The best way to learn Cybersecurity | Beginner Tips

Name: The best way to learn Cybersecurity | Beginner Tips | Open Video
Uploaded: 2022-07-18T06:22:06+00:00
Duration: 29 min 53 s

0:00
Hey guys, what's up everyone? Welcome back to a new video. It has been a while
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There was the holiday time and New Year's and everything that has kept me
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from producing new content. But now it's time for a new year and it's time for new
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content. That being said, a question I get asked a lot is what is the best way
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to learn hacking? This question is very hard to answer because there are many
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different ways of how to learn hacking and there is no right and no wrong way
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it's more about which way works best for you. I had previously written an huge
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article about how to get started with cyber security which I will link in the
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upper right corner right now so you may also check that out that's more of a
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guideline that you can follow through on and there's also a lot of my history of how I learned
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hacking it's a very very curvy path so you go through many different things that bring you from
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one thing to the other thing and that might be interesting for you to read in that regard that's
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way too much to cover for this video so I will just go over a couple of points that I found most
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important and also that I find most worth mentioning and there are also things included
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in this video that I would have done differently if I would have known this information that I know
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now back then when I started out myself. So before we dive in I want to mention one thing and this is
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I will not go through all of the prerequisites that you need for hacking like basic networking
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and stuff like this. This is all what you can read in the article that I have linked previously
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There are all the basic requirements that you need as a prerequisite to learn hacking. This is really
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about the best way to learn actual hacking not going through all the
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prerequisites but actually going through the methods of how to practice actual
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hacking so as I said before there are many different ways on how to learn
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hacking the first point I've listed here is take a course at your current
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location and what I mean by that is simply that some whatever you have in
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your location like community colleges or something like this they sometimes offer courses on hacking or cyber security or something like this. If you are still in school, of course
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it's an option for you to study computer science or study a field that eventually will bring you
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towards the direction of hacking or being a hacker in the future. And so there is this option. And
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this is not an option I would choose because I more like to compose my own curriculum when it
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comes to those things. So I like to choose my own material to study. So I don't really like to sit
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in school and listen to somebody talk. I rather do it on my own pace. Which brings us to the next
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point, which is take an online course. So I did many online courses, but none of them was in
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hacking. Most of the online courses I took were on programming, web development, photography
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I think writing and web design SEO stuff like this I never found a course that I liked
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with the topic of hacking so I never really did a online course there might be good courses out
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there I did not find any and with online courses I mean stuff like Skillshare and Udemy there is
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not too much content out there like there is for programming where professional boot camp
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directors are actually teaching online courses and stuff like this so real high quality stuff
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i don't know about hacking you would have to look into that yourself i generally like online courses
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but i don't know if it would work for learning hacking because there's so many different things
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to it and the disadvantage of following an online course entirely is just that you just follow along
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and you I don't know you don't really learn all that much if you don't put in
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the practice yourself but there is definitely an advantage to taking an
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online course I just can't point you in the direction to a specific course
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because I haven't taken any myself so look that up if you like a teacher just
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watch some preview videos or something like this and maybe you want to enroll
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in a course there's also a course provided by Kali the developers of Kali
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linux or oscp or whatever i don't know exactly what it's called i think it's called the oscp
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course where you study you pay quite a lot of money i think it's a thousand bucks and you have
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to learn on your own pace you watch some videos you get access to labs and stuff like this i
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haven't taken this either but a friend of mine took it and he was quite satisfied with the course
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so you might look at that as well of course you can also go ahead and in the quotation mark sense
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of an online course you can also just go to youtube and look up videos of people who produce
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hacking content like myself or nullbyte or something like that or we get to that a little
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bit later the next point is read hacking books i personally really like reading hacking books i
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link an article of my favorite hacking books in the upper right corner for you to check out and
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i like studying by books because you can follow through and you have everything written down and
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You can reread it, which for me is an advantage over an online course where you have to rewatch
