Cyber Security 101 complete! This path introduced me to the fundamentals of cyber security - Networking. The foundation of the cyber security pyramid. As one that wants to pursue ethical hacking, knowing the intricacies of the internet, data transfer through packets, protocols used to transmit data, (TCP, UDP) that work under the Transport layer within the OSI model, which is a framework consisting of 7 layers - Physical, Data Link, Networking, Transport, Session, Presentation, and Application. This framework establishes the “How to” communicate within a network, each layer responsible for a single, significant task.

Cryptography - A complex system that priorities the integrity, confidentiality, and authenticity of data. Encryption and Decryption are one of the tools utilised under the topic. Encryption enables one to convert private data into unreadable text to prevent sniffers from reading confidential text. This is implements with a key and a cipher algorithm to convert from plaintext to cipherText. Think of the key as a ‘key’ to a safe. If you have the key one can convert your cipherText to plaintext in order to read your data. If in the wrong hands, the confidentiality of ones data is destroyed. Another tool under the topic is Hashing. Converting data of arbitrary length to a fixed sized piece of text. This process helps ensure the integrity of ones data, as one change to the data creates a whole new hash.

Offensive and Defensive tools - Gobuster, CyberChef etc, which I’ve spoken extensively about so I will not ramble on about them anymore. This path has given me a taste of the world yet to accomplish as I’m ready to explore more! Next step in my journey is Penetration Testing.