Sources FOR beginners /university students interested in Cyber Security

 STEP 1 - Read all you can about the career option of Cyber Security on your own

This phase of learning is what I like to call pseudo-learning. You are not learning anything but you will be overwhelmed with so much random information about Cyber Security as a career.

Read or watch enough to know what the domain is about. Three days of this learning/reading/watching should be absolutely enough!

Resource links -

• SANS New To Cyber field manual is a great start!
• Refer to this LinkedIn post to download the PDF if you please or you can google it and download it.[1]
• Read any answers, blogs, or videos to read about career options in cyber security -
• I have added some answers and links that I created as I found them useful -
• Domains of cyber security - [2]
• Quora answer - What are the career options in cybersecurity?

No need to restrict yourself to the documents, links above, choose any videos/blogs you find useful to know about the domain in general.

STEP 2 - Choosing a domain that interests you

This is a difficult step. It’s a decision-making step.

There are two possibilities -

I hope that made it easy for you. You don’t have to decide on a domain yet.

Start off with basics. Strengthen your fundamentals!

The next question is -- How do I strengthen my fundamentals? What should I know?

STEP 3 -Strengthening the fundamentals

These three subjects could be focussed on -

• Networking
• Web applications/How the web works
• Operating Systems

NETWORKING

Some sources for understanding theoretical concepts of networking -

• This video series by Neso academy on Concepts of networking is good to start.[3]
• In order to practice, I highly recommend using Tryhackme. Use the free series on networking to gain an edge.
• [4] ( Search for networking on tryhackme)

Some famous certifications on networking -

• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
• CompTIA Network+

As a student, if you don’t wish to pay for the certifications, I would recommend preparing and studying for these certification exams even if you don’t want to take the test.

Certifications really help in setting a syllabus and help you prepare better.

If you please you can read my views on how certs may help.

[5] Certifications - yay or nay?

WEB APPLICATIONS

You can learn about web applications from -

These are good sources you may follow to learn to build web applications.

[6] Freecodecamp

[7] w3schools

Good books to learn web application hacking/other good resources -

• The Web Application Hacker's Handbook by Dafydd Stuttard
• [8] Portswigger
• [9] Burp Suite

OPERATING SYSTEMS

• It is important to learn about operating systems.
• Learn OS on Tryhackme.
• Use different sources on the internet to read about Windows and Linux.
• Also, read about endpoint security from sources you like.

GENERAL CYBER SECURITY KNOWLEDGE

In order to understand cyberattacks, different malware and stay updated on the recent trends, tactics, techniques, etc, you can refer to the following links

[10] Krebs On Security

[11] ( Choose any from here )

Some good cyber security companies that are cyber security product vendors whose blogs, pages you can also follow to gain more insight -

• Palo Alto Networks
• Fortinet
• Cisco
• Crowdstrike
• IBM
• OneTrust
• Okta
• Zscaler
• KnowBe4
• Darktrace
• Proofpoint
• Rapid7
• Check Point
• Trend Micro
• McAfee Enterprise
• RSA
• Sophos
• Splunk
• Microsoft

HOW TO SET UP YOUR HOME LAB

Just google ‘How to set your home lab’. You can also use videos on how to set up kali Linux.

STEP 4 - Choosing a domain now!

Now that you have gained a strong foundation, you can now jump to one domain of your choice. Refer to the following map to choose one domain.

If the map is unclear you can google the title of this image and find the original image.

Feel free to reach out to me over.

Thanks and happy learning :)