Whereas my Infrastructure plan is moreso focused on learning the infrastructure as a code principles to be able to develop and destroy servers and hosts in the cloud, my Cloud study is learning more so about the different cloud providers and the way they offer their services. For this I am looking specifically at Cloud based certifications such as those offered by Azure and AWS and Comptia’s Cloud+.
Oracle Cloud
Azure
AWS
Cloud + (Wiley)
Udemy Cloud Computing for Beginners with Microsoft Azure
YouTube Cloud Computing Course (There’s one by Simplilearn)
My world domination plan includes cloud infrastructure because most of the world’s Fortune companies are running their infrastructures from the cloud. Whereas traditional networks included server farms, and physical infrastructures, cloud computing infrastructure includes all of the networking, storage, power, and virtualized resources that an organization needs. There are currently 3 main companies in the Cloud Computing market Amazon Web Services, Azure, and Google Cloud. Each providing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) models where they serve as third party hosts offering core infrastructure for their customers.
While each of the cloud computing companies offers the ability to for example create a Virtual Machine (VM) or a Virtual Network in the cloud, at a large scale companies such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and others need their infrastructures created and destroyed in a much more efficient way. To do that the provisioning, modifications and removal of virtual servers, some organizations use infrastructure as code services such as Terraform and Kubernetes. Terraform is a vendor neutral service that allows you to develop code to provision servers on AWS, Azure, VMware and a number of other cloud services providers in the market. Kubernetes on the other hand takes a container management approach to infrastructure as code to manage system servers and networking. These are both very important to big tech companies and therefore very important areas that are needed for my world domination plan.
Resources I have for my study of Infrastructure include
Terraform training (available from their website)
Kubernetes training videos (available from their website and youtube)
If you’re interested in ethical hacking and penetration testing in general, much of the practice and home lab set up includes setting up various Linux machines and using them to practice your scanning, enumeration, hosts, ports, services, and vulnerabilities exercises are done with Linux machines. To set up a Kali machine which is at the beginning of many home lab set up guides, you need to put it on a Linux machine. Also, many of the tools you will find yourself using are command line tools and many commands do not work the same in Windows as they do in Linux. This is why if you’re interesting in pursuing a career involving ethical hacking that it is important that Linux be on your world domination plan and why its a refresher on mine.
I used to be well versed in Linux in undergrad but haven’t really had to use it since then except in vms that I was putting together for my home lab. Part of this effort for me is Linux specifically, and part of it is just an overall command line refresher. Either way, this is one of those topics that I have an abundance of resources, many of which are free or cheap.
What time is it? Its Java time! Today is Java day in the world domination plan and so the discussion is resources to help you learn Java. I tend to lean heavily on the free and cheap resources so this list is by no means exhaustive. Also just a caveat, I have programmed with Java for a few years in the past so my Java day is moreso of a refresher and to learn how to do it more efficiently and securely.
Codecademy
Test Automation using Selenium WebDriver with Java: Step by Step Guide
Core Java Volume I–Fundamentals
freecodecamp
Git (You can use GitHub as a repository for your code and Git to push and pull it from the command line)
Can I tell you the real reason APIs made my world domination list. The real real reason??? Well my husband and I order a lot of door dash, and I got it into my head that my next project I want to make a program in Python to find out how much we spend per month on door dash. That’s the real reason why. But regardless of how it got on the list, its on there so we need some study resources. I have the following:
An Intro to APIs by Brian Cooksey is available on Kindle for FREE
Web development got on my plan for a couple reasons. One, because I need to put up a website, and two, full stack development skills are good to have. Regardless, i’ve got lots of resources that you might find of use. I actually took a web dev course in undergrad where I designed my first website using dream weaver. There’s so much more to web development. There is nothing backend on this list… there should be
Dreamweaver
Codecademy HTML
Codecademy Javascript
Codecademy React
Pentester labs (more on the what to look for that makes them insecure than the building)
Udemy Front End Web Development
Udemy Full Stack Web Developer
Learning JavaScript Data Structures and Algorithms (Packt) Humble Bundle
I’m getting a head start on tomorrow, tomorrow’s (Sept 22nd) world domination plan topic is Networking. Networking is one of those foundation level things that you’ve got to be strong in for a lot of the higher level cybersecurity options. For me i’m studying for the Network+ as well as trying to master subnetting. I’ve got some Network+ resources including a few text books from Humble Bundle, a Network+ Course from Wiley Efficient Learning as well as one of YouTube’s influencers Professor Messer who also helped me pass my security+ exam.
