Monthly Recap - November 2020
“We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!”
- Dr. Peter Venkman
What a month this has been, I decided to take my blogging a little more seriously and after watching/reading Troy Hunt’s content all these years figured it was high time for some structure.
So, ‘November’ the month before Christmas that still has all the Christmas adverts clogging the air ways… November has been a fun one, I’ve grown a little more, learned some, set a target and SPOILER absolutely smashed it and finally been helpful in the CyberSecurity field.
Let me break that down for you.
So what have I been doing?
Per my last post I have been furiously studying and running practice exams for CompTIA Network+ and also Security+ (Linux+ was soooo last month). I condensed about 110 hours of educational content and labs into several half days through the month (an advantage of waking up early) and the end result?
I snagged Certificates of completion for Network+ and Security+ both which can be viewed on my Credential.net and LinkedIn for all recruiters to see. fanfare
I also spent some time this month helping others, you see ICSI (International CyberSecurity Institute), the same ISCI that granted me my first cyber related certificate the CNSS (Certified Network Security Specialist), have dropped another awesome certification for people to enjoy which is also free with a discount code.
The certification is : ICSI - CyberSecurity Essentials which acts as an intro to CyberSecurity in the theoretical aspect, you end up learning many of the different concepts of Information Security to get you started.
If you’re a total noob or a seasoned pro, it can’t hurt to go over the basics once in a while.
The course itself is £250 which, being honest given what I’m seeing online is a good rate for something that is a certification from a recognized issuer, the only thing that can make this going rate even better is drum roll the aforementioned free discount code. which knocks the price to £0 or £75 again if you want a physical certificate to oggle.
When this course arrived in my inbox, I jumped on it. There is no shame in taking a course if it free. I am all for paying it forward, sharing knowledge and helping others as such I also shared news of this with my LinkedIn followers and also The Many Hats Club’s Discord Channel (TMHC is awesome BTW) shout-out to @CyberSecStu.
From this I have helped several folks who were struggling with redeeming the code and where to start. If I can help, I will. If I come up with a blank I will always pass you onto an adult someone who can help.
Other then that and Enrolling in yet another course (Thank you ISCI I love you) Heath Adams @thecybermentor also released his new course on Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) Fundamentals so naturally that is something I’ll also absolutely pickup. For those interested it is available directly from him and TCM Security (all courses link) and also via Udemy (Yes it has a discount code, look it up :) ).
This concludes our News portion of the broadcast.
Honestly its been a wild ride this month and I am looking forward to December and how many different things I can squeeze in there too, perhaps take another look at mobile device hacking? Take down some more CTF boxes? been a month since I last touched HackTheBox, gotta keep that #redteaming fire going… I’ve also toyed with the idea of making video content and posting it to the tube, though I have a face for radio and a voice for morse code so maybe that will stay on the back of the pile for a while longer.
I hope this fire that I’m feeling for learning and touching/playing with new things is translatable i.e. I hope that any potential recruiters/organizations that are looking for someone see this and see my passion for Cyber and thinks to themselves ‘this guy, this is the guy we need,,,, sweeping our floors’.
Seriously at this point in the game a man needs a decent paying job and I would happily sweep floors,,, in a secure government building cough cough cough #redteam.
I hope my rambling helps someone who is looking to learn or makes someone smile. I’m going to try sticking at a minimum to a monthly update but If i find a topic I want to elaborate on or something I want to bring up I’ll post it on this my one and only personal blog and see where it goes from there.
In the meantime, Stay Frosty!