Tools

Free cybersecurity career tools.

Salary calculator, path explorer, skills gap, certification ROI.

Working in Applied AI? Browse Applied AI career paths for AI-specific role guidance.

Survivor tools

The seven tools the scared mid-career professional uses first.

Salary floor, career path, skills gap, change simulator, resume review, mock interview. Answers the four questions: am I screwed, what is the plan, am I competitive, can I afford this.

Cybersecurity Salary Calculator

Calculate expected cybersecurity salary ranges by role, experience, location, and certifications. See how different factors affect your earning potential in security.

The DecipherU edge

Layers in certification premiums and the AI-fluency premium (Lightcast 2024: +15–25%) that BLS itself does not track.

Role-based estimates
Location adjustments
Certification premiums
Experience scaling

Cybersecurity Salary Sanity Check

Enter a cybersecurity job offer or current pay and see whether it lands below, within, or above market range for your role, experience, and location. BLS 2024 data.

The DecipherU edge

Verdict in plain English ("You are leaving $X on the table") plus a negotiation-script template you can paste straight into a recruiter email.

Offer-vs-market verdict
Negotiation guidance
Adjusted by experience + sector
Free, no signup

Cybersecurity Career Path Explorer

Visualize cybersecurity career progression paths from entry-level to senior roles. Understand the skills, certifications, and experience needed at each stage.

The DecipherU edge

Maps the real career moves practitioners actually make, including the pivot points that work and the ones that lead nowhere.

Role progression maps
Timeline estimates
Skill requirements
Pivot opportunities

Cybersecurity Skills Gap Analyzer

Compare your current skills against cybersecurity role requirements. Get a personalized learning roadmap to close the gaps.

The DecipherU edge

Compares against specific real job descriptions, not generic role rubrics. Returns a 90-day learn-and-build plan, not just a gap list.

Role comparison
Gap identification
Learning resources
Priority ranking

Cybersecurity Resume Review

AI-powered resume review tuned for cybersecurity hiring. Flags weak phrasing, missing quantification, and gaps against the roles you are targeting.

The DecipherU edge

AI critique tuned on cybersecurity-specific signal patterns drawn from CISO-network conversations: weak verbs, missing quantification, certifications-without-context. Returns a downloadable diff.

Role-targeted critique
Keyword gap analysis
ATS formatting check
Downloadable report

Cybersecurity Career Change Simulator

Pick a current and target cybersecurity role, set study hours, and see required certs, timeline, cost, and salary change in real time. Deterministic math, no AI.

The DecipherU edge

Deterministic math, no AI. Same inputs always produce the same numbers. Models cert sequence, study-hour budget, and sector-specific salary delta so you can sanity-check the recruiter pitch.

Role-to-role modeling
Cert sequence + cost
Study-hour timelines
BLS salary delta

Cybersecurity Mock Interview

Practice real cybersecurity interview questions with AI-graded feedback. Covers behavioral, technical, and scenario-based rounds across SOC, IR, GRC, and sales tracks.

The DecipherU edge

AI-graded against the STAR framework using cybersecurity-specific signal language (incident-handling vocabulary, NIST CSF references, MITRE ATT&CK fluency). Covers behavioral, technical, and scenario rounds.

Role-specific questions
Behavioral + technical
Timed scenario mode
STAR-framework scoring

Additional tools

Supporting tools for deeper practice.

Security utilities, AI cost analysis, certification ROI, jargon translator, comparisons. Each one earns its keep, but starts further into the survivor journey.

NIST CSF 2.0 Self-Assessment

Score your cybersecurity program against the six NIST CSF 2.0 functions in 24 questions. Per-function maturity, weakest function called out, three concrete next steps. Built on NIST.CSWP.29 and SP 800-53 Rev. 5.

The DecipherU edge

Per-function maturity 0-100 (most assessments collapse to one overall score). Calls out the weakest function and ties it to the cybersecurity career paths most likely to work on it.

