Updated in May 2025.

This course now features Coursera Coach! A smarter way to learn with interactive, real-time conversations that help you test your knowledge, challenge assumptions, and deepen your understanding as you progress through the course. Dive into the world of network security with this guide to using Nessus, one of the most trusted vulnerability scanners in the industry. Starting with the basics, you’ll learn how to install and configure Nessus on various platforms, setting up a robust environment for hands-on practice. The course gradually introduces essential vulnerability assessment concepts, covering passive and active information gathering, manual vulnerability analysis, and the theoretical foundations for a robust security framework. As you progress, you’ll explore each feature of Nessus in detail, from managing scan folders to running practical, real-world scans on live systems. Detailed lessons will walk you through host discovery, operating system identification, and how to analyze and interpret the results of your scans to prioritize remediation efforts. Advanced users will benefit from in-depth tutorials on using Nessus for compliance audits, web application scanning, and performing authenticated scans. The course also covers integration with tools like Metasploit and alternatives like Nmap and Vega, broadening your scanning toolkit. Finally, you'll explore real-life applications of Nessus, including creating reusable scan policies, using compliance templates, and customizing the Nessus scanner with advanced configuration files like nessusd.rules. By the end of this course, you'll not only master Nessus but also learn how to tailor its capabilities to your network's unique needs, making you a more effective and confident security professional. This course is ideal for IT professionals, network administrators, and security analysts looking to enhance their vulnerability scanning and network security skills. A basic understanding of networking and security concepts is recommended but not required.