Wiley Efficient Learning Network+ Course – (from Humble Bumble but course is offered by Wiley)
Network Attacks and Exploitation: A Framework (Humble Bumble)
Microsoft Windows Networking Essentials (Humble Bumble)
Professor Messer YouTube
Udemy Subnetting Fundamentals
Udemy Python for Network Engineers
classcentral.com Computer Networking Courses including (The Bits and Bytes of Computer Networking, Peer to Peer Protocols and Local Area Networks and TCP/IP and Advanced Topics to name a few)
Today’s world domination plan topic is Ethical Hacking. I’ve been fake studying for this forever. (maybe your judgement will lead to motivation, bring it on). Out of all the things Cyber I learn about, I’m most interested in Ethical Hacking so I spend a lot of time on EH related things. I’ve got a lot of resources (and enthusiasm) on this topic so here goes.
Today’s study topic is on GIT. I don’t have a lot of variety for Git topics but what I do have I’m going to share. Amazon kindle has a Git tutorial called Ry’s Git Tutorial. It’s rated almost 5 starts and it’s FREE. It’s 140 pages. Pearson Advance also has a course called Git Essentials. They offer classes for free now and again and this was one I picked up. Git also has a tutorial on their website as well as some videos. There are lots of paid books available on the topic on Amazon but I like my books free or close to it.
As part of the What Can I Do series, I have been advocating for you to take inventory of your KSAs (Knowledge, Skills and Abilities) and tasks as they apply to your existing areas of expertise and use them to find areas within Cyber that you have existing experience. The NIST SP 800-181 framework was designed to help define the tasks and knowledge areas that are needed for the cyber security professionals in the workforce. If you’re considering doing a career change or focusing your efforts in school to get a career in Cyber, start with what you know and expand from there. The What Can I Do posts are meant to show roles in cyber security that you can take your existing KSAs to show your experience doing the work. Documenting your areas of experience are only one part of your killer interview, the other is showing areas that you have been working on that may not be demonstrated in your existing work experience. My recent inventory and my goals for world domination showed that for the types of jobs that I plan on claiming, I needed to expand my KSAs. For me, while I have experience in technology, information assurance, development, risk assessment, and project management I need to expand my experience in other areas. To game-plan those areas I developed a list of 10 things I wanted to work on to help increase my KSA. Enter the World Domination Plan (Dramatic music plays in the background). My world domination plan includes 10 areas that I want to expand my breath of knowledge and gain practical experience. Those areas (for me) are Infrastructure, Cloud Computing, Linux (refresher), Certified Ethical Hacking, Python (Scripting languages), Git, Networking, Web Development, APIs, and a Java Refresher. I set up reminders on my calendar on a rotating 10 day schedule where each day I work on one of those 10 items. My goal, is to document practical experience, a portfolio if you will, of the areas I have gained experience outside of my existing role. What does that even mean??? So today was python day 050. Today I’ve been reading my Python 3 Object-Oriented Programming pdf book on my kindle (from a past Python related Humble Bundle) and working on implementing a game I like to play in Python. I like variation in my learning platforms so I’ve got a lot of different resources I use to supplement my Python learning including Codecademy (free trial and then student discounted monthly or annual price… I caught a deal for 119 for a year), ITPro.tv, Python bootcamp on Udemy, Python ethical hacking (another humble bundle gem), and Python for networking engineers (humble bundle). I set up an account on Github and my code is available as I’m working on it. As I take on additional python projects (my next one is to come up with a program to figure out how much I spend on GrubHub a year) my Github account will show my mastery of the python language, my ability to document my code (don’t look for that on my game right now), and my ability to tie in multiple technologies (programming, Git, APIs, VisualStudio for Coding). My plan is to share with you my plan for each of my 10 areas so that you can get ideas for how you can supplement your work experience and show you have more skills than you’ve learned at your job(s).
