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Christiaan Kruger

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Good day to all

My name is Christiaan I am currently a junior technician.

I want to know more about cyber security as a job and if there is any jobs in South Africa , I want to go study to do cyber security I just want to know a bit more about this field and what it contains.
 
Christiaan Kruger said:
Good day to all

My name is Christiaan I am currently a junior technician.

I want to know more about cyber security as a job and if there is any jobs in South Africa , I want to go study to do cyber security I just want to know a bit more about this field and what it contains.
Click to expand...

get the fundamentals first.Do some cisco qualifications first and then look at doing security.Unless you want to be some type of auditor who talks a load of hot air.
 
Network Chuck and David Bombal on You Tube have many videos on Networking (Cisco) and basics of ethical hacking and there's lots of other free content.

A lot of formal Cybersecurity certifcations are quite expensive and some require a certain amount of domain specific work experience. The good news is that, if you have a genuine interest, there is a lot of free (eg. Youtube) and low cost resources (eg. udemy) for you to learn technical aspects and practice in your own virtual homelab or online environments like Hack the Box or participating in capture the flag competitions. There are quite a lot of people in the Cybersecurity industry that got into it through unconventional routes.

Also, Google OPSEC and think about changing your profile name. Unless you are a 42 year old lady from Wisconsin and Cristiaan Kruger is an fake identity, in which case, forget what I said.
 
Christiaan Kruger said:
Good day to all

My name is Christiaan I am currently a junior technician.

I want to know more about cyber security as a job and if there is any jobs in South Africa , I want to go study to do cyber security I just want to know a bit more about this field and what it contains.
Click to expand...

Very cool field and yes there are plenty of jobs in SA.

You generally work for large corporations or for a consultants where you are off testing various smaller companies security.

The best starting course I would recommend is the PEN-200 https://www.offensive-security.com/. Globally accepted and opens so many doors it is ridiculous, just having your name up on linkden with a OSCP qualifications brings in job offers from all over SA and the world.

The Pen-200 mainly focuses on penetration testing "ethical hacking" into systems, getting passwords, gaining root access etc etc etc. Even though I refer to this as the "starting" course it is f^&*ing hard and be prepared to give up weekends, evenings etc etc and your final test (breaking into 6 labs) is a 24hour long test!! which is followed by 24hours to write a very detailed report. Very intimidating but fun as hell

You can start with Pen100 etc etc but the pen 200 is what you want. You can skip over almost all the other pieces of paper but the top guys earning the big bucks have Bcoms, Bsc's etc even though in an interview they ask how far did you get in the labs.
 
InvisibleJim said:
Network Chuck and David Bombal on You Tube have many videos on Networking (Cisco) and basics of ethical hacking and there's lots of other free content.

A lot of formal Cybersecurity certifcations are quite expensive and some require a certain amount of domain specific work experience. The good news is that, if you have a genuine interest, there is a lot of free (eg. Youtube) and low cost resources (eg. udemy) for you to learn technical aspects and practice in your own virtual homelab or online environments like Hack the Box or participating in capture the flag competitions. There are quite a lot of people in the Cybersecurity industry that got into it through unconventional routes.

Also, Google OPSEC and think about changing your profile name. Unless you are a 42 year old lady from Wisconsin and Cristiaan Kruger is an fake identity, in which case, forget what I said.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately I cant change my name at this point xd but thank you for the advise I will look at the options I have and do some research.
 
just do the ccna as a stepping stone , and master networking before you try security.eg how can you defend networks against man in the middle attacks when you've never implemented things like DHCP snooping , dynamic arp inspection , VTP etc.Its why i say learn the fundamentals of networking before you rush into security.Another example , how are you suppose to analyze network packets in wireshark whithout having a theoretical undertanding of the OSI and tcp/ip stacks ?
 
ubercal said:
just do the ccna as a stepping stone , and master networking before you try security.eg how can you defend networks against man in the middle attacks when you've never implemented things like DHCP snooping , dynamic arp inspection , VTP etc.Its why i say learn the fundamentals of networking before you rush into security.Another example , how are you suppose to analyze network packets in wireshark whithout having a theoretical undertanding of the OSI and tcp/ip stacks ?
Click to expand...

