Willis College
Cybersecurity Analyst
Train with Canada’s Cybersecurity Education Pioneer
Online (Remote Classes)
Program Length:
64 weeks
Program Hours:
1280
Credentials:
- ON Diploma
Study Options:
- Online
Start Dates
Ottawa
October 19, 2026
May 3, 2027
Online
August 24, 2026
Request Info
Print this page
Train with Canada’s Cybersecurity Education Pioneer
Train with Canada’s cybersecurity education pioneer. As the first private career college authorized by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to deliver cybersecurity training, Willis College has been shaping cyber defenders for over a decade.
This comprehensive 64-week diploma program prepares you to identify, analyze, and protect against evolving cyber threats through real-world, hands-on learning. You’ll train on industry-standard tools and technologies from partners like Fortinet, Sophos, Cisco, Palo Alto, and IBM — mastering both offensive and defensive cybersecurity.
With flexible online or in-person learning options, live instructor access, and career-focused support, you’ll gain the skills and confidence to step into high-demand roles such as Cybersecurity Analyst, SOC Analyst, or Threat Intelligence Specialist.
Located in Ottawa, Canada’s tech and government security hub, Willis College offers direct connections to major employers and public-sector opportunities. Plus, our lifetime learning policy lets graduates refresh courses free of charge to stay ahead of emerging threats.
Join over 1,500 Willis cybersecurity graduates who’ve launched rewarding careers in one of Canada’s fastest-growing fields. Your future in cybersecurity starts here.
Why Choose Willis College for Your Cybersecurity Course?
- Physical Campus in Ottawa: Ideal for those aspiring to careers in the federal government, our campus offers a unique advantage.
- Flexible Learning Options: Train from anywhere in Canada with our in-person or online cybersecurity courses, allowing you to interact with your cohort and instructors.
- Comprehensive Career Support: Benefit from our dedicated Career Services department, which assists with resume building, interview practice, and job placement within our extensive employer network.
- Live Daily Instructor Access: Regular office hours ensure you get the help you need with any concepts or material in your cybersecurity course.
- Weekly Group Q&A Sessions: Interact with your instructor and peers to deepen your understanding and prepare for a successful career in cybersecurity.
- Financial Accessibility: Our flexible financing options make your cybersecurity course affordable, letting you focus on your studies without financial stress. *Financial aid is available to those who qualify.
- Lifelong Learning: Alumni can retake cybersecurity courses free of charge to refresh their skills with the most up-to-date curriculum.
Join a Legacy of Excellence in Cybersecurity
As Canada’s longest-established career college, Willis College has been shaping futures for over 160 years. Our rich history and continued dedication to excellence make us a trusted name in education. Our cybersecurity course’s cohort model allows you to build meaningful connections with peers, while our peer mentorship program and wrap-around supports, including mental health support through GuardMe, ensure you have everything you need to succeed.
Hands-On, Real-World Training in Cybersecurity
Our globally recognized cybersecurity courses, coupled with industry-recognized certifications, provide hands-on training in threat analysis, risk mitigation, and malware remediation. Experience real-world scenarios through staged cyber-attack simulations with both real and virtual hosts and network appliances in our cybersecurity course.
Unlock Promising Careers
Join us in shaping your cybersecurity expertise and unlocking doors to promising careers with competitive salaries. Enroll now in our Cybersecurity program and become part of a community dedicated to excellence and innovation. With support from your dedicated Student Admissions Advisor, Financial Aid Administrator, and Student Services Coordinator, your path to success in the cybersecurity course is clear and well-supported.
Enroll Today in Our Cybersecurity Course
Choose Willis College for a transformative learning experience that prepares you for success in the cybersecurity domain. Enroll now in our cybersecurity course and be part of a community committed to your success.
$47.18
Average Wage/HR$71.43
High Wage/HRNational Occupation Classification (NOC) for this program: 2171, 2281, 2282, 2283
Source: noc.esdc.gc.ca & www.jobbank.ca
Program Outline
Please click on the course title to see the course description.
Our Career Management course will introduce students to and teach them how to apply the most effective strategies to achieve employment in the career of their choice. Topics that are covered; effective job search strategies, cover letter and strategic resume writing, interview preparation and effective interviewing skills.
This course will cover various cloud concepts that will teach the skills needed to maintain, optimize and secure cloud infrastructure services.
