What’s my strategy? As I’ve mentioned previously in other parts of my site, we all have different ways to learning and working towards a goal. I’ll summarise what i do on a daily or weekly basis to increase my overall understanding of Cyber Security and the channels I use for assimilating information.
I already have a lot of broad knowledge on various I.T/Security topics due to my employment experience and exposure to corporate I.T and Security systems, but there is always something new to learn.
Sometimes its even beneficial to go back to the basics and refresh yourself, we are constantly learning new information but that has a potential negative side-effect of forcing us to ‘drop out’ some of the information we stored in memory but never really put into practice or use. As they say, “Use it or lose it“
Daily Tasks
- Check various Tech and Cyber news sites. This will help to expand your knowledge with common topics, concepts and lingo. You may not understand some or most of what you are reading if you are new to Cyber Security, but it will prime your mind. Ransomware and Data Breaches are very common topics for example and usually sets the Internet on fire.
- Look through LinkedIn for people taking a similar path to you or Cyber Security experts who post regularly and try to help the community. Look at their current job and experiences, see what topics they are discussing and engaging in. Get involved and start following or connecting with people. This will give you a lot of exposure and may open up other possibilities including job postings, tips and tricks etc. Try and include yourself in the conversations, no one is going to make fun of you for trying to improve yourself.
- Make/update a plan on your required core skills and training. I discussed this on, ‘How can i get into Cyber Security‘. Take notes and keep track of your daily progression. It’s not a race, so take your time, make sure you understand what you are reading because every drop of knowledge is essential. If you encounter any issues, see if you can reach out to someone you have recently followed and connected with and politely ask if they are able to assist you with a basic question or topic.
- Drink Coffee – Don’t let Brain Drain creep in, take regular breaks and fresh air walks. Also, make sure you are eating high quality foods to keep your body and mind in peak condition. Seems like a silly thing to say but your physical and mental balance is key to a productive learning experience.
- Look for jobs and keep an eye on the requirements. Sometimes these will give you insights into potential new changes on the industry requirements, training or certifications. You can then follow up and do some reconnaissance on those topics if you see something new. It also helps to keep the requirements for those positions fresh in your mind.
Weekly Tasks
- Start or continue on your training or courses, ideally you want to get a couple of days of intense study in per week. If you’re not committed to any kind of course, start now, don’t delay. If you delay, you will never pass the start line and always be in limbo. Put your running shows on, ready yourself, and prepare for the race (…or fast walk!).
- Keep your mind fresh by swapping between course work and some play. There are a lot of great platforms available to play on and develop key skills, if you feel you have a sufficient knowledge or experience, such as CTF or hacking training platforms. A couple of good examples would be Hack The Box or Try Hack Me etc. These are excellent playgrounds and are usually accompanied by an article that you can follow through and build up your knowledge and experience. The author of the CTF (short for ‘Capture The Flag’) or challenge will try and explain the objective of the lessons, for beginners to advanced, and the tools required. You can access to everything inside of their playground so you don’t need to install any tools and applications. This is a fun experience and I would thoroughly recommend then as a training aid. If you can use a computer and have a reasonable understanding of computers and technology, you can’t go wrong here.
- Keep your profile on LinkedIn, or other professional networking sites, up to date with any new skills that you are developing, courses you have passed or certificates you have achieved. This shows potential recruiters that you are serious about the path you have taken and that could help you in landing your first set of job interviews for entry level positions. If you are able to share your experiences with your professional networks with a small write-up or video, do it. Put yourself out there and be recognised as an aspiring security professional!
- I spend a few hours each week messing around with a RaspberryPi. These are small computers that are great for development work or tinkering and there are lots of cool projects that you can try for yourself. They are relatively inexpensive and you can start getting the feel for learning new hardware, operating systems, networking and coding at home. Thoroughly recommend a purchase of one.
Rinse and Repeat. The key is persistance and balance. Once you’ve started, everything will become clearer and easier with every passing day. Set clear and reachable goals, if you can only manage 1 hour per day, this is an excellent start. Over time, you will naturally expand the amount of time you can dedicate because its fun and you are starting to understand more!
If you feel that this helps you, please drop me a message on my LinkedIn profile, or link my name inside your comment and let me know. I would appreiate any feedback from your side.