The Bastard Academic

This week, I’ll walk you through the ever-growing list of post-nominal letters you can add to your name through qualifications and certifications. Being a student myself, I’ll start with exploring the academic route, then go through the more popular, and best recognised, vendor and standards organisations’ certifications, highlighting their worth for your CV and career development. It’s not a comprehensive list, by any stretch of the imagination, and is geared towards a more general CyberSec professional, rather than focusing on any one aspect of the industry. I’ll try and shy away from too much debate by running away very quickly to avoid the one about CEH vs. OSCP, and leave it to you instead. *Disclaimer* I am a university student, and haven’t actually done any of the following certifications, at least not to completion. I have explored each in a reasonable amount of depth to see their benefits and worth and consulted with holders of a few to gain their insider opinions. I a...

So far, a large portion of this blog has been dedicated to helping people begin their careers within the Cyber Security sector from the beginning, i.e. straight from college or university. This week, I’d like to explore the options for those looking to make the move from other career paths, specifically with an eye to those looking at managerial positions. If you are already coming from an IT background, this post might have one or two things you might find useful, but you’ll probably have access to other resources that might be better suited to your needs. I want to note here that while this will guide you through some of the options and a few certifications that will help move into CyberSec, some technical competency is a must. A good level of understanding of the technologies and principles underlying those technologies is unavoidable in this field, as you’ll see below. My suggestion would be to look at my earlier blogs and some looking around, as I won’t go into depth about t...

Today, I want to look at soft skills; more precisely, one soft skill in particular, namely problem solving. Yes, that old chestnut, the one everyone seems to need to put on their CV, from janitorial staff and burger flippers to IT practitioners of all flavours. But why am I writing about it now? Because it’s not a very well understood skill, and it is only half of what a CyberSec pro needs. Confused? I’ll explain. As I’ve mentioned previously, one way for CyberSec personnel to test themselves and keep their skill sharp, while learning or while actively engaged in a position, is wargames (you can find a good list of them here ). Hack boxes, CTF’s (Capture the Flag) and so on are a great way to introduce you into thinking about the issue faced and the problems that need solving in context. It helps build your problem-solving skills by presenting you with common, and not so common, challenges, which you must overcome with your wits and technical know-how. Problem solving as we ...

Roll-up! Roll-Up! Step right up, ladies, gentlemen and all manner of horrible creatures! Welcome to my domain, one and all. As you walk in, please check you haven't left your humour at the door, and that you have some idea why you are here! This is going to be a bit of an odd blog. That is because it isn't one blog, it is a weird amalgamation of several blogs: one large part Cyber Security (shared with my main CyberSec blog for CoderSource.io); one part technology review and tutorial; three shakes of writing, and a smattering of philosophy, politics (local and global), and anything else that takes my fancy. As for me? Well, I am a student, both auto-didactic and actual academic (kind-of, I'm taking a break) of many different domains, although primarily Cyber Security. While I won't feature all of my work for CoderSource (a coders recruitment agency) here, most of it will end up on these pages, as will all kinds of supplementary information and resources to keep i...