Knowledge in the Cloud: A review of a free online cybersecurity basics course by TryHackMe.
With the rise of today’s technology comes many interests in the field of computing, arguably the most intriguing being cybersecurity. However, many don’t realize that working in many of the sub fields of cybersecurity requires foundation knowledge in computing. This is where TryHackMe comes in, a free website dedicated to bringing authentic knowledge in byte-sized rooms, as they put it, to help anyone from a beginner to a professional learn from a range of topics.
The platform has recently brought in a new learning path, “Pre Security”, alongside it’s other paths including “Cyber Defense”, “Complete Beginner”, as well as others.
For the one I’ll be reviewing, “Pre Security”, it hosts a number of modules that contain rooms which is shown below:
Some of the most important foundations of cybersecurity include networking knowledge as well as how Windows and Linux work, including commands used in their respective command lines. Another aspect covered by this beginner “Pre Cybersecurity” course includes how the web works, such as how the HTTP protocol works and it’s various response codes.
An important aspect for why I enjoy TryHackMe is not only it’s presentation, but also it’s interactivity, shown in some rooms where you are tasked with configuring a firewall to stop an attacker from overloading a server, or even playing a little video game to set up the OSI model in the correct order!
As a holder of multiple certifications (CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+) that require knowledge that is taught in this pathway, I can say that had this been released whilst I was studying for them, I am sure that it would help a lot! The free service provides a fun way to learn technology, also offering giveaways back to it’s community, which is also available to talk to on either the web forums or a Discord server.
After having used the service and completed so many rooms to where I am in the top 0.1% of users, I can safely recommend both this learning path and the website as a whole to anyone wanting to learn or study information technology and computer science. It also has many different rooms made by both the community and the owners of the service, as well as cloud based web browser attack machines.
Relevant links:
