PEN TESTING FOR BEGINNERS

I started my journey to become a pen tester about a year ago. I began working in IT as a software tester about two years ago. Prior to this I was a special needs teacher for 17 years with a specialism in science.

I know.

What the hell am I doing?

Well I actually really really enjoy what I have learnt so far in penetration testing and I hope to get good enough in the next five years to actually be able to call myself a pen tester.

SO WHY DID I START THIS BLOG?

There are a lot extremely talented people working in infosec who are incredible at what they do. However people who are very good at what they do, don’t always make the best teachers. This seems to be particularly true for people working in infosec.

I spent rather a lot of time writing out notes as I followed through with tutorials. At present these notes have been confined to a folder. My aim was to keep adding to these notes and eventually to use that folder as my pen testing manual. I then had the idea to not keep an antiquated paper folder but to start this blog and maintain it as an online manual.

THE FUTURE

My aim with this blog is to publish guides to penetration testing that take very little for granted. I will do my best to not jump ahead several steps assuming the user knows something ‘obvious’. I will try my best to offer more than one way of doing the same thing (heaven knows how many times I have read a tutorial of how to do something only to find that tool is broken).

I absolutely promise to proceed with utter humility – as to be completely honest it is amazing how much I have learned of how little I currently know. However I also promise to keep going and keep improving. Please join me in my journey.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton