aaron597.com
Blog Posts
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- Written by: Aaron DeJong
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HacktheBox Certified Junior Cybersecurity Associate
There is a new HacktheBox certification called the CJCA. This is the HTB Certified Junior Cybersecurity Associate which comes with a new Role Path called Junior Cybersecurity Analyst. For this role path, I am having 63.49% of 20 modules completed. The CJCA is both a red team and blue team certification that I am working on getting.
On the modules for the CJCA I am working on Introduction to Bash Scripting, Introduction to Penetration Testing, Pentest in a Nutshell and others. For the CDSA I am still working on the SOC Analyst Role Path where I am 30.91% completed. I am looking more towards doing the CJCA and the Junior Cybersecurity Analyst Role Path.
TryHackMe Progress
On TryHackMe, I am working through the SOC Level 2 Learning Path. I currently am at a rank of 6585 with being ranked 839 All-time in the United States. I recently finished the DevSecOps Learning Path on TryHackMe. This puts me at 253 rooms completed with 38 badges and a 17-day streak. Also, I am at 33092 points needing 35000 points to upgrade my Legend to a Guardian point level rank.
Network Security Influencer
I have taken up a Network Security Influencer role on social media. I am currently at 1.2k Facebook friends, 711 followers on LinkedIn, 30 followers on X, and 34 followers on Instagram. This puts me above 1,000 unique followers and makes me a Nano Influencer. Out of the four platforms Instagram is the newest for me and I am working on my Instagram following.
I am working on my branding on X and need to rethink my strategy. For Instagram, I am @aarondejong10 and for X @aaronwdejong. I would be open to new followers on these two platforms. The thing that I am doing as a Network Security Influencer that is more of a top fan strategy. There are 13 current organizations that I am a top fan of on social media.
Conclusion
The way that I am going about HacktheBox certifications is to work on the CJCA before the CDSA. This is something that I think makes HacktheBox a good platform for entry-level cybersecurity certifications. I am doing well on TryHackMe and think that I still have room for improvement with the SOC Level 2 Learning Path.
Doing more of the top fan strategy for the Network Security Influencer role has allowed me to become a better influencer. I am working more on the X and Instagram platforms where I am open to new followers. On Facebook and Instagram I am @dejongaaron, on LinkedIn I am linkedin.com/in/dejongaaron, and on X I am @aaronwdejong.
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- Written by: Aaron DeJong
- Category: Blog Posts
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Network Security Influencer
For the Network Security Influencer role, I am working on learning about some influencer strategies. I want to get some experience and thought leadership skills out of being a Network Security Influencer. In addition, the way that I am approaching the influencer role is more of a top fan-based strategy.
I am looking forward to researching more Network Security Influencer strategies. I will be researching these to refine my approach and get better. The strategy that I have going forward is to help with the social media marketing of the organization or group. This is helpful in getting rising fan badges and top fan status.
Top Fan Status
Currently, I am doing Router Nest, Networks Baseline, IT Networks and nine or so altogether. The top fan status that I have also includes TryHackMe, HacktheBox, and Palo Alto Networks. By interacting with the sites or organizations on Facebook, Instagram, and X it helps provide the message to potential consumers. This is my basic strategy on the top fan status.
There is something that I have been doing for about 3.2 years as a weekly streak on Udemy which is 167 weeks in total. For Udemy, I have received a rising fan status and will be working on top fan status. This Udemy streak goes back to before they started the streak, and I am surprised with how long I have maintained it.
TryHackMe
I have become a Top Fan of TryHackMe by helping it out with the social media marketing and interacting with them. Currently, I am ranked #7179 on TryHackMe with being #932 in the Unites States All-Time. In addition, I have completed 247 rooms and am a Legend at Level 13 with 31780 points.
I will be working on my Junior Security Engineer Skill Matrix that is the second filter after Entry-Level, in which I have maxed out. On the Junior Security Engineer Skill Matrix, I am Strong in Identity Security and Incident Response while being weaker in Security Automation. I am back to working on the DevSecOps Learning Path where I am at around 70% completed.