This course will cover various coding languages and concepts to allow penetration testers to develop customer code/scripts. Languages such as Perl, Python, Ruby, Powershell, PHP are covered. Concepts such as scanner scripting, information gathering, exploitation scripting and post-exploitation scripting are taught.
This course will cover the hardware and software foundations utilized within a hostbased computing environment. Topics covered will include assembly, installation, configuration, upgrading and troubleshooting of PC-based hosts. Students will develop & hands experience within a scenario-based lab environment in order to identify software and hardware host-based vulnerability issues and will execute industry best of practiced remediation procedures.
As attackers have learned to evade traditional signature-based solutions such as firewalls, an analytics-based approach within the IT security industry is increasingly important for most organizations. The behavioural analytics skills covered in this course will provide students with security skills to identify and combat malware, advanced persistent threats (APTs) across a broad attack surface. Trained within an operational style lab environment students will develop the required skills to perform, network reconnaissance, threat identification, threat mitigation, vulnerabilities analysis, security incidents investigation, security issues monitoring and cyber security threat analysis
This course will cover various digital forensic concepts that will introduce the student to Digital Forensics - its tools, methods and procedures. Digital Forensics allows security experts to detect subtle attacks that don’t display any easily noticeable evidence that they are occurring or have occurred. Digital Forensics allows security experts to gather proof and actionable evidence in the event legal action must be taken as a result of the cybersecurity attack. Digital Forensics knowledge gives security experts a deeper understanding of the operations of computers, software, protocols, security methods and hardware
This course will provide students with the knowledge and hands-on skills in Ethical Hacking, Red Team / Blue Team and Cyber Defense Countermeasures. With exposure to various live lab attack scenarios, students will gain a solid understanding of Hacker attack vectors, techniques, methodologies and tools. Working within Blue Teams / Red Teams, students will participate in complex threat scenarios with a focus on Foot Printing and Reconnaissance, Social Engineering, Network Scanning, Enumeration and Cryptography. Through secure live lab simulations, you will "Hack to Learn" in order to better understand and defend against the "Hacker Mindset". Real-world attack simulations include System Hacking, Denial of Service and Session Hijacking, Web Application / Server Attacks, SQL injections, Wireless / Mobile Hacking, Evasion of IDS / Firewalls / Honeypots and offensive security tactics. Upon completion of this course, you will possess the necessary knowledge and skills within the domain of H.
This course will cover the deployment and use of helpdesk IT support software that provides IT support services to end-users. Additionally, tools needed for identifying and managing computer resources as it relates to Helpdesk activity will be covered.
Linux has grown into an industry-leading software and service delivery platform that is used for everything from supercomputers and Web servers to virtualized systems and your Android phone. This growth creates a high demand for qualified Linux professionals. Students will acquire the fundamental knowledge and hands-on experience with Linux systems architecture, package management, system services, file systems, administrative tasks, security, data, and accessibility.
This course will provide students with the foundational knowledge and skills required to configure, manage, and troubleshoot today's wired and wireless network devices. This course will also provide students with an understanding of emerging technologies such as unified communications, mobile, cloud, and virtualization technologies. Within a lab environment, students will design and implement a secure and trusted network infrastructure and will gain a solid understanding of network operations and management.
IT security is paramount to organizations as cloud computing and mobile devices have changed the way we do business. With large amounts of data transmitted and stored on networks throughout the world, it is essential to have effective security practices in place. Students will gain a solid understanding of network security practices including control fundamentals, security threats, network attacks, vulnerability assessment, penetration testing, security controls, wireless security and Computer Forensics. Students will also learn to create advanced reports such as Penetration Testing and Vulnerability Analysis Reports.
In this course, students will gain the knowledge and understanding of commercial network security and Unified Threat Management (UTM) Solutions. Students will install and configure a live security environment implementing firewall policies, VPNs, virus detection, web filtering, application control, user authentication. Advanced level design threat management lab scenarios will include threat malware mitigation, firewall policies, SSL, IPsec and VPN tunnelling.
The student learns basic network design and troubleshooting, routed and routing protocols, router configurations, LAN switching theory, virtual LANs, Novell IPX, WAN theory and design, WAN technology, PPP, frame relay, and ISDN. IT follows the track for the Cisco CCNA certification.
