This is a follow-up from the last time I posted on here (the responses last time were very helpful).
I’ve decided to give up on my BSc for now. I have some experience in IT and a Canadian College Diploma in computer programming. Most of my background is in web development, but I’m looking to pivot into cybersecurity.
My biggest issue is that my networking fundamentals aren’t very strong. I understand programming and general IT concepts, but I never really built a solid foundation in things like TCP/IP, subnetting, network infrastructure, etc. (I did learn some of the basics for that during my diploma, but it was purely intro stuff I haven’t thought about in a while.)
Right now I’m considering getting a certification both to learn what I need to for an entry-level cybersecurity job, and to give me an edge. I’ve been doing some research, and I’m not exactly sure how to go about it.
Do I do the free Cisco Networking Basics course, do the ISC2 CC, do the CompTIA Security+, then eventually CISA (because apparently I can’t do this one off the jump)?
I’m not sure if I should even be aiming for CISA since I know it’s more focused on auditing/GRC (don’t know what these actually mean in the context of cybersecurity, but that’s what the internet says) than general entry-level cybersecurity. But that’s the cybersecurity buzz word I think.
I also tend to learn much better in a structured instructor-led environment than completely self-teaching. Are there any Canadian college/university programs, bootcamps, or max 2 year programs that actually teach cybersecurity from the fundamentals, including networking, operating systems, security concepts, labs, etc. all the way to certification prep?
Like this York one I found looks perfect, but I’m not sure.
Ideally I’m looking for something that would give me the foundation needed for certifications like Security+ and eventually CISA, rather than a bootcamp that assumes I already know networking.
So like do I just self-study? Is a bootcamp or college program a waste of time and money?
For anyone who made a similar transition from programming/web development into cybersecurity, what path worked for you?
Self-hosting is something in my experience that helped that I don’t see in your post.
(Dangerously) running open source software on the public Interet gave me a crash course in DNS and networking. It also made me very motivated to read up on Cybersecurity risks to my servers.
I find it very effective to read about a common misconfiguration and then go read through the relevant configuration files on my server and try to verify that I have it mitigated.
Like this York one I found looks perfect, but I’m not sure.
Neither am I, but it looks like it costs money and takes a lot of time. It might be right for you, but here’s something you can do starting today: learn to fire up Virtual Machines and network them together. When I first started using virtual machines getting networks to and between them connected was a chore, but I could tell you everything about them. The last time I tried was with Virtual Machine Manager on Rocky, and it was networked out of the box. I should look into why that “just worked.”
To add to your confusion:
I have been following along with “summer of ccna” by Jeremy Cioara and (a little bit) Chuck Keith. I can highly recommend it, especially since it is free (for now). I have learned a lot about various networking protocol, like IP, TCP, VLAN, DHCP, and those are just the big ones. The course is mostly video’s where Jeremy explains and than you get to work it out in Packet Tracer. I think this approach is a lot more fun than Cisco’s. At least, I’m doing it for fun (I don’t plan to become a network engineer, only a swe). If you do want to use this to get Cisco certifie, I think that is a good choice and worth the money in that case.