Over the last two months I’ve been working on learning more about cybersecurity. I’ve signed up for a 6-month bootcamp course to that end. It starts at the end of the month and will probably occupy most of my free time. In the end, you get a credit towards taking the CompTIA Security+ exam for certification. It’s been awhile since I’ve been a student — just a little longer than it’s been since I’ve last brushed up my resume.

In the meantime, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how many skils that I’ve picked up over the years have helped me catch on to the exercises offered by Hack the Box. Even so, the labs there are extremely challenging. There are so many hacking tools out there, each of them with a myriad of options to invoke. But before you can even get there, you have to perceive what obstacles are preventing you from your goal. That is where understanding the fundamentals of operating systems, databases, communication protocols, and scripting all help. I only recently climbed from Noob to Script Kiddie on that platform, but I feel like my brain has stretched out and is thinking more creatively in doing so.