6 NIST CSF 2.0 functions
24 weighted questions
Per-function maturity 0-100
Tiered next-step recommendations

Cybersecurity Password Health Checker

Two checks in one place: NIST SP 800-63B-aligned strength bands plus breach exposure via Have I Been Pwned. Uses k-anonymity so the password never leaves your browser.

The DecipherU edge

HIBP breach check + NIST SP 800-63B Rev. 4 strength bands in one place, k-anonymized so the password literally never leaves your browser. Many online checkers send hashes; some log them.

NIST SP 800-63B strength bands
HIBP k-anonymity breach check
100% client-side
No data sent or stored

Cybersecurity JWT Decoder & Inspector

Paste a JSON Web Token to decode header and payload, surface standard claims (iss, sub, aud, exp, iat, nbf, jti), and check expiry status. Built for cybersecurity engineers, identity teams, and developers debugging OAuth and OIDC.

The DecipherU edge

Beyond claims dump: flags exp/iat skew, the alg=none bypass pattern, and kid-rotation gaps. The patterns that show up in real auth-team interviews and in CVE write-ups.

Standard claims surfaced
Human-readable timestamps
Expiry status calculated
100% client-side

Cybersecurity Certification ROI Calculator

Calculate the return on investment for security certifications. Factor in cost, time, salary boost, and career impact for your cybersecurity career.

The DecipherU edge

Models opportunity cost of study time, not just exam fees vs salary lift. Uses BLS sector-specific data (finance vs healthcare vs federal) instead of aggregate national averages.

Cost analysis
Salary lift estimates
Time to ROI
Career impact scores

Cybersecurity Resume Builder

Free cybersecurity resume builder. Prefills from your DecipherU profile (target role, certifications, experience). ATS-safe text export plus browser print-to-PDF.

The DecipherU edge

ATS-safe text export plus PDF. Prefills from your DecipherU profile so target role, certifications, and tenure auto-fill, no re-typing every time you tailor for a posting.

Prefilled from profile
ATS-safe .txt export
One-click PDF
Privacy-first drafts

AI for Cybersecurity Professionals

Role-specific prompt library and workflow templates for cybersecurity practitioners using LLMs for triage, research, reporting, and career growth.

The DecipherU edge

Prompt library curated by Julian Calvo, not scraped from random GitHub repos. Each prompt survived founder review (no generic "as a cybersecurity professional…" starters).

Role-specific prompts
SOC/IR/GRC workflows
Career-growth prompts
Ethical-use guardrails

Cybersecurity Home Lab Guide

Step-by-step guide for building a home cybersecurity lab with real tools. Hands-on projects that show up as portfolio artifacts on your resume.

The DecipherU edge

Every project listed is portfolio-grade, meaning it shows up on a resume as a verifiable artifact (GitHub repo, screenshots, write-up), not just "I built a home lab."

Hardware and VM picks
Project walkthroughs
Portfolio artifacts
Free and budget tiers

Cybersecurity Role & Certification Comparisons

Side-by-side comparisons of cybersecurity roles, certifications, and career paths. Salaries, demand, required skills, and ROI in one view.

The DecipherU edge

Evidence-based verdict with a "when X is preferred over Y" decision rule, not just a side-by-side table. Each comparison cites the BLS, ISC2, or CompTIA data behind the call.

Role-vs-role
Cert-vs-cert
Location comparisons
Evidence-based verdicts

Cybersecurity Jargon Translator

Translate between business-speak, security-speak, and technical-speak. Useful for cross-functional cybersecurity professionals talking to execs, engineers, or auditors.

The DecipherU edge

Three target audiences (executive, technical, auditor) instead of generic "explain like I'm 5." Tone slider so the same idea can read cooperative or assertive depending on the room.

Executive translation
Technical translation
Auditor translation
Tone controls

Cybersecurity Salary Report

Personalized compensation report using BLS OES data, your role, certifications, years of experience, and metro. Downloadable for negotiation prep.

