Where does a new student start? How do they break into infosec? What are the best resources? What are the skills they need to learn?
If you are asking these questions, you're asking the same ones I spent four years coming up with answers for. My name is Dennis Devey and I wrote this course, along with everything else on the site.
I designed this course 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 plenty of hard work is required to get them to the next level. If you purchase this course for them, I will be by their side every step of the way.
Designed for Novices of All Ages
This course assumes no technical knowledge (unlike every other beginner's guide). All a student needs is internet access and the desire to improve themselves. Your presence reminding them that you care about their education and future goes a very long way.
Self-Paced
We set the curriculum, they set your schedule. We take students step by step from first principles so that they have a holistic understanding of the field they are entering. Instructors are available for assistance to keep you moving forward, and we can provide activity reports on request to the purchaser of the gift.
Time Investment
This course takes hundreds of hours for the average beginner. This is not a fast-track, but it is 1000x more efficient than if a new student was given access to the internet and told to go learn. This is a self-guided journary where students will learn how to be comfortable in the deep end. Instructors are always available and we won't let them drop out.
Why you should pay for a free course.
This course you are purchasing as a gift is available for free and designed so that beginners would be able to work through without too much extra help. But in order for a student to get the most possible out themselves and this course, they will need direct instruction.
When you pay for this course you are ensuring the student you are sponsoring has accountability and access to the instructor, not for the course material. When all three of us have skin in the game, the chances of a positive learning outcome for all of us increase significantly.
It all comes down to accountability when we are trying to achieve hard things. If you want, I can send weekly or monthly updates on your sponsored student's progress, so that all of us can see how things are going. Fill out the form about that after checkout if you want to learn more, or email me.
Finally on the subject of accountability, everything has a money back guarantee. If you or the student doesn't like how things are going, just email me and I will send a full refund.
Access to Instructor
You will have guaranteed priority access to the instructor whenever I am awake and have internet access through private chatrooms. This means that I will be almost always available to help you understand concepts, troubleshoot your setup, or work through problems.
Graded Assignments
In the premium version of this course, I will read through every one of your submissions to make sure that you understand what you are learning. I will be able to identify your individual areas to improve and work with you to create a personalized learning plan.
Office Hours and Private Chatrooms
I will conduct weekly meetings with all premium students to answer questions live and talk about various subjects. This will be guided by you to enhance your learning experience. In addition, there will be a variety of private chatrooms for general discussion along with the private support rooms.
The Curriculum Everything Students 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
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 me and I will get back to you as soon as I can!