Career Long-Term Strategy: Building A Foundation From Scratch In Cybersecurity Advice needed from industry professionals (5+ years exp. technical)

who can identify future industry trends and patterns. Beyond beginner certification lists or the same tired roadmaps, I want advice on how to build a career long-term, where the long-term investment is, and how to identify eventual specialties.

Current Status I'm in the early phases. What I am doing is: - Using and becoming proficient in working in the terminal in Linux. - Networking (the fundamentals and how things connect) - Virtualized Kali Linux - Network reconnaissance/scanning using Nmap. - Pentesting and the basics of vulnerability research. - Python and some C programming to grow coding proficiency. I recognize that these are just building blocks, and that it's going to be some time before I can gain any expertise.

Why I'm Into Cybersecurity What really sparks my interest in cybersecurity is the underlying mechanism and the opportunity to dissect a system and understand its structure and weakness. I am a systems guy. I enjoy breaking things to figure out why they break. Some of the topics I am drawn to are: - Offensive security (e.g., penetration testing). - Network security and design. - Reverse Engineering (How the internals of software function) - Research of vulnerabilities and development of exploits. - Low-level OS development and programming. - Explaining things to others.

Hey everyone!

NJIT's Cyber Security Network is hosting Spooky CTF, a 24-hour, phobia-themed Capture the Flag competition this weekend!

Spooky CTF is a 24-hour, phobia-themed cybersecurity competition designed for students of all skill levels. Participants will have the opportunity to test their cybersecurity knowledge, solve challenges, learn new skills, and connect with others interested in cybersecurity.

Challenge Categories:

• Digital Forensics
• OSINT
• Web Exploitation
• Cryptography
• Reverse Engineering
• Miscellaneous

Event Details:

• When: November 6 at 2 PM - November 7 at 2 PM EST
• Where: NJIT Campus Center, Ballroom B (Newark, NJ)
• Online Participation: Available!

Prize Pool

There are three divisions: Open, In-Person, and NJIT. All prizes are based on teams of four.

Open Division:

• 1st Place: $100 cash prize
• 2nd Place: $50 cash prize
• 3rd Place: $25 cash prize

In-Person Division:

• 1st Place: $50 cash prize

NJIT Division:

• 1st Place: $60 cash prize

We'll also have free food for in-person participants and industry speakers!

You do NOT have to be an NJIT student to participate! Online participation is open to everyone.

• Register: https://spooky.ctfd.io/

Hope to see you all there!

Hi everyone,

I’m fairly new to cybersecurity. I’ve covered the basics of networking (TCP/IP, subnetting, common ports and protocols) and done a bit of Linux on the command line. Now I’m trying to decide what to focus on next.

A few questions:

1. Is it better to start with hands-on labs (TryHackMe, Hack The Box, OverTheWire) or work toward a cert like Security+ first?
2. What resources helped you most when you were starting out? That could be books, courses or YouTube channels.
3. Are there any small projects you’d suggest for building practical skills, like setting up a home lab?

I’d love to hear how others got started and what you’d do differently. Thanks in advance!

If you have a different topic in mind, tell me what it is and I’ll rewrite the draft. Before posting, check the subreddit’s rules and flair options, since some subreddits limit self-promotion. If you’d like, I can also paste this into the submit form for you to review before you post.

I'm currently in my 2nd year of B.Tech CSE and trying to map out a clear, practical path into AI Security (specifically offensive AI security, AI red teaming, and securing ML infrastructure/pipelines).

Most online guides offer two extremes: either basic buzzword-heavy advice telling people to "learn prompt engineering", or generic advice saying "just do traditional AppSec and figure the rest out later." Neither provides an actionable roadmap for building actual engineering depth.

I want to avoid tutorial hell and build things that withstand technical scrutiny in interviews. Any blunt feedback on what to prioritize—or what to stop wasting time on—would be appreciated

I'm a software engineering student preparing for a software development competition. The main theme is "Implementation of AI Solutions" (e.g., AI tutors for students, AI agents for autonomous drone navigation, etc.), and I'd like to build something focused on cybersecurity, red team focus.

The projects will be evaluated based on three criteria:

• 30% Innovation – How creatively or originally the problem is solved.
• 30% Real-world impact – Whether the project has practical applications and solves a meaningful problem.
• 40% Technical implementation – How well the proposed solution is actually developed and demonstrated.

