Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)

In May 2021, I took the Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) exam. This is similar to Microsoft 365 Fundamentals (MS-900), i.e. it’s asking about what the technology does rather than how you use it. However, I thought this was a better exam than MS-900, i.e. it was more relevant to what you actually need to know …

Cisco Certified CyberOps Associate

Overview In November 2016, Cisco introduced “CCNA CyberOps”. This consisted of 2 exams: At this point, there were 10 associate level certifications: 9 versions of CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate), and also CCDA (Cisco Certified Design Associate). In February 2020, most of the associate exams were merged together into the new CCNA (200-301). The only …

eLearnSecurity Junior Penetration Tester (eJPT)

In April 2020, I took the eJPT exam from eLearnSecurity. As the “Junior” part of the name suggests, this is an entry level exam, and I think it acts as a good stepping stone towards the eCPPT or the OSCP. All of eLearnSecurity’s certifications are good for life, as opposed to Cisco/CompTIA certifications which have …

OSCP: Windows Buffer Overflows

I’m currently preparing for the OSCP exam. As part of that, I’ve spent a lot of time on OffSec’s Discord server, where I’ve helped other students and been made a “Community Companion”. I noticed that a lot of people got stuck on a particular exercise (section 11.2.8, question 3) so I made a video walkthrough: …

IPv4 exhaustion (2022)

Today is the 10th anniversary of World IPv6 Launch. IPv6 has been around since the 1990s, but some organisations were hesitant about using it for their websites. So, World IPv6 Day (in June 2011) was an opportunity for these organisations to enable IPv6 for 24 hours. That way, if anything broke then it would probably …

CySA+ (CS0-001)

In March 2020, I took CompTIA’s CySA+ (Cybersecurity Analyst) exam. Along with PenTest+, this bridges the gap between Security+ and CASP. In simple terms, PenTest+ is about “red team” activities (attack) whereas CySA+ is about “blue team” activities (defence). This certification was launched in 2017 as CSA+, but it was rebranded in January 2018 because …

Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Associate (PCCSA)

Palo Alto Networks make security products. In particular, they sell firewalls (physical and virtual), and their Panorama software will let you manage multiple firewalls centrally (e.g. for branch offices). Their certification program has 3 tiers: Entry level Administrator Engineer Palo Alto Networks offer free training for all of these, although you have to pay for …

CCNA R&S

Cisco have offered the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) since 1998, but it’s been through a few variations over the years. They’ve changed the syllabus and the number of exams: Year Part 1 Part 2 Combined 1998 CCNA (640-407) 2000 CCNA (640-507) 2002 CCNA (640-607) 2003 INTRO (640-821) ICND (640-811) CCNA (640-801) 2007 ICND1 (640-822) …