Getting into Cyber

Quick, I’ll tell you a little secret… to get into CYBER you must first follow this guide:

Now if you are going to GET INTO CYBER you need to have a range of things:

  • Computer Hacking Skills
  • Num-chuk Skills

Right ok, so let’s get some Hacking Skills!

Head over to KALI LINUX and download KALI

https://www.kali.org/get-kali/

Now you can choose the route you want to go:

  • Bare Metal (so so 1337)
    Cloud Based (for those with bare $$$$)
  • Live Boot for those sneaky beaky ones
  • WSL (For when you want to be able to game, produce content, do business backend activities and not throw your computer out of the window)
  • Mobile – KALI is fun to use on mobile
  • Containers – dockerised KALI is cool

Me what do I use? whatever I need to get the job done. But typically I use WSL and/or VMS (Local or Cloud)

Now, you probably want to TORRENT and get EVERYTHING (OPSEC reasons) but also the normal ISO installer is fine for most as well.

Once you have downloaded the ISO you can then look at deploying:

  • To create a USB drive you can use RUFUS or ETCHER
  • For VMS you can simply boot from the ISO and install

Ages and ages ago I made a video on how to install KALI – the process really hasn’t changed much so it’s probably still valid:

Now you might have got this far and thought?

“Dan, this is great and all, but HOW DO I GET INTO CYBER?”

oh ok, so you might have realized something, you can BE IN CYBER without ever using LINUX, or KALI or HACKING! and well, it’s a really valid question, the reality is:

You can “be in cyber” in so many ways its practically impossible to even write them all, the industry has roles covering:

  • Marketing
  • Sales
  • Product Management
  • Business Development
  • Leadership (CISO)
  • Management (SOC Manager, Risk Manger etc.)
  • Auditor
  • Security Tester
  • SOC Analyst
  • Incident Response Analyst
  • Digital Forensics Analyst
  • Security Engineer
  • Detection Engineering
  • Deception Engineering
  • Exploit Developer
  • Researchers
  • Project Manager
  • Programme Manager
  • Trainer
  • Content Creator
  • Cryptographer

and so on and so on!

  • What I’m trying to say is think about things:
  • Why do I want a career in cyber security?
  • What roles might interest me?
  • What parts of the Cyber Security world sounds interesting?
  • What skills and experiences have I already got?
  • Do I already do “some cyber” stuff in my work or studies?
  • Where do I want to aim for?

Everyone can have a different path, it’s such a broad, deep and fast paced industry that there are SO many ways to start your career in cyber.

I think they key things for me are:

  • Where are you today?
  • Where do you want to be?
  • What do you need to get there?

It’s the same as any career/industry (but cooler coz it’s CALLED CYBER and we have HACKERS!) and bringing things back to fundamentals to me is key. Remember for all the pews, baddies and cool hacks, lots of the work is done in PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Visual Studio and a web browser! (don’t forget to deploy cool desktop wallpapers and cool stickers though (if you like that kind of thing)

Most of all:

  • Be willing to learn
  • Be a team player
  • Realize this is lots about business and communications
  • Leave the egos at the door
  • Share what you learn
  • Help and support others

Good luck on your cyber adventures! remember, there is NO SPOON! Now go follow the white rabbit and get CYBERING!