Mobile Security & AI Security Courses

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Frequently Asked Questions

What on-demand cybersecurity courses does 8kSec Academy offer?

8kSec Academy offers five self-paced, on-demand courses covering the most in-demand offensive security skills: Offensive Mobile Reversing and Exploitation (the flagship course covering both iOS and Android internals), Practical Mobile Application Exploitation (a focused course on auditing real-world Android and iOS mobile apps), Offensive iOS Internals (deep-dive into iOS security mitigations and internals), Offensive Android Internals (comprehensive Android architecture and attack techniques), and Practical AI Security: Attacks, Defenses, and Applications (covering prompt injection, MCP server attacks, LLM red teaming, and building AI security guardrails).
All five courses are available at academy.8ksec.io and can be started immediately after enrollment. Students receive 12 months of access to course materials, hands-on lab environments, and instructor support.

What is the difference between on-demand cybersecurity training and instructor-led training?

On-demand cybersecurity training lets you learn at your own pace where you access pre-recorded video lessons and hands-on labs on your own schedule, without fixed class dates. This suits professionals with unpredictable schedules, those in different time zones, or those who prefer to revisit material multiple times.
Instructor-led training (live) has scheduled sessions with a trainer delivering content in real time, answering questions on the spot, and adjusting the pace and depth based on the group. It also includes direct lab walkthroughs and peer interaction.
At 8kSec Academy, on-demand courses cover the core mobile and AI security curriculum. They include the same hands-on labs as live sessions, with the added benefit of self-paced progression. For teams or organizations that want to combine both, 8kSec offers live instructor-led versions of the same courses with optional on-site delivery.

Do I need prior cybersecurity experience to take 8kSec Academy courses?

Most 8kSec Academy courses are designed for intermediate to advanced security professionals who already work in penetration testing, security research, application security, or related roles. Participants are expected to be comfortable with the command line, have some understanding of how mobile operating systems work, and ideally have hands-on experience with tools like Frida, Burp Suite, or a debugger.
That said, each course clearly outlines its prerequisites. Practical Mobile Application Exploitation, for example, is a strong starting point for those newer to mobile security. More advanced courses like Offensive iOS Internals assume deeper technical backgrounds.
If you are unsure where to start, 8kSec's free labs on our academy are a useful way to gauge your current skill level before committing to a paid course.

What hands-on labs are included in 8kSec Academy courses?

Hands-on labs are central to every 8kSec Academy course, not an afterthought. Labs are built to mirror real-world scenarios: students practice techniques on actual mobile applications, real malware samples, and purpose-built vulnerable targets rather than contrived toy examples.
For mobile courses, lab exercises include reverse engineering iOS and Android binaries, bypassing SSL pinning, exploiting insecure data storage, chaining vulnerabilities in real app architectures, and analyzing native code. The Practical AI Security course includes labs on attacking live LLM-powered applications, exploiting prompt injection chains, and building detection guardrails.

Do 8kSec Academy courses include a certification?

Yes. All 8kSec Academy courses include a certification exam upon completion. Certifications are tied to the specific course and demonstrate that the holder has completed the full curriculum and associated assessments. These are practical, skills-focused certifications, not multiple-choice exams. They reflect demonstrated competency in offensive techniques relevant to mobile security or AI security.
Earning an 8kSec certification can also support eligibility for advanced roles such as Senior Application Security Analyst, Application Security Engineer, Mobile Security Specialist, Offensive Security Engineer, Penetration Tester, Security Researcher, AI Security Engineer, and similar positions that require hands-on expertise.
Certifications from 8kSec carry weight in the offensive security community because the company's courses are regularly delivered at major industry conferences including Black Hat, DEF CON, Hack in Paris, TyphoonCon, and others.

What is the Practical AI Security course, and who is it for?

