Check Point Certified Security Administrator (CCSA)

Back in March, I did Palo Alto’s PCNSA exam. Since then I’ve been working with Check Point firewalls, so I decided to do their CCSA exam (for R81.20). Normally, I would start by looking at the exam objectives. However, in this case I can’t, because they’re behind a paywall! The nearest thing that’s publicly available …

Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Administrator (PCNSA)

Yesterday, I passed the PCNSA exam. I previously did the PCCSA/PCCET exam, which was more of a general overview about security concepts and the Palo Alto product range. By contrast, the PCNSA is more practical, so it’s aimed at people who do hands-on tasks with a Palo Alto firewall. In particular, it’s mostly focussed on …

Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (SC-900)

In July 2021, I took the Microsoft Security, Compliance, and Identity Fundamentals (SC-900) exam.NB The exam content has changed since then, so some of the specifics in this blog post might be out of date. According to the exam description:“Candidates should be familiar with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 and want to understand how Microsoft …

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: …

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 …