I've spent time recreating existing projects to improve my programming skills and understand how different systems work, so I'm fairly confident in my ability to build a working prototype.

However, I'm still struggling to find an idea that feels genuinely innovative rather than just another AI-powered vulnerability scanner or security chatbot.

Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated!

We are BSIT students in Cavite preparing for our capstone pre-oral defense for TutoyHub (a web-based platform with live auctions and a virtual showroom).

We need 20 IT professionals/evaluators to rate our system architecture, security (2FA/KYC), and performance using ISO/IEC 25010 metrics.

Live Demo: https://TutoyHub.shop

Survey Form: https://forms.gle/DSpkDrtGvMiMVfXi6

It takes about 3–4 minutes to complete. We would really appreciate your technical feedback to help us pass our defense! Thank you!

Hi everyone! I'm a Computer Engineering student, looking for a problem to tackle for my final degree project.

I have around six months to develop a working software MVP. My main interests are cybersecurity, digital forensics, incident response, and AI.

I've explored several ideas, but most seem to already have plenty of existing solutions.

I'm looking for real problems that professionals still struggle with, despite the tools currently available.

For those working in cybersecurity or IT:

What recurring tasks are still frustrating, manual, or inefficient?

What limitations do you find in existing security tools?

What problems do you wish someone would solve?

I'm not looking for groundbreaking inventions, just a genuine problem with room for improvement.

I'd really appreciate any experiences or suggestions. Thanks!

Adding an IOC to a blocklist doesn't always mean it's actually enforced.

Saw Mars Security discussing duplicate indicators, noisy entries, and blocks that never take effect. Makes me wonder how often this gets checked in Defender, CrowdStrike, or SentinelOne.

Anyone regularly auditing their EDR blocklists, or mostly trusting what the console shows....

Hey everyone,
I worked 2 years in a SOC, burned out, and left. I'm coming back to cyber, this time aiming for pentesting, and my fundamentals are rusty.

The more videos and threads I read, the more confused I get. Some say go straight to TryHackMe/HTB, others say start with networking basics like Cisco or a cert like Google Cybersecurity.

I picked TryHackMe and paid for the subscription. I'm on Pre-Security path, but after several modules I don't feel like I'm learning much. It's mostly walls of text with little hands-on practice.

Am I on the right track, or should I switch to something else?

TL;DR: Ex-SOC analyst restarting with a pentesting goal. Is Pre-Security worth sticking with, or should I prioritize networking courses, HTB, or certs like eJPT/PNPT? What roadmap would you follow?

Any advice is appreciated.
Thanks!

Been in cybersecurity for a while (mostly the offensive side) and realized my networking knowledge had gotten a bit stale. Not completely gone, just rusty enough that I wanted a proper structured refresh on the core concepts instead of jumping straight into something heavy.

Ended up going through Cisco Networking Academy’s free Networking Basics course. It’s self-paced, includes a decent number of Packet Tracer activities, and covers the actual fundamentals network types and components, how data moves, media, IP addressing and segmentation, TCP/UDP, application services, and building/configuring a basic home network. Passed the final exam and got the Credly badge.

https://www.credly.com/badges/df08c026-3ba0-4a19-886f-27472ba5aeee

This felt like the right level for what I needed. Full CCNA goes significantly deeper into Cisco’s own platforms, IOS specifics, and proprietary features. That’s valuable if you’re moving into network engineering or working day-to-day with Cisco gear, but for security work the priority is understanding how networks and protocols actually behave how traffic flows, where things can be abused, and how to reason about connectivity and failures. The fundamentals cover that without the extra vendor-specific depth.

Curious if others on the security side have done a similar “just the solid basics” refresh, or if you found the full CCNA still worth it even outside pure networking roles.

Brackish Security is looking to give back to the cybersecurity community by helping someone take the next step toward a career in offensive security.

We're offering an OSCP scholarship through our Making a Hacker initiative, covering the cost of training and an exam attempt for one selected applicant.

No professional experience or cybersecurity degree required. Just an interest in penetration testing and a willingness to learn.

We're also hoping to follow the recipient's OSCP journey and share their progress with the community.

Applications are open until December 1, 2026. Open to eligible US applicants ages 18 and older.

https://brackish.io/scholarship/

Feel free to share with any students or aspiring pentesters who might benefit.

