Description
Where does a new student start? How do I break into infosec? What are the best resources? What are the skills I need to learn?
These are the questions our flagship course was designed to answer. This is a self-paced curriculum that was made to help our students over the first big learning hurdles and finally have a path forward. Our material is intended to be accessible for a student with no prior knowledge, but is worthwhile for any seasoned expert to take so that they can learn more about the subjects they have never had to dive into. Graduates of this course should be confident that they are fully prepared to continue their education wherever it leads.
Designed for Novices
This course assumes no technical knowledge (unlike every other beginner's guide). All you need is internet access and the desire to improve yourself.
Self-Paced
We set the curriculum, you set your schedule. We take you step by step from first principles so that you have a holistic understanding of the field you are studying. No matter how deep you get into the weeds, instructors are available for assistance to keep you moving forward.
Time Investment
This course takes hundreds of hours for the average beginner. This is not a fast-track, and you won't be following a walkthrough the entire time. This is a self-guided journary where you will learn how to be comfortable in the deep end. Instructors are always available and we won't let you drop out unless you want to.
What You Will Learn
You will leave this course with a base of knowledge to build on for the rest of your career. You will be comfortable with learning new systems, tools, and concepts, be a competent Python programmer, and a skilled operator of the Windows and Linux operating systems. We won't turn you into a hacker, but we will give you the tools to do it yourself.
Why You Should Learn With Us
To be truly good at security requires you to be a self-motivated learner and constantly seek out new information and new skills. For some reason, there seems to be an expectation that a beginner must be able to immediately jump in the deep end and figure it out from there. I made this course for my past self, who would have given anything to have a curriculum and a clear path forward, instead of stumbling through tweets, blog posts, google searches, forums and chatrooms for five years in search of knowledge. This course will teach you everything you need to continue your education on your own, or to stick with us and continue following the path we are building with our students.
Our goal isn't to teach you how to hack, our goal is to teach you how to learn.
The Curriculum Everything You Will Learn
Build Your Lab
- Virtualization
- VMWARE
- Ubuntu
- Personalize Your VM
Introduction to Linux
- Command Line
- Text-Fu
- User Management and Permissions
- Security
- Over the Wire: Bandit
Hardware
- History
- Electricity, Storage, and Telecommunications
- Digital Representation
- Digital Logic
- Assembly Basics
- Processing and Memory
Operating Systems
- OS Fundamentals
- Windows History
- Windows Power User
- Linux History
- Linux Power User
Networks
- Networking Terminology and Fundamentals
- Addressing
- Networking Layers
- Introduction to Wireshark
- How to read RFCs
The Internet
- History
- How the Internet Works
- How Web Sites Work
- Internet Power User
- Wireshark the Internet
Programming
- Languages
- Github
- HTML
- Python
- Python on Windows
- Python on Linux
The Human Factor
- "Soft Skills"
- Social Engineering
- Ergonomics
- Lighting
- Touch-Typing
- General Wellness
- Mental Health
Start Learning!
About the Author
Hello, I'm Dennis Devey!
I am the Strike Officer on USS Decatur (DDG 73) so my day job is ensuring the missiles and launchers are maintained and driving the ship, but I am working to lateral transfer into the Cyber Warfare Engineer community. By night I am an independent security researcher who is into education, malware command and control, and endpoint hardening. Back in school I was on our competitive Cyber Security Team and focused on building training for new members. I made this website to continue the work I had done and to share it with the widest audience possble.
For updates and new releases, follow Dennis and the official Roppers Academy Twitter account: @deveynull and @hoppersroppers
If you have any questions reach out to us and we will get back to you as soon as we can!