This course will teach students how to generate various technical reports that they may have to create as part of their technical careers. The ability to gather technical information and express it in a well-organized and intelligible format that can be understood by management and technical peers alike is key for the dissemination of vital information. The types of reports covered will include: Network Asset Reports, Physical and Logical Network Topologies, Vulnerability Assessment Reports and Penetration Testing Reports.
As the security landscape is expanding, a SOC team offers high-quality IT security services to detect potential cyber threats/ attacks actively and quickly respond to security incidents. Organizations need skilled SOC Analysts who can serve as the front-line defenders, warning other professionals of emerging and present cyber threats. The lab-intensive SOC Analyst training program emphasizes the holistic approach to delivering elementary as well as advanced knowledge of how to identify and validate intrusion attempts. Through this, the candidate will learn to use SIEM solutions and predictive capabilities using threat intelligence. The program also introduces the practical aspect of SIEM using advanced and the most frequently used tools. The candidate will learn to perform enhanced threat detection using the predictive capabilities of Threat Intelligence
Traditional approaches to malicious attacks are slowly dying out, with new malware formed every four seconds. However, many organizations today still follow the basic, traditional methods to address these evolving techniques. Reacting to threats is extremely important but reacting also signifies that the damage is already done. Having a threat intelligence analyst will give organizations the chance to fight the unforeseen battles that are constantly arising in the cyber world. A skilled threat intelligence analyst will be able to gather large amounts of relevant threat information from a multitude of intelligence sources which will then be analyzed to provide threat intelligence that accurately predicts the potential threats that an organization may encounter.
The course is intended for students who have good Windows operating system knowledge and experience and want to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to implement the core infrastructure services in an existing Windows Server environment.
This Advanced Windows Server® Services training allows students to learn how to provision and configure advanced services using Windows Server.
This Advanced Windows Server® Services training allows students to learn how to provision and configure advanced services using Windows Server.
This course will help introduce new features and functionality in Windows SQL dayto-day management, networking infrastructure, storage, and access control. Specific technologies covered will include Dynamic Access Control (DAC), Failover Clustering, Microsoft Online Backup, Security and Hyper-V.
In this course, students will learn to configure and manage a Microsoft Exchange Server messaging environment. This course will teach students guidelines, best practices, and considerations that will help them optimize their Exchange server deployment. It will also provide the knowledge and skills to plan, install, and manage the mailbox role, client access, transport, and Exchange infrastructure.
Job Market
Successful graduates of this Cybersecurity Analyst Program may pursue a wide variety of interesting and rewarding professions, including:
- Cybersecurity Analyst
- Cybersecurity Operator
- Computer Network Technician
- Network Security Analyst
- Risk/Vulnerability Analyst
- Cyber Incident Response Analyst
- Cyber Intrusion Analyst
- Penetration Tester
- Blue Team Specialist
- Red Team Specialist
- Network Systems and Data Communications Analyst
- Intrusion Detection System (IDS) Administrator
- Enterprise Network Defence (END) Administrator
Employers of Willis College Cybersecurity Graduates
- Consulting firms
- Cybersecurity agencies
- Government agencies
- Independent software vendors
- IT security agencies
- Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs)
- System Integrators
- Value-added resellers
Salary Information
Average Wage ($/hr) – $43.59
High Wage ($/hr) – $76.92
National Occupation Classification (NOC) for this program: 2171/21222, 2281/22220, 2282/22221, 2283/22222
Source: noc.esdc.gc.ca & www.jobbank.ca
Admissions Requirements
Academic Admission Requirements:
Canadian High School diploma or equivalent. Willis College’s Admissions Team uses the Wonderlic assessment tool.
For Mature Students
Applicants without a high school diploma may qualify under Mature Student Status by meeting the following criteria:
- Age: Must meet provincial minimums (18 in ON; 19 in the rest of Canada), verified via government photo ID.
- Assessment: Achieve minimum cut-off scores on the securely proctored Wonderlic test.
- Prerequisites: Satisfy all program-specific and language proficiency requirements.
For full details, see the Willis College Mature Student Admissions Policy.
Related Programs
Here are some other programs that may interest you
Frequently Asked Questions
No. This cyber security program begins with the fundamentals and helps you build your skills step by step. You will start with core areas like hardware, networking, Linux, Windows, and host-based security before moving into more advanced topics such as ethical hacking, cloud security, digital forensics, and threat intelligence.