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stuff, which takes much longer than just rereading a line of text, in my opinion
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And I like to follow through well-structured books. There are good books out there
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There are also very shitty books out there that are not very helpful because the structure
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is just not good or the author is assuming that you have some pre-knowledge to the material
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that he is teaching so you once you get stuck at a certain point you can't follow through anymore
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because there is some information missing or something like this so there's this possibility
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but in general i really like studying with hacking books i think they definitely have their place and
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they're a great material to learn hacking the next point is start playing ctfs and do hacking
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challenges we will go over this in the next slide i just want to mention the last point here that's
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read through my articles on seosec.com and also watch my youtube videos on this youtube channel
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you can if you want subscribe to the channel and hit the notification bell so to get notified when
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i release new content all the content that i do is very beginner friendly i struggled very much in
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the beginning of my own journey that people who produced cybersecurity content were mostly assuming
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that you know all the prerequisites for a certain tutorial like that you know all the Linux commands
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by heart and stuff like this. If I do a tutorial I will explain everything to you in a beginner
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friendly way so that you are able to fully understand the material that I'm giving to you
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So if you like this kind of stuff just read through it or watch through my videos also my
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older videos they probably lack a little bit in quality but I mean quality
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production wise because I didn't have this good equipment back then that I have now but definitely content wise they are same in as my most recent videos so I recommend you to check that out now we get to the fun part my favorite way to learn hacking which is learning by doing This in fact is my favorite
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way to really learn anything. I always like to learn by doing. So far I had the best experiences
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with this method just to get started with something and just fiddle around with it until
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you figure out how it works which brings us to the first point in this list which is play ctfs
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ctfs are capture the flags and capture the flags you probably heard this term before in gaming where
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you have to capture the enemy flag from a base and bring it back to your own base to get the point
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that's not really how capture the flags work in hacking kind of but in capture the flags your goal
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is to capture a flag and the flag in capture the flag in a hacking ctf is mostly some hash
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hashed key or something in a text file hidden somewhere on a vulnerable machine there are also
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ctfs that are still named ctfs but are really boot to root machines which are machines where
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your goal is to acquire root access and maybe they have a flag as well somewhere hidden but
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really the main goal of the machine can be that you have to root the machine
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which you most of the times have to do anyway to acquire the flag or the root flag
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So there are a couple of options on how to get started and we will get more in-depth into that in the next slide
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But in general it is like downloading a vulnerable machine and try to break something and if it doesn't work read a CTF walkthrough
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if you really get stuck at some point and you cannot figure it out yourself for the heck of it
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then as a last resort you would read through a walkthrough but more on that on the next slide
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where do you start to practice ctfs or hacking challenges or something like this i think the
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best way on how to start is over the wire and specifically the bandit game i think the game
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has 30 levels and it starts really easy basically with the first challenge being you just need to
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connect via ssh to their machine and you have to read the password for the next level so how it
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works is you go from level to level and you learn a lot of basic linux commands in the beginning
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which are very important for hacking and by the way i have a walkthrough on my youtube channel and
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also on the website i think up to level 20 or something like this but there are definitely
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uh walkthroughs out there which go through the whole thing i wouldn't recommend you looking it up
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too early like if you get stuck spend a little time google a possible solution like
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if let's say you can't for the heck figure out uh how to how to um open a text file or something
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then don't look for bandit level two solution or something but look for how to open a text file on
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linux and try to figure it out yourself only look up the really the real solution when you really
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get stuck and you really cannot figure out how to continue if you go to my website seosec.com
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the write-up that i have there for over the wire it actually contains spoilers so i give you some
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tips and then if you really get stuck you can like flip down the spoiler window which will reveal
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the solution so you don't just get the solution by going to the page you actually have to click
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an extra button to reveal it so you that that you don't accidentally read the solution but in
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general the over the wire tutorials or the over the wire challenges are I think a really great
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way on how to get started that was actually the way how I get started after doing some research