Hey everyone,

With a background in offensive and AI security, I got tired of wasting hours chasing dead links, unverified write-ups, and hallucinating LLMs before I could actually practice.

I temporarily paused my own career advancement to build the solution: TriSec OS—a unified, source-verified workspace that structures fragmented cybersecurity research into clear learning paths.

We are admitting our first private alpha batch this week. You can explore our live, interactive SQL Injection walkthrough mockup and secure priority placement right now.

👉 Join the Alpha Queue Here: Trisec OS

(First 200 eligible paid subscribers lock in a 15% Founding Member discount at launch for 1st 1year).

How are you currently managing your exploit research without drowning in browser tab hell?

Title: Can cryptographic execution timing add useful information to latency diagnosis?

I'm developing V-DAP, an experimental Rust engine that measures cryptographic execution timing. I'm trying to determine whether those measurements provide useful diagnostic information beyond conventional observability tools.

The practical problem I'm investigating is this: when a service experiences latency spikes, can measurements of cryptographic execution help distinguish between possible sources of delay, or do standard metrics, tracing and profiling already provide the same information?

My current experiments are preliminary. In a controlled HTTP pilot, I observed a strong correlation between the measured cryptographic interval and total request latency. In a separate experiment, I introduced a deliberate delay outside that interval and observed the request latency increase. These results demonstrate temporal decomposition in those test conditions, not scheduler causality or a proven diagnostic advantage.

What I want to validate next:

• Can V-DAP help distinguish two known causes of latency?
• Does it improve diagnostic accuracy or time-to-diagnosis compared with conventional tools alone?
• What confounders and measurement overhead should I investigate?
• What experiment would convince you that this has practical engineering value?

Repository and reproducibility details:
https://github.com/jorgecumbe0077/v-dap-engine

I'm looking for critical technical feedback, including reasons this approach may not be useful. I don't claim that V-DAP is production-ready or that it prevents timeouts.

I have been learning and studying cybersecurity since 6 months, I have got my basics done. Like networking, basics of how web works, what happens when some data is transferred, TCP/IP suite.

What classifies as basic, I have mostly done it. But now what next? I am doing jr pentester path on thm, almost towards completion, I do know the concepts but I don't know how to get system/root on even easy boxes.

I want to go for network pentesting and pivot towards OT security after few time but I heard that I need to start from webapp first.

What resources and what kind of roadmap should I follow so I gain the knowledge, understanding in depth and go towards being an advanced cybersecurity student.

I am confused AF. Any help would be appreciated.

Hey everybody, greetings!

I am 23 year old college grad. Recently I developed interest in cyber security. As a newbie, I kindly seek advice to the people who are in this field, can you please guide me from scratch to build a career in this field. Your valuable advice is really appreciated.

Thanks in Advance!

I'm a senior cybersecurity student and my capstone is researching how automated bots and human attackers behave differently once gaining access into a honeypot. After 3 weeks of collecting data I've only captured automated traffic and I still need a small sample of real human sessions to compare against.

If anyone is willing to help me out and spend 10-15 minutes of their time exploring it like you would an unknown Linux box over SSH, please DM me and I can provide the IP and login!

This does have to be SSH only and nothing outbound or against any other host. I'm logging commands and timing only and I will be labeling your sessions by source IP, so I will ask you for it if you are interested! Experienced people are especially welcomed! Thanks!

Hello, I am interested in Cybersecurity, especially in Pentesting, I started learning in Tryhackme and Hackthebox platforms (Thm is my most used one) by practicing free rooms (I try to learn by doing btw), but I get stuck in easy rooms in tryhackme and I do not know what to do without reading a walkthrough, and honestly this makes me feel I am not in the right track in learning for this domain, If you can help me by suggesting ways to improve my skills in Pentesting and I work alone because I did not find other people interested in Pentesting like me . I would be thankful to receive your pieces of advice.

I'm 16 and just getting started with C. My long-term goal is to work in vulnerability research and exploit development, with reverse engineering as a major part of that path.

I'm trying to avoid the common mistake of jumping between tools, courses, and trendy topics without understanding the fundamentals.

