Cybersecurity: Deep Dive into the Tools of the Trade
There are several tools that we utilize in the field of Cybersecurity.
Some being free, others being commercial tools. Some are single-purpose, others being Swiss Army knives.
Whether you’re learning some of these tools or area already very familiar, over the next few posts we will be going over tools in detailed posts, dissecting these one by one.
The Command Line
EDR
Nmap
NSM (Bro/Zeek or Snort)
Regex
SIEM
Sigma
Yara
Now, I could’ve had a gargantuan list of tools here. But decided to keep it reasonable and leaned towards open source. That way everyone has an opportunity to play with these tools.
What’s great about these is that they are open source and free. This is a great time to thank the open source community. It’s amazing how many projects that ended up defining a standard in the field started off as a side gig.
Take Sigma, for instance, began as a proof of concept, only after its founders learned that it was being used in production did they start to take on more development.
The lean towards open source promotes a culture of knowledge sharing and community. Then the iteration starts for further improvements of these tools.
Taking State
We've all been there – the excitement of diving into a new field, followed by the inevitable frustrations and challenges. Cybersecurity is no exception. The learning curve can be steep, and the tools to learn can sometimes feel overwhelming.
We’ll be going over these one at a time and in plain language. Remember, at the end of the day its Concepts > Tools.
This series will just help you get your hands dirty with some of the tools of the trade. Because at some point, you will be using these. You also will most likely come across some of these in interviews.
By diving deep into each one, we're not just learning functions; we're grasping the big picture of how these fit together.
Reflecting on the days when I was just starting out, fueled by hunger and curiosity but overwhelmed by the vastness of tech. Through relentless self-study and by connecting with the right people, my path was carved. I owe a lot of this to open source tools that allowed me to learn pieces of the job. If you want to know more about my journey, dive into this post: My Start in Cybersecurity.
Conclusion
In summary, there are several powerful tools to learn in this field. These tools are foundational and harnessing them will take you a long way.
In the next issue, we will start with our first tool, the Command Line for both Windows and Linux. We will discuss specific use cases for each with examples.
As a reminder, I have a free course on Introductory Linux, I think you will get a lot of value out of it.
And if you ever feel stuck or need personalized guidance, we can talk about it in a 1:1 call
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