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back in the day when I started and it really helped me to understand the most important Linux commands
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and how to use them in a hacking context. Next on the list is Vulnhub. Vulnhub is a website that
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provides vulnerable virtual machines so you need to download a image file from their server or from
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their website and you need to open it either in VMware which has a free VMware player I think
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or in VirtualBox which is my preferred way. VirtualBox is a free virtualization platform
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from Oracle you just need to download and install it and then you need to import the image that you
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have downloaded from Vulnhub. That's really easy to do I also have a tutorial on how to do that on
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seosec.com i think i'll leave it in the upper right corner if i can find it right now
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and so on volhub some of dvms are sorted by difficulty like there is written beginner
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intermediate or expert or something like this some aren't but on all of them you have if you
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click on them you have a description on kind of what you need to do or what dvm is about a little
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introduction to the machine but there is definitely a lot of available machines up there and I really
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like them because they have beginner stuff they have intermediate stuff and they have really really
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hard stuff too and the best VMs I would start with the easiest ones would be DVVA that's a damn
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vulnerable web applications that's an older VM but it's really easy to penetrate nowadays with all
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the tools we have at our repository and the next thing I would do would be the basic pen testing
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machine one and two they have two levels maybe they have three already I think actually they
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have three and I haven't tried the third one myself yet but I really enjoyed all of those
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three machines they are really beginner friendly and they show you kind of like how to move
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through a network and stuff like this so definitely worth checking out
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Voln hub and over the wire for beginners next up how to practice how should you practice hacking so
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Just start playing around. That's basically all you can do As I said, I really I
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Really discourage you from just looking up solutions because because that way you don't actually learn anything
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Just play around and and like really search for if you just fire up a machine and you don't know what to do
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then just search for how to do reconnaissance on Kali Linux or how to find usernames with Nmap
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how to run vulnerability scans with Nmap. Then you dig in, you search for Nmap tutorial series
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I actually have that on the website too. You can check it out as well. Really beginner-friendly stuff
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Because Nmap is an essential tool, you could search for how to find vulnerabilities on Kali Linux
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or how to find exploits for hacking, how to find this and that
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Always check if the vulnerable machine has a web server running so just open a web browser and enter its IP address
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the IP address of the machine into your web browser and see if a website comes up And from there on you just take notes and you you you see what works and you write down what worked what what methods work for you
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you take notes and um yeah that's that's basically how you start and that's the second point there
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right there document everything you find this is really important i use a tool called evernote
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and that's really nice to structure your findings basically so you can make notes about reconnaissance
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about vulnerability scanning, stuff like this. You can write it all down very nicely categorized
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because the commands that you find work for you most often. You want to be able to find them over and over again
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until you memorize them. So you want to quickly find your notes in this well-structured place
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or you can use any other note-taking app, like OneNote as well. If you do find something, also take notes on how you found it
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because some vulnerabilities will come up over and over again, and when you stumble over the same vulnerability for three times
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and you have to search for a tutorial how to abuse it
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or how to exploit it over and over again, it really messes with your head instead of just looking up your notes
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and seeing, oh, okay, I came over this already and here's how to exploit it or here's how to use it
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The same goes for how to use tools. You can create a second notebook in Evernote, for example
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Only for Nmap, you can have another notebook for Nikto where the most important commands are written in
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or Metasploit or whatever. Like just that you have a place where you can take notes
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your own notes, and you can write down stuff that you found working and that you can reuse later on
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because this is really the way how to do it. I think this is really important
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My next tip, that's a personal favorite of mine. You don't have to do it, but I found it works really well for my style of learning
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because I really have a hard time concentrating on stuff for a long time
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So I get distracted very, very easily. And what I found working for me is the Pomodoro method
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And if you Google that, you will find articles about that. it's basically a method where you set a timer for 25 minutes that it originated from some italian guy
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who set a cooking timer for 25 minutes and used that for studying and it was like a little tomato
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themed timer so that's already name actually came from and what you do is you put this timer on 25
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minutes you put your phone out of reach you close your web browser you close facebook and all this