Yes. For students exploring online cyber security courses, this training is still highly hands-on. You will work through labs, staged cyber-attack simulations, and technical exercises using real and virtual hosts, network appliances, firewall policies, VPNs, SIEM tools, malware mitigation, and threat analysis workflows. Daily instructor access and weekly group Q&A sessions also help keep the learning active and supported.
The program prepares you for a range of entry-level cybersecurity paths, including roles such as Cybersecurity Analyst, Risk and Vulnerability Analyst, Penetration Tester, and IDS Administrator. Career Services also supports your next steps with resumes, interview preparation, and job search guidance.
This program is an excellent fit for:
- Curious minds who enjoy tackling complex challenges and protecting digital environments.
- Individuals ready to launch a career in one of today’s most in-demand tech fields.
- Technicians and support staff looking to specialize and advance into cybersecurity roles.
- Adults seeking a future-proof, high-paying career that rewards problem-solving and critical thinking.
- CAF members transitioning to civilian life through Canada’s first military-authorized cybersecurity program.
- Professionals seeking Canadian-recognized credentials and career opportunities in tech.
Why choose the Cybersecurity Analyst program?
- Train with a Cybersecurity Education Pioneer: Learn at Canada’s first private career college authorized by the Canadian Armed Forces to provide cybersecurity training.
- Learn Through Real-World Cyber Simulations: Build practical experience through live attack scenarios, simulated SOC environments, ethical hacking exercises, and hands-on defensive training.
- Master Both Offensive and Defensive Security: Understand how cyberattacks work while developing the skills to detect threats, strengthen systems, investigate incidents, and protect organizations.
- Train with Industry-Standard Technologies: Gain exposure to tools and technologies associated with leading organizations such as Fortinet, Sophos, Cisco, Palo Alto, and IBM.
- Prepare for Multiple Cybersecurity Career Paths: Develop skills relevant to roles in cybersecurity analysis, SOC operations, penetration testing, threat intelligence, incident response, and network security.
- Keep Your Skills Current After Graduation: Access Willis College’s lifetime learning benefit, allowing eligible graduates to refresh completed courses as cybersecurity technologies and threats continue to evolve.
What You'll Learn
- Cyber Defence & Ethical Hacking: Learn how attackers target systems and apply penetration testing, Red Team, Blue Team, and defensive security techniques to identify and reduce vulnerabilities.
- Threat Detection & Incident Response: Build practical skills in threat analysis, malware detection, incident investigation, digital forensics, and responding to active cyber threats.
- Security Operations Centre Analysis: Train with SIEM tools, threat intelligence, and simulated Security Operations Centre workflows to monitor systems, validate alerts, and investigate suspicious activity.
- Network, Cloud & Systems Security: Learn to configure, secure, and troubleshoot networks, cloud infrastructure, Windows servers, Active Directory, Linux systems, databases, and messaging environments.
- Cybersecurity Coding & Automation: Use Python, PowerShell, and other scripting languages to automate security testing, gather information, identify vulnerabilities, and support penetration testing activities.
- Professional Reporting & Communication: Develop the ability to document technical findings and prepare clear vulnerability assessments, penetration testing reports, network reports, and recommendations for technical and business audiences.
Why You'll Love Willis College
- Industry-Aligned Programs: Career-ready curricula designed alongside top employers to ensure your skills match current market demands.
- Instructor-Led, Applied Learning: Hands-on training taught by industry experts who bring real-world knowledge, mentorship, and practical insight into the classroom.
- Flexible Learning Pathways: Tailored study options—in-person, online, or hybrid—that fit your lifestyle and meet you where you are.
- Personalized Small-Class Support: Dedicated guidance and encouragement in smaller group settings where you are a person, not a number.
- Accessible Funding Assistance: Direct support navigating student loans, grants, scholarships, and flexible payment plans to make your education attainable.
- Lifetime Career Services: Continuous job-search support and career counseling to help you transition smoothly from the classroom to the workforce.
What Our Graduates Are Saying
"The Admissions process was actually something that went really smoothly. The staff answered my questions exactly how I wanted. The next day, I told them I’m joining the program."
Moses Rubuye
Cybersecurity Analyst Graduate