Conclusion
Working with the Network Security Influencer role is allowing me to hone my craft and be more of an influencer over time. For the Udemy top fan status I will need to up the game on my interactions with Udemy. I am doing quite well on the TryHackMe site as a top fan and will be looking to extend my 8-day streak to 30 days at least.
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- Written by: Aaron DeJong
- Category: Blog Posts
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Introduction
My concept for this site needs an update. This is something that will be more Network Security oriented and still about myself in a journal blog kind of format. I will be updating this content from just Cisco and Microsoft into something that encompasses my Network Security Influencer role.
This is something that I have been thinking about lately, where I need some kind of platform to express myself as a Network Security Influencer. I have chosen this platform as a tool to create a community around my aaron597.com blog. The way that I am doing this is through Instagram, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Concept
The concept for this site has some new direction. To get the concept off the ground, I am going to post weekly on this blog. Other changes include a scope change to anything around the Network Security niche in addition to focusing on my top fan status on multiple organizations including TryHackMe, HacktheBox, Router Nest, Palo Alto and others.
Within the concept, I will be trying out new things that I am interested in regarding Network Security. To provide the content I will be putting out Computer Networking, Cybersecurity and Network Security blog posts. The blog, aaron597.com, is more of a business on this site and will be thought of more as a business than as a personal blog like aaronwdejong.net is to me.
TryHackMe
Currently, I am ranked at #7370 with being ranked #959 in the All-time U.S. rankings. I have been doing easier rooms lately and building up my Exploit and Penetration Testing skills. There are some rooms that I have been doing that are regular rooms with the majority being CVE based rooms in the Exploitation skill.
Background
Having an IT background has helped me become a part-time writer for myself. I am now a writer for aaronwdejong.net, aaron597.com, and at Aaron W. DeJong IT Articles where I am also the editor. Aaron W. DeJong IT Articles is my own promotion on Medium. I also publish other articles on Medium and post my blog posts from the two blogs on Medium.
Conclusion
I am having some more time dedicated to writing and will be posting on aaron597.com and aaronwdejong.net weekly. I also have some time to write articles and focus on my Network Security niche. I am excited to be a Network Security Influencer due to my background in Computer Networking and some training that I have been doing for cybersecurity. I feel that this is something worth doing and I am committed to working on this going forward.
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- Written by: Aaron DeJong
- Category: Blog Posts
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Introduction
DHCP is the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol and is vital to an enterprise or small business. Securing this protocol on your LAN is one of the things that will help your company do a defense in depth approach to security. DHCP is secured by using certain configurations for DHCP Snooping and Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI).
The DHCP Process that a client goes through to establish a dynamic IP address is called the DORA process. DORA is an acronym that Stands for Discover, Offer, Request and Acknowledgement.
This process starts with the client making a discovery ARP request for the DHCP server, the server then sends an Offer message to the client offering the IP address that it gives out for that client. The Client then sends a request for that IP address and the Acknowledgement from the server completes the DORA process.
APIPA
The Automatic Private IP Addressing range is the 169.254.X.X range and is used if there is a problem with the DHCP Process for that client. This address range is for automatically assigning the client with a dynamic IP address using itself as the DHCP server as a backup to not having an IP address.
Securing DHCP
There are some ways that you can secure DHCP using the IP Helper Address and DHCP trusted links. These work in conjunction with DAI and DHCP Snooping n order to provide the security needed to do defense in depth for DHCP. For DHCP Snooping on Cisco devices there is a way to create a binding database for trusted and untrusted ports connected to a DHCP Server.
In addition to the DHCP Snooping there is Dynamic ARP Inspection which validates ARP packets against the trusted binding database which prevents ARP Spoofing and untrusted ARP traffic from getting used maliciously for DHCP related attacks. Dynamic ARP Inspection is typically used with DHCP Snooping to create a binding database.
Conclusion
By securing DHCP there is a better defense in depth allocation for this protocol using the DAI and DHCP Snooping technology on Cisco devices. I have also been doing some things on TryHackMe and am now a top fan of TryHackMe in addition to being ranked 7360 with 237 rooms completed and 35 badges.
I am posting this blog post on aaron597.com and will be able to post this one on Medium as well. There are some more technologies that I would like to write about regarding Cisco and Microsoft technologies. This is more of what I would like to write about on the aaron597.com blog.