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shit and you start focusing for 25 minutes which should be doable for most of us if it's not start
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with a lower time like 10 minutes and work your way up to 25 minutes ideally and after those 25
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minutes you allow yourself a break from 5 to 15 minutes you just do something else then you check
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your facebook you check your phone and once the break is over you put your stuff away again and
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you do another pomodoro timer i found this works really well for me you can try it out if it helps
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you great that's just i think another additional tip here that is very useful for you when you get
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started and as i've mentioned before if you get stuck look for a walkthrough and don't just look
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up a solution too early i can't stress this enough i'm struggling with this right now in programming
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because I'm learning web development and programming. And it's really easy to look up a solution
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but it's not easy to figure out a way of how it actually works. So the more you spend time on finding a solution
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and you really cannot find it for the heck of it. And let's say you, I don't know, you spend 20 minutes, 30 minutes on it
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and just can't figure it out. and you look it up then it's way more likely that you understand how it works than when you just
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look it up right away and you just give up right away without struggling a little bit because
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hacking is really struggling same like programming you will just struggle all the time because you
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search for new information all the time and you can't just remember everything it's impossible
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so you will need to look stuff up and if you just look it up too early then you definitely
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are in disadvantage and you will not learn as much as if you would struggle a little bit and
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then look up a solution. You could also use the Pomodoro method for that. Like if you think like
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you're stuck, hit that Pomodoro timer for 25 minutes. If you cannot figure it out within 25
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minutes, look for a solution or look for hints for the problem. All right, where to go from here
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moving forward other practice resources that i like very very much one of my favorite practice
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resources is hack the box.eu i think is the address and what hack the box is is basically it's also a
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collection of vulnerable machines but everything is online so you don't need to download anything
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and they usually have three to four available machines for free that you can use for free
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but there is a little there's a little challenge right from the start because if you go to their
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website and you want to sign up you first need to solve a challenge to be even able to sign up which
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i found absolutely amazing it was great to go through this challenge i actually learned a lot
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just from this one challenge and i couldn't figure it out myself in the beginning so i
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was kind of struggling but definitely teaches you a lesson of how hard the machines in hectabox
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are or can be it's it's more of a little bit of an advanced thing i think
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i would do that after doing bandit and after doing the bullhub machines i recommend it
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but once you're logged in you have access to three or four machines that are publicly available
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until they retire and some of them will be unbelievably hard for you you don't even need
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try them but the good thing is they have like eight different difficulty levels
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and each machine gets rated by the users so you have a really good overview of
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how hard the machine is and if a machine gets rated like medium to hard you don't
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even need to try that as a beginner like it's really really hard there are a lot
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of pros on there and there are really a lot of hard machines up there but they
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They also have a subscription model which is £10 a month and I'm actually a subscriber
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I took the yearly subscription directly when it came out. And it's definitely worth it because you can go through all the retired machines and you
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can sort them by difficulty. And most of the machines they have like, I don't know, like more than 3000 ratings or
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something like that or more than something like in the 1000 range of users who played
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the machine and also rated it afterwards. you get a really good idea of how hard a machine is and the the easiest machines
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are definitely worth checking out and you can just work your way through all of
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the retired machines and have a couple of other things like you get a more
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stable VPN connection when you are a VIP or when you subscribe and you have
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some other benefits which I don't know of yet but other than that they also
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have challenges up there and all kinds of really hard stuff which I haven looked into they have a forum it a really really great place uh to practice hacking I do it on a weekly basis
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or sometimes daily and evening I just sit there and try to hack a box and then I'm just like
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that's my my equivalent of Netflix like I'm not watching Netflix I'm just doing the 10 dollars or
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10 pounds and hack the box and I'm sitting there and hacking some boxes and I found this to be the
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best way on how to practice because that's actually you are hacking right you're like you
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are doing it and you try to solve some machines enough praise for a hack the box this video is
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by the way not sponsored by hack the box unfortunately i'd love to have that but
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maybe in the future and the next thing i like to recommend is a life overflow life overflows
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channel is um i would not say it's for beginners he is also a fellow german so you will have some
