rest.

Ranger
P4

Troubleshoot the Outage

A network's down. Use a methodical approach to find and fix the break.

Sheriff
☁️ Cloud & Identity

Microsoft 365 Security Labs

M1

Lock Down M365 with MFA & Conditional Access

The settings that stop most account takeovers — done step by step.

Ranger
M2

Defender & Safe Links

Turn on the built-in protections that catch malicious mail and attachments.

Ranger
M3

Reading the Audit Log

Investigate a suspicious sign-in using M365's audit trail.

Sheriff
M4

Secure Score Walkthrough

Use Microsoft Secure Score to find and close real gaps in a tenant.

Sheriff
🏰 Enterprise

Active Directory Labs

A1

Stand Up a Domain

Build a Windows domain controller and join your first workstation.

Sheriff
A2

Users, Groups & Group Policy

Organize accounts and push settings the right way across an organization.

Sheriff
A3

Common AD Attacks (Defender's View)

Understand how attackers move through AD — so you can spot and stop it.

Marshal
A4

Hardening Checklist

Tiered admin, least privilege, and the configs that shut common attacks down.

Marshal
🎣 Defense

Phishing Detection Challenges

F1

Spot the Phish

A rapid-fire set of inboxes — call each message legit or scam against the clock.

Greenhorn
F2

Header Forensics

Read raw email headers to expose spoofed senders and shady relays.

Ranger
F3

Analyze a Real Campaign

Walk a phishing kit end to end — from lure to landing page to payload.

Sheriff
F4

Build a Training Program

Learn how to run phishing simulations for a team without scaring everyone off.

Marshal

Ready to put it into practice?

Every lesson here feeds straight into the range. Spin up a machine, earn your stars, and rank up from Greenhorn to Marshal.

🤠 Enter the Cyber Range →