The DecipherU edge

Personalized to your specific role + metro + cert stack, not a national average. Downloadable PDF formatted for HR negotiation conversations and offer-letter compares.

BLS-backed ranges
Metro adjustments
Certification premiums
Downloadable PDF

Domain Typo-Squat Checker

Generate plausible lookalike domains for any input domain across 8 attack techniques: character omission, insertion, transposition, keyboard-neighbor typos, Cyrillic / Greek homoglyphs, hyphenation, brand-prefix confusion (login-, secure-, verify-), and high-risk TLD swaps (.zip, .top, .xyz). Click any candidate to verify in WHOIS.

The DecipherU edge

Browser-only typo-squat generation matching the dnstwist taxonomy without needing Python installed. Surfaces candidates and links each to WHOIS so the user controls when (and from where) the actual registration check fires.

8 attack techniques
Severity-tiered output (HIGH/MED/LOW)
WHOIS verify-link per candidate
100% client-side, no data sent

Prompt Injection Tester

Paste your AI agent's system prompt and test it against 13 known prompt-injection attacks across 7 categories: instruction override, prompt extraction, jailbreak, encoding tricks, indirect (RAG) injection, excessive agency, and output manipulation. Each unblocked attack returns a sample payload + recommended defense. Mapped to OWASP LLM Top 10.

The DecipherU edge

The only free tester that scores defense coverage of your system prompt against the actual published attack catalog (OWASP + MITRE ATLAS) AND returns the specific defense clause to add per failed attack. Cybersecurity-for-AI tool, bridges the cyber + Applied AI verticals.

13 attacks mapped to OWASP LLM Top 10
Per-attack recommended defense
Cyber × AI convergence positioning
100% client-side, no LLM call

Phishing Email Red-Flag Scanner

Paste any email body and get a 0–100 composite risk score with inline-highlighted red flags. Five detection categories (urgency, suspicious URLs, brand impersonation, credential harvesting, malware indicators), each with a 'why this is suspicious' explainer. Mapped to MITRE ATT&CK T1566.

The DecipherU edge

Composite scoring across 16 layered heuristics with a per-flag 'why this is suspicious' explainer that doubles as a teaching surface. Mapped to MITRE ATT&CK T1566 sub-techniques. Pure regex / pattern-match in your browser, no data ever leaves the page.

0–100 risk score with severity bands
Inline highlighted red flags in body
5 detection categories
100% client-side, body never sent

Cybersecurity CVE Lookup

Paste a CVE ID (single or batch up to 10), get CVSS scoring, CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) status, CWE classification, affected products, vendor advisories, and the cybersecurity role guides that should know about it. Live data from NVD + CISA, edge-cached.

The DecipherU edge

The only free CVE tool that combines NVD + CISA KEV in one view AND cross-links each CVE to the cybersecurity career guide that owns that class of work. Server-side fetches with Vercel edge caching keep the rate budget clean.

Single + batch lookup
CVSS v3 + v4 + KEV cross-check
CWE classification + affected products
Role-guide cross-links per CVE class

LLM Cost Decision Engine

The fastest way to estimate and reduce LLM costs. Side-by-side comparison across GPT-5.4, Claude Opus + Sonnet + Haiku, Gemini 3, Llama 4, and Mistral; multi-turn / agent / RAG patterns; inline prompt analyzer; budget guardrails. Deterministic, runs in your browser.

The DecipherU edge

Decision tool, not a calculator. Ranks all major models for your exact workload, surfaces the percentage you're overpaying vs the cheapest viable option, models real-world conversation patterns, and one-click switches you to the cheapest or recommended model. Your prompt never leaves the browser.

10-model side-by-side comparison
Multi-turn / agent / RAG patterns
Heuristic prompt analyzer (auto-clean)
Budget guardrail with switch-recommendation