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accent there as well like in my videos but his videos are excellent and thoroughly and and
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not really for 100 beginners but you can learn a lot from him he has some very advanced videos
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and he has some more towards beginner friendly videos but i don't even understand most of the
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stuff that he is doing and he has a lot of like buffer overflow stuff and hardware hacking I think
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and stuff like this but he explains the material really well so if that's your thing definitely
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check him out. The next guy on YouTube is Ipsec and Ipsec is doing actually hack the box
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walkthroughs and he is doing it so well and he explains everything he does so well that this is
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my new favorite channel I was binge watching his CTF walkthroughs the other day and I'm impressed
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of how good he is first of it and second of it is how much I still have to learn myself
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but what I found really valuable on his channel is that while you watch his videos I recommend you
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to take notes because the mythology that he is using is really really valuable if you want to
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learn hacking just like the scans he's using the tools he's using because he explains it so well
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you kind of understand of why he's using them and then you can also implement them in your own
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workflow so I really highly recommend his channel great work what he's putting out there and I
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really love his content next of course my own channel as I said before I do a lot of beginner
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friendly very beginner friendly stuff and I will keep doing it in the future I try to explain
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everything for everyone so that the biggest noob basically can follow my
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videos but also a more advanced a guy will get something out of it so if you
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like again subscribe to my channel would be great I'll produce a lot of content
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and put it out there so I'll be happy for you if you come to my channel and
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subscribe alright the next thing is nullbyte I learned a lot from Cody from
25:29
nullbyte they have a website which is nullbyte.wonderhowto.com or something like that
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just google nullbyte but he also has a youtube channel where he does hacking tutorials and he is
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also doing it in a very very beginner friendly way so i think all of his videos are actually very
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beginner friendly and i really like his content when i started to look into hacking in like 2016
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I think I started out in like 2016 to get more interested in it
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And I started doing his tutorials on how to hack Wi-Fi. That's how I got started
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And since that day, I keep coming back to his site and to his YouTube channel
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because I really like his style of explaining things and how he's putting out content as well
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I really highly recommend checking out his channel and his blog as well
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The last thing we are going to talk about are books again. Just shortly though, I already went over books, but I want to mention it again on the end
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Books are a big part of my own practice of learning hacking
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I use books, I buy books, I like to buy books, I like to hold them, something physical in
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my hand to go through to take notes and stuff like this, but I went over that before, so
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I won't budge you again with that. Alright, we're almost through. one of the most important advices I can give you is don't get frustrated and keep going because you
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will get frustrated and you will want to quit many many times so what I recommend doing is
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take breaks and I don't mean the pomodoro five minute to 15 minutes breaks I mean real breaks
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like take a day off in between studying I know it can get exciting when you just get started and
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you start to figure out how stuff works and you start to have some success in CTFs and stuff like
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this but don't overdo it like plan your week take a break day do something nice find a fun hobby
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away from the computer whatever that might be I like personally doing exercise and that really
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helps to clear out your head so implement the exercise regime while you're studying and just
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to get away from the computer and get your head cleared because you are actually learning passively
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anyway when you step away from actively doing something it's passive learning it's a big thing
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so you definitely have to put breaks into there into that and also i recommend meditation if you
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can put up with it start with one minute of the day work your way up but it also really helps
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because you need to retain a lot of information in this field and there are so many things like
28:16
syntax and and whatever code maybe if you're into programming and you learn programming at the same
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time you have to remember a lot of stuff and if you don't organize everything in your head it can
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get overwhelming you can get burnout and stuff like this so it's no joke like take breaks and
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don't overdo it yeah i think this can be the end of this video it should sum up everything
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i hope it helps and if it does please subscribe to the channel of course hit the notification
28:51
bell check out seosec.com lots of tutorials up there lots of beginner tutorials then also check
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youtube facebook twitter instagram all seosec and subscribe to those channels and if you have
29:03
any questions leave them in the comment below if I can I'm happy to answer them
29:07
and please let me know if this information was helpful for you guys and
29:12
yeah good luck don't overdo it and keep practicing and definitely physical or
29:21
actual practice is my favorite way of doing hence it's the best way to learn
29:27
hacking at least for me alright guys see you back in the next video and thanks

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