A Look at the TryHackMe Pre-Security Learning Path
On my journey into cybersecurity, the website TryHackMe has been one of my greatest allies. It was one of the first resources I used to grow my knowledge in the field of cybersecurity, and it is definitely one of my favorites. My knowledge of InfoSec was limited at the time. I was familiar with linux, had used Kali a couple of times and had read about some exploits and tools over the years. I would say I was a little bit more informed than a layperson, but I was by no stretch knowledgeable in the field. I knew that before making a decision on my career I would need to see if it was the right fit for me, and if it was something I would feel passionate learning about. I asked a couple of friends who are around the industry and one of the names that came up was TryHackMe. I researched the site and learned all about their “Learning Paths” and their rooms. I figured that it would be a great way to see if this was truly something I was interested in. I figured I would try a path and see where it took me. Little did I know it would take me down the rabbit hole and inspire me to seek a new career.
I began my first path, Defense. At first I struggled. The terms were bizarre, there was an alphabet soup of acronyms, the problems seemed so obscure, but I plugged away. Googling terms i didn’t know, documenting each step for future reference (shoutout to Joplin and Greenshot), slowly over the course of a couple of weeks I completed the first path. But over that time, I fell in love with the subject. I immediately went back at it and completed each of the 5 learning Paths. The TryHackMe formula of gamifying learning with streaks, leaderboards, progress bars, and badges had me addicted. I couldn’t get enough.
At the time my only complaint was that the learning paths didn’t really provide a stepping point for someone who came from a limited tech background. Leading to some frustrations on my part. Granted I began to develop a “try harder” outlook, but there were times where I didn’t feel like I had the right background for InfoSec
And then a couple of days ago I saw a tweet, saying that TryHackMe had released another Learning Path called Pre-Security. I was dying to see what was inside.
Yesterday I began the Pre-Security learning path and today, I finished it. Granted, some of the rooms are cross-overs from other learning paths (Dear TryHackMe, Plz let me reset a room so I can do it over again, pretty plz). Over the past week, I have been prepping for my Security+ exam, and doing this learning path was an amazing refresher of topics. It was getting stale, watching videos, doing flashcards, and reading prep books, but seeing some of the concepts visually really locked in my understanding. I have about four months of non stop studying under my belt (CEH, Sec+, TCM PEH course, Portswigger Academy), and the way the information was presented in some of the rooms locked in concept for me. Take for example, the Network Fundamentals section. This has to be one of the highlights of the Learning Path for me the moving interactive layout types of networks in the intro to Lan room, helped me actually visualize what the problems with each configuration are. They made animations for each one and they are even interactive!
Perhaps my favorite part was the firewall practical. Over the past week or so I have heard so much about firewalls. I understand what they do, how they work, and their role in securing networks, however I just couldn’t visualize how they worked and for me that is important. That changed after doing the TryHackMe room about them in Networking Fundamentals. The fact that you can filter the packets and actually see it work in real time, as well as see what happens when you fail to enact proper rules. My only gripe please change the colours of the dots, being colourblind made this a little bit more confusing than it should have been. Not gonna lie I had no idea which IP was sending red packets or green packets, which lead to some failures. 
Another aspect of this learning path that I appreciated, is the fact that they took into account that many people may not have more than just their browser as tools. Some people don’t have access to the ability to spin up a VM or may not have the bandwidth to Remote into a machine. TryHackMe solves this by offering a multitude of options in tackling the labs. Whether it be an in-browser machine, RDP, or access via OpenVpn. I love options and its always great to have so many. An example of this is the first “lab” where you are tasked with hacking “BookFace” hehehe. I loved the fact that they included an in-browser Brute forcing lab. It feels pretty cool being able to brute force a password, and I know that some of the tools for it can be daunting to a beginner. This demonstration showed the concept and still gave me the feeling of “cracking a password”. I even enjoyed how it showed the request next to the “tool”. It laid the ground work for taking the concept to the next level.
This is another stellar learning path from TryHackMe. I even recommended it to my brother, who has less experience than I do, and he has been having a blast and learning a bunch. As someone who is new to the industry, and am hoping to begin my career soon, I can’t thank TryHackMe enough for this and the other learning paths. They are doing a great thing by making learning these topics so accessible. They really ignited a love for learning this material and have made it very enjoyable. TryHackMe is doing a great thing for CyberSec by making this knowledge so accessible to anyone! I cant wait to see what they will do next and what other learning paths and fun features they have cooking!
If you are interested in possibly giving cybersecurity a try, I cant recommend TryHackMe enough. You can find the Pre-Security learning path here.