Any cyber security people in here? I am currently on my second semester and having trouble understanding many of the concepts. Any advice on online tools or who to follow online to get a better understanding? Or does anyone want to be my tutor? HA.. I am sure it will all come to me as I continue. I am learning from home, didn't want the VAX.. 😄
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I'm at the director level in cyber security. I've had to learn this stuff myself for the most part over the last 6 years or so as there is a dearth of information out there. (been in IT over 20 years) Nobody seems to understand "why" we do things. It's very frustrating. I'm an architect so understanding "why" we do things is very important to me (and management that pays the bills).
https://www.cisecurity.org/controls/cis-controls-list
It is by far the most easy to understand way of expressing what do in cyber security to secure the information systems. See if you can download the controls. They used to include diagrams which were very helpful. I need to download the latest version myself. Use your college e-mail address as your college may already have a CIS SecureSuite Membership.
I consider the CIS critical controls to be "momma". If you have a question about how we do cyber security, see what "momma" has to say about it. There are tons of security frameworks/controls out there, but they all map back to "momma" for the most part.
The controls are listed in order of importance with "1" being the most important. Everybody wants to do penetration testing because they want to be a "hacker", but it is in fact the least important thing "number 18" of what we do in cyber security.
Cyber security isn't glamorous. It is a constant game of "whack-a-mole".
Oh, and learn some fucking networking. I am astounded at how little cyber security people know about networking, but it is getting better. If you don't understanding networking, how the hell can you do your job? I brought my networking skills into cyber security.
Update: CIS Controls v7.1 has diagrams. CIS Controls v8 has no diagrams. You can still download v7.1.
I think this is an important callout.
The control list is a good high-level overview of the industry that you can then specialize into what interests you.
u/solarsavior may be focused on defense-in-depth and compliance
red-teamer may be focused on abusing proxies and selenium
SOC analyst is interested in basic triage forensics
a threat hunter would be interested in TTPs from recent campaigns
Its good to cross-discipline, but nobody does everything.
I am doing the Lab work, and passing them, but I want to REALLY learn it, and yes, I think I lack networking knowledge. Any sources to help me better understand that.. that you think are better than others?
The Network+ certification is still around. I got one of these years ago when I was self-training to change careers and get into IT. Get one of these.
https://www.comptia.org/certifications/network#exampreparation
https://www.amazon.com/CompTIA-Network-Certification-N10-008-Comptia/dp/1264269056/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=comptia+network%2B+total+seminars&qid=1674772567&s=books&sr=1-1
Consider building a home network.
Edit: Hold on. There used to be some network simulation software. Looking to see if it is still around.
https://www.networkstraining.com/network-simulation-software-tools/
https://www.imedita.com/blog/top-10-list-of-network-simulation-tools/
I haven't messed with in ages, but GNS3 was promising. There are others.
Awesome man.. I've been into your links since you posted them here. I think this will help me. My dad is a very smart computer guy, he did this type of stuff for a long time, however, we don't talk. Politics and covid related... so I want to learn this even more. I just need to make it all click in my brain.
Be willing to skip around when learning things if you can. Learn what interests you first if you can. You’ll gain momentum and it will get easier. I was completely self-taught before I changed careers. I got lucky in that I changed careers in 2000; the best time in recent history to get into IT.
Skip the fucking OSI Model if you can. Learn it later. It won’t click until you know what a hub, switch, router, etc. actually do. It always bothered me that they put it at the start of the book when it should be at the end.
We all start somewhere. I remember that Commodore 64 and being up all night, mostly trying to figure out how to format a floppy disk. I remember buying a home networking kit; basically a hub, two network cards, and cabling. The damn thing wouldn’t work. Learned that coiled up unshielded networking cable doesn’t work.
Yes, I actually already learned the OSI, for the most part, years ago.. but that's basically as far as I got by reading and learning.. now I just want to focus on the networking and all these programs that were just thrown at me and what exactly these programs are designed for. It will take awhile I know.. I just need to be patient with it.. I can't thank you enough. I hope I can throw questions at you every once in a while. Any support will benefit me
sure, just dm me
Wow, good stuff here. Can't thank you enough! I hope we can be friends, ha. I am going to start check in to all this stuff now. Thank You!
Learn by doing. Build a home lab and start playing both sides of the fence, red team and blue team. That will help you learn what you need to get around, and what you need to watch for.
Make reading intel reports part of your daily digest (i.e. alienvault feed, following strategic twitter accounts, etc) understanding TTPs will help you later with identifying objectives. Here's a good breakdown of a recent campaign: https://darktrace.com/blog/exploring-a-crypto-mining-campaign-which-used-the-log-4j-vulnerability
John Hammond has some good videos, example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q9-X_NRlJc
Check out Black Hills Infosec for cheap instructor lead courses.
Wow, that dark trace link is excellent, thank you.. yes, I am very worried about the understanding the LAB part of it all, not having the hands on because working from home.. I think I will need to purchase some equipment to get the hands on here.
I hate to point anybody to Reddit, but /r/homelab used to be very solid
Also, you can grab used workstations cheaply that are great for home lab machines.
Enterprise workstations from Dell, HP, or Lenovo are solid and easy to work on and can be found for as low as $50-80 on eBay.
I prefer the workstations to servers because they're not nearly as loud.
Very helpful, Thanks! Yes, after some research last night, I found put the best way was to build a home lab.
It's either locked away with no network access, or it's unsecure. :)) I never understood how their could be a cyber security profession. If there is a connecting conduit there is a way in.
Or.. does anyone know of a good cyber security tutor online that could help me? I don't want to just pass, I want to kick ass.
Watch the professor Messer security+ course on youtube?
Build a homelab for hands on experience? All you need is a computer with a decent amount of ram to run 1-2 virtual machines.
Do capture the flags for technical practice, or other games like over the wire?
What concepts are you struggling with?
It's a bit hard to go straight into cybersecurity without prior experience with how business based IT systems function. You have to know what you are protecting before you can understand how and why you are protecting it....
It would be hard to explain here.. atleast right now.. I will open up my lab again, and post some of the concepts I'm struggling with when I get home. Thanks for helping out here