How to make the most of CyberStart Essentials!
CyberStart Essentials gives you the chance to expand your knowledge further with over 100 hours of extra video tutorials, quizzes and learning guides.
“You have to work through some theory in CyberStart Essentials, but it is more than worth the effort.”
— James Lyne
CyberStart Essentials is a very different tool from the previous two stages of the programme. We have put together this blog to give you some advice on how best to maximise your learning with CyberStart Essentials and what you should be taking away at the end of this exciting stage.
What is CyberStart Essentials?
CyberStart Essentials is about providing the right foundation knowledge to rapidly accelerate your jump into cyber security. If you are already a hobbyist and have existing expertise, it will round out gaps that would hold you back later. If you are a newcomer, it will provide you with a basis of knowledge and explain why the techniques you might have tried before have worked.
The team have taken a lot of time to research and develop the content you will need to maximise your learning experience and in turn become a fantastic security practitioner. Each and every concept covered, whether at a high or low level, is a precursor to unlocking interesting cyber security topics.
Why is CyberStart Essentials important?
It is a common mistake for lots of security professionals to skip the fundamentals and dive straight into the ‘exciting’ side of cyber security. However, this ultimately results in them not understanding advanced security concepts and holding up their progression. In CyberStart Essentials, we go into detail on advanced security concepts like exploitation or writing your own penetration testing tools so that you have vast knowledge in a variety of areas and are introduced to a range of roles in the industry.
Investing the time in theory, learning to programme and learning how the technology we attack and defend works will make the difference between a hobbyist and someone who can make the transition more easily to industry and land a role.
How will I learn in CyberStart Essentials?
There are tonnes of theory modules with text and audio in Essentials, we suggest taking some time to go through them and digest them properly. After you get through the early stages of CyberStart Essentials there are also fun, interactive programming and lab environments with your very own system where you can experiment and test your new knowledge.
Within the tool there are quizzes and examinations. Take the quizzes to test your knowledge but take the examinations only when you are ready as you get to take these only once! Do your best on them, but don’t panic if you miss one or two. Reviewing the material carefully will definitely help, but using Google is NOT cheating. We want you to research and use background materials.
“It is really important to remind ourselves you can only take each exam once. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself when taking each exam but do take them seriously.”
— James Lyne
For your study convenience, we provide the ability to download certain content. Please do not abuse this and share questions with others or publish them, as it disrupts the learning experience for newcomers.
What if I get stuck?
There is lots of content to absorb in this tool so if you are confused by how something works, take some time to play with the concept yourself. Maybe you need to take some time to practice beyond the labs on your own system?Why not use a virtual machine and set up your own Linux system, then try some of the commands?
Everything in this stage of the programme has a relevance to CyberStart Game and CyberStart Elite so it is really important not to skip any modules. The team has considered a variety of topics to ensure we are giving you the best of our knowledge and ultimately the best chance possible of making to Elite stages if you choose to take this seriously. Take the time to go back to CyberStart Game or ask others for help if some modules are particularly challenging.
We hope you enjoy CyberStart Essentials, which we will be updating and growing as you use it. We worked hard on providing the knowledge we know would have massively accelerated our careers in cyber security.
If you come across anything that confuses you during Essentials, please contact us on support@joincyberstart.com and one of our team will try their best to help.
Interested in our programmes? Check out where you can build your cyber security knowledge for free!
UK 13–18-year-old student programme: Cyber Discovery https://cyberdisc.io/medium
USA 13–18 year-old girls student programme: Girls Go CyberStart https://ggcs.online/medium
USA 18–year-old and above college student programme: Cyber FastTrack https://cyberft.io/medium
