My Plans and Goals for August 2021
Catching up and Filling In
Since passing my Sec+, I have been keeping busy with a multitude of things. I was able to go up and see family, shortly after passing my exam. It was nice to get away, while also sticking with my studies for CEH. I have been busy with my CEH class and working on extra stuff with my professor. He has been great helping we not only prepare for the exam, but furthering my skills in aspects that will apply to a real world position.
Being away also forced me to go outside of my comfort zone of working strictly on my desktop machine for pentesting activities. I was able to throw together a pretty good “rice” of kali on my travel laptop, and get the majority of the tools I have put together for my desktop machine. I am really starting to get the hang of linux and it intricacies. To be completely honest I am starting to enjoy it more and prefer it to Windows and MacOS. Maybe when Valve gets Proton going for the steamdeck, I will make it my daily driver.
Another interesting thing that happened, is I had a rat/rats in my home. While I was away, the air conditioning people were working on the roof of our unit and decided their day was done before filling in the roof hole. This essentially created a freeway for rats to come into our kitchen. During their stay I really learned the importance and effectiveness of layered security. Its funny to see concepts I have been learning for a completely different field apply to my everyday life.
However now that I am back from my travels, and finished with my war on rats, I need to keep my ship steered in the right direction and headed towards my end goal.
Setting the Course For August
Goals keep me oriented and motivated. I believe that one of the reasons that I was successful in my Security + exam, was due to the fact that I set a goal and worked towards it. In July, I said I was going to get my Security + Cert before going up to see my family. I created a plan to accomplish it and went out and did it. It was fairly easy in setting my goal for July. My Security+ course was canceled, and I know I needed that cert as a baseline verification of my InfoSec knowledge. However, since achieving it, I have been somewhat torn between what steps I would like to take next.
I have been preparing for my Certified Ethical Hacker Certification with my class at my local college. However that course ends at the end of the Month, and I will likely be taking that exam in early to mid-September, and I would like to get a cert in the month of August. From what I have gathered about the CEH certification, it is similar to the Security + cert as it is more of a knowledge based certification. I know this is good for my situation, as I am coming from experience in a different industry, and feel I need to prove my knowledge. But I fell as though I also need a certification that demonstrates my skill set I have been developing in a practical way.
Knowing these two aspects, I have decided that I am going to attempt for my PNPT certification from TCM Security this month. My goal on timeframe is around the week of my birthday.
When it came down to the certs I was looking at I was between three, but really two. The three I was deciding between were eJPT, PNPT, and OSCP. I knew that OSCP for me is a bit of a stretch timewise and cost-wise. I know that OSCP is a marathon of an exam, and I want to be able to completely commit to the test. It is a goal of mine, however not quite this month. I am more shooting for OSCP by end of 2021, so standby for more on that.
After eliminating OSCP from contention for this month’s cert, I was between eJPT and PNPT. For me it was a no-brainer. The first cyber security course I took in my process came from TCM Security. I started my process with taking a free course I got called Practical Ethical Hacking. I was fortunate enough to get it free, but the content inside the course was truly inspiring. I would say that I would not have the interest in pentesting and InfoSec without this course. I really enjoyed the way that Heath approaches topics and how he teaches as well as the teaching platform he uses on his site. I also find how he switched careers to be inspiring, as I am in a similar situation. I would be very proud to obtain a certification that he worked on and developed himself.
Planning for the Journey
In preparation for this exam, I have acquired the courses that are recommended in preparation for the PNPT exam.
- OSINT
- Windows Priv Esc
- Linux Priv Esc
- Practical Ethical Hacking
- External Pentesting Playbook
I have already completed one on that list and it took about a week. My plan is to go through each of these and then review my notes as well as go back through some activities for the PEH course. I am excited and nervous for this “quest”. This will be my first practical certification, and I am nervous fo what exactly it entails, but I know that whatever challenges I face, I can overcome through my attitude and hardwork.
I also plan to resume blogging more frequently. I am sure I will encounter things I find interesting and want to share. Stick around and see how my process goes!
Something in the near future I plan on writing about is making an Active Directory Lab to practice attacking. Catch yall later I am going back to studying and preparing!
PS sorry for no funny memes or gifs. Those will also resume in my coming posts