Why I Chose Ethical Hacking?
Hello Wor-… You know what? Lets stop while we’re ahead and get right into it!
From graphic design to penetration testing…. What got me interested? Once word got around that I was pretty decent with Photoshop and said suite, several of my clients reached out about website design. This came around the time I was losing my drive in graphic art (after about 7 years), so I wasn’t too excited about it. Nonetheless, I began designing banners and elements to plug-in-play websites such as Wix and Webs. With the urge to develop an app, as many entrepreneurs get, I needed to learn coding.
I started with the various free coding programs, ie codecademy.com, I then followed the curriculum of a software engineer, https://medium.com/@tjoye20. My first program can be found here. https://github.com/davidivory/csvrename.
I entertained the idea of software development for a good while, but something still bothered me. I found myself coding with the user in mind. Meaning, what ever I code, a person would be interacting with it. I was focused on back-end coding, but I wanted to be as backend as possible. So, I stumbled into hacking.

First things first, I needed linux. After downloading VirtualBox, I then proceeded to install Kali Linux as a VM. Second, Metasploitable. I followed all of the configurations and ran through tutorials of hacking Metasploitable. I WAS IN LOVE. Running the various exploits, scanning for open ports, and successfully pwning the system. Creating directories in Kali and running the ‘ls’ command in Metasploitable to bask in the glory. I needed more. I began scanning a website for a non-profit organization and forwarding the information to the founder, which then brought me on for contract work. Not much pay, but everything helps.
A couple of good resources , The Hackers Playbook and study guide for the Comptia Security+ exam. I also looked through the CCNA study material to have a better grasp on network protocols. DVWA is a great resource for web application security, in which is my focus. I started with the low-level security tutorials and worked my way up, ensuring that I read the attached articles to fully understand the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities.

I’ll be sure to go in depth of my process in future writings, so stay tuned in this journey to ethical hacker! Also, watch Mr. Robot and you’ll actually start to understand what he talks about!
Happy hacking!
