As some self learning on Cyber Security, I decided to give TryHackMe a go. I quickly found the material engaging and the activities well put together but what really struck me was running through some of the basics. I was doing lessons on Windows, Linux and networking, learning plenty along the way.
Understanding our technology
In order to come up with good architecture, code designs or test strategies it can be really valuable to understand our technology.
Whilst my no means an expert, I feel like I had an above average technical knowledge. Even if I didn’t spend my days writing automated tests, I was comfortable using Wireshark to inspect traffic and I’ve worked plenty with command line tools and operations. This knowledge tends to be something that I built up over time rather than being taught the skillset I need. This information has been great for informing my ideas around architecture, good development practices and coming up with test ideas.
With frameworks, AI and other technologies sometimes “shielding” us from what happens under the hood. However to build quality software, surely we need to understand how it is working? I’m not necessarily suggesting advanced studies of protocols and operating systems, but if you don’t understand how computers talk to each other, can you be confident in your design or test plan?
TryHackMe
The TryHackMe platform nicely merges different forms of learning. You get bits of text but with diagrams and quick questions to keep you thinking. You can’t skim read and click done. When talking about cryptography it wasn’t that dense wall of text that I had in the past but suitably simplified so that I could understand it, whilst also made clear that the maths shown to me was with a completely different scale of numbers than real solutions use. You also have lots of interesting and well put together labs. How to use SSH is a lot easier if you are connecting to a virtual computer and running a few commands than just reading about it!
Summary
Regardless of your role, from PO to dev to test, try and understand the technology. I’d strongly encourage all junior/mid (and maybe senior & above!) engineers to look at learning more about the operating systems and protocols that their applications use.
There is a really handy guide for beginners created by TryHackMe and if you aren’t super interested in getting into the security side, just skip those lessons (although learning more about cyber security is surely a good thing!).