Quite recently I started to play around with this idea of becoming an ethical hacker. Why? Well, let me tell you a story.

In May 2022 I began my internship as a frontend developer. Mind you that my studies in computer science had been focused on algorithms and backend stuff. Mostly theory. I was determined to start with frontend experience and quickly realized that this isn’t me. I don’t have the eye to be happy with my designs. I could create elements from an image; however, it would take me a while. Also, I didn’t love it.

In September 2022 I started on the backend team. Everything clicked. I could quickly understand how we create connections, and why something matters in some stack, and I was fascinated by how communication happens. I didn’t mind dwelling on documentation and I sincerely enjoyed error messages. Weird, uh?

Fast-forward to June 2023. I graduated from college with a sociology and computer science double major. I moved back to my home country and I started my career working as Cloud DevOps Engineer. I got lucky with that job. I found myself working on infrastructure, how machines communicate, understanding the importance of protocols, and also some code development. Cloud services fascinated me even more and now I had to learn someone else’s code quickly so I could use it when migrating to the cloud. I began realizing my love for understanding systems and building them. But I wanted to break them, too.

So, now, I have a goal. I want to become an ethical hacker, a cybersecurity and cloud specialist. I want to specialize in building secure applications for the cloud as well as be capable of testing systems on my own. And test them incredibly well. I decided to start writing about my journey.

So what will happen?

Every week I want to focus on some protocol, topic, area, etc that is important in cybersecurity. Something that will help me closer to becoming an ethical hacker. I will share what I learn, how I learn it, and where I am learning it from.

I hope that by writing it down. Someone will gain some knowledge or inspiration. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn and maybe we can even learn together.

First step: Create a plan for a month. 4 topics, 4 weeks for the month of August. Outline daily topics and possible links to use. Finally, create a Word document for the month of August so you can take notes on things you learn. Keep it organized and share it with people.

Let the journey begin. Let’s hope I find it in me to keep posting and pushing myself. It is a good way to find the rhythm and keep myself on a clean path. Good luck to you, too! If you decide to join me.

All the best,

Sten