You are taught this the hard way in the pen200 course.
 
eg2505 said:
is Security + (SYD-601) worth anything in the Cyber security world, or is it just like A+ and N+, just a fancy way to say a tiny bit of Cyber security.
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I have the S+ and CySA and CASP...And N+ and A+
Couldn't get an interview for basic position...
So in my opinion those compTIA certs are not worth too much.......(Not too bad if you get the books and work through them yourself...otherwise you pay a fortune)
 
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mojoman said:
I have the S+ and CySA and CASP...And N+ and A+
Couldn't get an interview for basic position...
So in my opinion those compTIA certs are not worth too much.......(Not too bad if you get the books and work through them yourself...otherwise you pay a fortune)
Click to expand...

whats your experience in networking ?
 
Network and infrastructure security, as mentioned by some, is important, but I'd suggest doing some scripting and programming courses as well (if you haven't done so already). Cyber these days require more than just network and infrastructure security, it requires secure programming skills and the ability to build your own tools, whether on the red or blue team. And you need to take it a step further than just programming, the curriculum that they teach you in courses is ridiculously deficient in secure programming, you will need something like Secure Code Warrior courses afterwards to unlearn all your bad habits.
 
InTheWild said:
it's a pity the PEN-200 course from Offensive Security is so damn expensive.
Click to expand...

I have a friend who has just gone through this process, he was battling earning R20 000 a month doing something unrelated to tech, he saved up enough to do the course and spent 3 months on a constant grind working all day and studying all night.

Once completed it took him about 3 months to find work and he started at a significant amount more than he previous salary. About a year later he had moved companies with some experience and I don't know how much he earns now but he is really doing well.

So the initial cost of that course is nothing in comparison to how much you earn in the long run but yes its like 2 years at university.
 
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Scary_Turtle said:
Very cool field and yes there are plenty of jobs in SA.

You generally work for large corporations or for a consultants where you are off testing various smaller companies security.

The best starting course I would recommend is the PEN-200 https://www.offensive-security.com/. Globally accepted and opens so many doors it is ridiculous, just having your name up on linkden with a OSCP qualifications brings in job offers from all over SA and the world.

The Pen-200 mainly focuses on penetration testing "ethical hacking" into systems, getting passwords, gaining root access etc etc etc. Even though I refer to this as the "starting" course it is f^&*ing hard and be prepared to give up weekends, evenings etc etc and your final test (breaking into 6 labs) is a 24hour long test!! which is followed by 24hours to write a very detailed report. Very intimidating but fun as hell

You can start with Pen100 etc etc but the pen 200 is what you want. You can skip over almost all the other pieces of paper but the top guys earning the big bucks have Bcoms, Bsc's etc even though in an interview they ask how far did you get in the labs.
Click to expand...
Oddly enough I was just chatting to a friend about this.

He's said he's interviewed several people this week (with OSCP certs) who couldn't penetrate a wet paper bag... :ROFL: I would have thought with hands on lab exams that the quality of candidate would have been much higher (unless dumps are prevalent or the course is aimed at script kiddie run X or Y tool without comprehension?).
 
shadow_man said:
Oddly enough I was just chatting to a friend about this.

He's said he's interviewed several people this week (with OSCP certs) who couldn't penetrate a wet paper bag... :ROFL: I would have thought with hands on lab exams that the quality of candidate would have been much higher (unless dumps are prevalent or the course is aimed at script kiddie run X or Y tool without comprehension?).
Click to expand...

wahahaha , i knew it ...... Its why i keep banging on about the fundamentals , but people just want to take shortcuts.Says alot about the industry when you have these fancy certs but companies are being hacked left right and center.
 
Scary_Turtle said:
I have a friend who has just gone through this process, he was battling earning R20 000 a month doing something unrelated to tech, he saved up enough to do the course and spent 3 months on a constant grind working all day and studying all night.

Once completed it took him about 3 months to find work and he started at a significant amount more than he previous salary. About a year later he had moved companies with some experience and I don't know how much he earns now but he is really doing well.

So the initial cost of that course is nothing in comparison to how much you earn in the long run but yes its like 2 years at university.
Click to expand...
So someone with no experience has now done this course, completed it and is earning plenty moola a month doing pentest work?
 
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mojoman said:
So someone with no experience has now done this course, completed it and is earning plenty moola a month doing pentest work?
Click to expand...

I don't think you read my post correctly when he got a job as a pentester where he was earning more than his previous salary of R20 000 a month.

After a year of practical experience he moved to a company where he was earning more that.

Not what you said but yes there is a lot of money in pentesting, as one of my colleagues put it "cyber security is where all the demand and money is just like developers were 10-15 years ago before the market was flooded". Coming from a guy who was a developer.

Make of it what you will
 
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