MCP Security Fundamentals
A practical walk through the OWASP MCP Top 10 — the risks that come with the Model Context Protocol, shown through real incidents and the fixes that stop them. You'll learn what changes when you connect a model to tools and data, and how to do it safely.
Curriculum
Three sections, 21 short lessons — about two hours end to end, at your own pace.
Introduction to MCPs
What MCP is, how it works, and why connecting models to tools reshapes the threat model — from the anatomy of a server to the “lethal trifecta.” Seven lessons.
OWASP MCP Top 10
All ten risks — token and secret exposure, privilege escalation, tool poisoning, supply-chain tampering, command injection, shadow servers, and more — each with real exploits and concrete mitigations. Twelve lessons.
Best practices
Putting it together: how to secure your own MCP stack, plus a course wrap-up and final quiz. Two lessons.
Earn a certificate
Finish the course and earn a verifiable certificate — issued by AI Security University with its own public verification page, and shareable straight to your LinkedIn profile.
- Public verification page
- Counts toward 2 CPE credits
- Open Badge compatible
- Add to LinkedIn
To earn it: Pass the final quiz.
See a sample credentialYour instructor
Dan Barahona
Dan Barahona is a cybersecurity leader with over 25 years in the industry. Courses he's built have trained more than 150,000 learners, including teams at over 80% of the Fortune 100.
He teaches security the way he teaches everything: practical, incident-driven, and focused on what you'll actually change on Monday.
Ship MCP integrations you can trust
Free, self-paced, and grounded in real incidents. Enroll and start whenever you're ready.