Practical AI Security: Attacks, Defenses, and Applications is a hands-on course covering three pillars: attacking AI systems, defending them, and applying AI as a tool in security work. It is designed for penetration testers, red teamers, and security engineers who need to evaluate or protect AI-powered applications, and for practitioners who want to leverage AI to do their security work more effectively.
The course covers: understanding transformer architecture and LLM attack surfaces, exploiting prompt injection (direct, indirect, and multi-turn), attacking MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, agent hijacking and tool poisoning, supply chain risks in AI registries, securing RAG pipelines and vector databases, implementing Google's Secure AI Framework (SAIF) and OWASP LLM Top 10, building AI gateways and input/output guardrails, and using AI automation tools like Fabric for security tasks.
Students work through the modules progressing from LLM fundamentals to full offensive and defensive implementations. The course is relevant to any security professional whose scope now includes LLM-powered applications, autonomous AI agents, or AI-assisted security tooling.

Can I try 8kSec Academy before purchasing a course?

Yes. 8kSec Academy offers free security labs (8kSec Battlegrounds) that can be accessed without purchasing a course. These labs focus on practical security skills and are designed as standalone exercises to help you challenge and validate your knowledge.
8kSec Academy labs are available in the following areas:
A certificate upon successful completion is provided, allowing you to demonstrate your skills in specific areas.
Students who complete free labs and want to go deeper can enroll in the relevant course.
To access the labs, create an account at academy.8ksec.io.

How is 8kSec Academy different from other cybersecurity training platforms?

8kSec specializes specifically in mobile security and AI security which is a narrower and more technically demanding focus than other training platforms. While other providers cover a broad curriculum (web, network, cloud, forensics, etc.), 8kSec goes deeper on mobile internals, ARM64 exploitation, iOS and Android reverse engineering, and AI attack surfaces.
For professionals whose work involves mobile applications, mobile malware, or AI-powered systems, 8kSec's depth on those specific domains goes well beyond what other platforms offer.

What topics does the Offensive Mobile Reversing and Exploitation course cover?

Offensive Mobile Reversing and Exploitation is 8kSec's flagship course and the most comprehensive in the catalog. It covers both iOS and Android from the ground up at an advanced level, including:
  • iOS: Jailbreak techniques, iOS kernel architecture, userland security mitigations (ASLR, PAC, sandboxing), iOS binary reverse engineering with Ghidra and IDA, dynamic analysis with Frida, iOS exploit development and chaining
  • Android: ART runtime internals, Android binder IPC attacks, native code reverse engineering, application exploitation, rooting techniques, firmware analysis
  • Shared skills: ARM64 assembly analysis, dynamic instrumentation, hooking frameworks, certificate pinning bypass, binary patching, and exploitation chain construction
This course is designed for experienced pentesters and security researchers who want to develop senior-level mobile exploitation skills. It is the recommended path for those aiming to conduct high-assurance mobile security assessments or research mobile platform vulnerabilities.

What topics does the Practical Mobile Application Exploitation course cover?

Practical Mobile Application Exploitation is 8kSec's focused course on auditing and exploiting real-world iOS and Android applications. Unlike the flagship Offensive Mobile Reversing and Exploitation course, which goes deep into platform internals and exploit development, this course is centered on the application layer — making it the right starting point for penetration testers and application security engineers who assess mobile apps as part of their work.
The course covers:
  • Static analysis: Decompiling and reverse engineering iOS and Android app binaries, identifying insecure code patterns, and extracting hardcoded secrets
  • Dynamic analysis: Runtime instrumentation with Frida, intercepting and manipulating app behavior, and hooking functions to bypass security controls
  • Common vulnerability classes: Insecure data storage, broken authentication, improper session handling, client-side injection, and binary protections bypass
  • Network traffic analysis: Intercepting HTTPS traffic with Burp Suite, SSL pinning bypass techniques on both iOS and Android
  • Real-world targets: Labs use purpose-built vulnerable applications that reflect the architecture and defenses found in production mobile apps
This course is recommended for professionals who conduct mobile application security assessments or bug bounty hunting against mobile targets, and for those who want a practical foundation before progressing to more advanced courses.