Original Digital Gangster
Gotta love some YTCracker.
Moving on.
Ethical Hacking
I have recently completed Heath Adams’ (The Cyber Mentor) course on Practical Ethical Hacking to add yet another feather to my cap and I have to say this was a very enjoyable course. It covers a broad spectrum of content and practices, the mid course capstone was fun and it truly got me thinking. 11/10 would recommend.
I am a very odd learner (I’m not sure if I have brought this up before) I seem to concentrate harder and understand more when the content I consume is sped up, handily Udemy has this feature with its videos so I quickly got to grips and started hammering the course.
I have taken notes that look a lot like a scribbled monkey and snaps of the transcript, I would very much like to put out a sort of study guide for the course (though I feel it may take away from the course and I don’t want to be plagiarising ). And yes I do realise for the good people that have done the course there was an entire section on note taking and making it look good…. I’m a savage.
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In other news I’ve rewritten my CV. I realised that it had been some years since I last worked it and my Linkedin was far more up to date as such I carved out some time and got it done properly will all these shiny new Certifications ‘n’ all.
It was at this time I realised, I’ve been out of work a while now, nearly a year in fact. It’s all well and good spending the time wisely and making sure I fill in knowledge gaps (at first, I’ll be honest, I was lazy and spent time in YouTube rabbit holes and xbox)… but what do I have to show for it? what good is being a Certified Network Security Specialist with knowledge in Digital Forensics, Ethical Hacking and Wireless/Web Penetration Testing…. If I have nothing to show for it.
What might people who view my CV think to this gap in work? literally this is the first time in decades I have had a ‘break’ from work… one job I literally had my last day there (redundancy) and the next day I was desk side interviewing for another job (honestly it was a lucky break situation).
I spend my time learning new things and applying for jobs but that isn’t going anywhere. But why? Is this that old lie of ‘needs 5 years experience in…’.
You’ve seen it.
I’ve seen it.
It’s all a bunch of baloney!
To take a small snap of the Cyber Mentors course:
So let’s move on to the next one where you should never be afraid to apply for a job that you’re unqualified for because you’re gonna be unqualified for every single job. The requirements on job postings are ridiculous. They’re absolutely ridiculous. I would still to this day never have a job if I looked at the job requirements and took them seriously. If you find a job that’s interesting. Just go ahead and apply for it. What’s the worst that’s going to happen. They’re gonna send you a rejection letter OK. That’s fine. But you never know what’s gonna happen until you apply.
I’m hoping it’s clear.
All these ‘requirements’ are on job postings are a shopping list, a shopping list usually for an entire team of people but they can only afford to hire one person and that person is going to need to give them the moon on a stick. Every. Time.
So with all this in mind (I have many different points of view spinning in my head every time I write something), I have decided its time to put my learning into action.
Hack the box is an online CTF (Capture the Flag) game that anyone can play (as long as they think like a hacker). You can come in at any skill set and learn and improve. Part of the Practical Ethical Hacking Certification is doing some of these boxes so I decided to finally put an end to my impostor syndrome (which by the way kicks my ass hard every day in ways you can’t imagine or understand why) and finally put something into myself and start knocking down boxes, one at a time till they are done.
Hacker One (H1) and Bug Crowd are bug bounty programs that reward hackers for (not only sticking to spec) but for finding flaws in the security of companies that run through them. Companies like Paypal, Brave Browser, Uber, Lyft, Pornhub (yes a legit reason to browse all day cough), Facebook etc etc all pay bounty hunters to find and document their bugs.
So this is something that I could try (even if I fail) and get paid.
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On the education side as my new hobby besides picking up achievements on the xbox is getting certifications.
Lets face it, there is nothing more house hold name then CompTIA, with my experience I should be dropping Network+ as my first port of call followed by Seurity+, Linux+ and eventually CySa+. Lofty goals are great when you have no income, but, its something to strive towards.
The Linux Professional Institute
This is a little different for me, granted I’ve tinkered with Linux over the years and I still google ‘how to install a .deb’ (why the F can’t I just remember this) it would be nice to also show I definitely know what I’m on about. I don’t feel I need to certify in Windows or Mac OS as I have literally owned these machines for years, even now I run Windows 10 and the Mrs has a Macbook Air.
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So ‘Professional’ (read: more well known) Certifications and finally putting pen to paper and take what I have learned and show I can action it and finally I updated my CV.
I don’t want to sit in an interview where I actually do know the answer to the question being asked but my brain can’t articulate and explain the who, what, when, where, why and how. I want to be able to explain myself confidently with a little bit of experience when I have no (professionally employed doing xyz) experience. Like a lock picker who practices picking locks, I want to break into that system (politely).
There is one other thing I have been kicking around in my head that I want to do but I literally have no idea how to do it. Teach. I won’t go too far into it as its a very early stage, all I know is there are things I have learned and I want to share but my impostor syndrome just makes me think that I am taking something I have learned and word for word plagiarising it which dissuades me from actually doing it at all, I kinda need to get past that speed bump before I can put out things, but lets see what happens when I learn some more.
In Conclusion, this is where I am at the last month has been a roller coaster and I’ve started gaining traction, how about you?