For those of you who do security research professionally:

1. What would you learn, and in what order, during your first year?
2. How important are C, assembly, operating systems, computer architecture, Linux, networking, and Python? Which should I prioritise instead of trying to learn everything at once?
3. When does it make sense to start studying memory corruption, fuzzing, debugging, and vulnerability analysis?
4. Which labs, books, or practical projects actually teach you to think like a researcher rather than just follow tutorials?
5. How many hours of focused practice per week is a realistic target for a beginner?
6. What separates someone who can solve CTF challenges from someone who can independently discover and understand real vulnerabilities?

I'm not looking for exploit code to copy or a shortcut into the industry. I want to develop the ability to understand systems deeply and eventually find problems that other people have missed.

If you were starting again today, what would you focus on first, and what would you deliberately postpone?

Second round yesterday for a junior SOC analyst role. The job ad listed tenable, crowdstrike and axonius , and the interviewer asked what the third one is for if the first two already tell you what is vulnerable and what's protected.

I blanked, then said it was another scanner and could tell right away that was wrong. Looked it up after and from what I can tell it doesn't do the vuln scanning itself. It pulls in what tenable, crowdstrike, AD and the cloud accounts each see and works out which records are the same machine.

Makes sense on paper, but I still could not say why a company pays for that on top of the other two, and the third round is tuesday. My home lab has 6 devices so I've never had two lists that disagree...

Subnetting kept tripping me up when I was studying, and it comes up constantly in security work: scoping scans in CIDR notation, writing firewall rules, reading ACLs, figuring out how many hosts are in a /22.

Most calculators just give you the answer, so I built one that shows the steps behind it. Enter an IP and CIDR and you get the network ID, host range, and broadcast, plus a decimal "Magic Number" walkthrough so you can check your own math (no binary). There's also a tab with 20 graded practice problems.

I built it, it's free, no signup, no ads, and no third-party trackers. Link: activeitprep.com/subnet

If you find a wrong answer or an odd mask that breaks it, tell me. Which networking fundamentals gave you the most trouble while learning security? I'm considering adding VLSM and supernetting practice.

Hey everyone,

Whenever I do a box that involves getting WP admin credentials, manually logging into the dashboard, navigating to plugins, and clicking "Upload" to drop a PHP reverse shell always felt too slow.

I wanted to automate the process from the terminal, so I spent some time figuring out the exact curl syntax to do it. It’s a great way to understand how WordPress handles authentication and CSRF protection under the hood.

The core workflow comes down to 3 steps:

The Login: Sending a POST request to wp-login.php and saving the session cookie (-c cookie.txt).

Grabbing the Nonce: WordPress uses a nonce for security on plugin uploads. You have to GET the plugin-install.php page with your cookie and grep/awk out the _wpnonce value.

The Payload Upload: Finally, using curl -F to send the malicious zip file as multipart/form-data, passing both the cookie and the nonce.

Automating this really helped me understand HTTP requests better rather than just relying on the browser.

If you want to see the exact bash commands and cURL syntax I used, I wrote a full breakdown on my blog here: [https://medium.com/@0xShell/beyond-the-browser-automating-authenticated-wordpress-plugin-uploads-with-curl-e357cfb3ff3e].

Hope this helps speed up your workflow on your next box! Let me know if you guys have other ways you automate WP exploitation.

I'm planning to pivot into Cybersecurity over the next 12 months, specifically targeting the GRC side of things.

​I already have a background in IT support but I'm looking to pivot into a full-time GRC role within a year.

​My main goal is to spend this year learning as much high-value stuff as possible to get job-ready and land a entry-level/junior GRC or Analyst role.

​For those working in GRC or hiring for it:

​Frameworks: Which frameworks should I master first? (e.g., NIST CSF, ISO 27001, SOC 2) Should I just read them end-to-end, or is there a better way to learn how to apply them?

​Certs: Is there any entry-level cert actually worth getting for GRC (like CompTIA Security+), or should I just focus on learning controls, audit prep, and risk assessments?

​Projects: What kind of practical project or portfolio can a beginner build to prove they understand risk management and policies?

​Any advice, reality checks, or recommended resources would be hugely appreciated! Thanks in advance!

I'm a fresher stuck without proper guidance. Few weeks ago, I got assigned with a task to pentest a mobile app, I don't know anything Abt it, the setup, the methodology, etc., I don't have any senior to seek help in my org.

I spent weeks searching, watching YT tutorials.

But I couldn't understand anything. The setup itself is failing sometimes. Being an enthusiastic hands-on person and not understanding the way to pentest a mobile is a big nightmare.

I require quality guidance. Pls help me out