Learning Update-Week 7

Almost to the end of the experiment, so I’m starting to think about how to present the data, as well as what conclusions I can draw from it. One thing that I have noticed, that I’ll talk about more next week, is the challenge of sustaining this effort for 8 weeks. Besides work and family, I’m also heavily involved in the planning of Security BSides St. John’s. It’s a project near-and-dear to me, and after a pandemic-induced hiatus of two years, I’m eager to make sure this year’s event is as awesome as possible.

What learning did I do this week?

PentesterLab-Essential Badge

Finished off the 3 exercises I had planned to on the Essential Badge.

TryHackMe

I made it through the Packets and Frames module, but didn’t get to the Extending Your Network.

Reading-Explore It!: Reduce Risk and Increase Confidence with Exploratory Testing

Finally wrapped this one up! It was an excellent book, and covers a lot of really useful ideas in testing. While most of the ideas weren’t new to me, there were definitely some refinements that I hadn’t considered before. It’s also a relatively lightweight book, both literally and figuratively, so I’d recommend it particularly to newer testers.

OWASP

I’ve started looking at Juice Shop, but haven’t dug into ZAP yet.

What Learning Is On The Agenda This Week?

PentesterLab-Essential Badge

I want to dig into 3 more exercises on this badge. There are a fair number associated with this badge, but every little bit gets me closer to completing it.

TryHackMe

Extending your Network is next up, and that’ll be it for this week.

Reading-Practical Social Engineering: A Primer for the Ethical Hacker

I started reading this book by Joe Gray after I finished Explore It! and so far it’s been really fascinating. While I don’t necessarily plan to execute any social engineering any time soon, I think it’s an interesting area of security to explore and understand.