My Cybersecurity Journey Series (How I Got Into Cybersecurity)

As I write this, I’m almost sitting for my end of semester examinations. I didn’t expect to start writing this series until I was done with exams but I needed a distraction, so here we are. This is going to be the first topic of the series ‘My Cybersecurity Journey’. I have always felt the need to share my journey and what I’m experiencing. The right way to do that would be sharing how I ‘found’ myself in cybersecurity. If you are not sure, yes the journey was subconsciously hard. Let’s start with how I came to know about this cybersecurity thing.

As far as my memory can take me, I have always loved technical stuff. Repairing spoilt calculators, doing electrical stuff, such things. Computers were also part of this, but for this case, mobile phones, of course we didn’t have a computer and if we had one, I’m sure I would not be allowed anywhere close to it. I was that kid who used to spoil people’s phones all because of curiosity. However, for phones, I often interacted with the different applications. I was certain that I was going to take an engineering course in the university but I somehow found myself in I.T. I was sure that I was going to pick something in networking. I also wanted to know how to hack, all that cool stuff.

I join uni and we start learning and none of my units are close to hacking, at least what I thought at that time. I couldn’t understand how I could use what I had, to learn what I wanted to. But I still had some hope that I could learn hacking in my future academic years. Nothing we were learning at that time made sense to me for example, I didn’t get the use of programming. I however now know that is an expensive joke. I struggled to find a field that I could relate to but I still had some hope in computer networking.

I know you are asking yourself how I knew so little about I.T yet I chose it. So, the only place I seriously interacted with I.C.T was the computer packages after high school. I didn’t chose computer back in high school because I thought I would end up in engineering. All this time, I have a deep desire of knowing more but I don’t know where to start. Fast forward to second year. I join second year and happen to see a poster about a cybersecurity bootcamp. Some companies were sponsoring students to attend. At least I had an idea that cybersecurity related to hacking because of watching several interviews where Dr.Bright Gameli was hosted. Funny enough, I also got the poster from his Instagram stories.

The cybersecurity fundamentals bootcamp was by Isaca Kenya Chapter and I got a sponsorship to attend from Ekraal Innovation Hub. Everyone in that event seemed very sharp. I remember them discussing different cybersecurity breaches and wondering how they had mastered all this knowledge. I think I even heard words like botnet, rootkit for the first time there. It was a two-day event and by the end of it, I cannot lie that I was somewhere, in fact I was more confused. I was however glad that I was now around a cybersecurity network.

Also, I was now researching more about this cybersecurity thing. I now came to know about ethical hacking. However, I was not sure of the learning path to take. I also didn’t want to find a mentor because I felt that I knew nothing and decided to first gain some little knowledge on my own. All these decisions were however made subconsciously. At that time, I wasn’t even sure of what I was thinking or doing. It is funny how time transforms things, that right now I can even express myself in words.

I start my second semester of second year and this is when the covid-19 pandemic hits. We were in the middle of the semester but everything had to stop. This is around March 2020. Sigh, we have a break from school! This is the period I found a lot about cybersecurity. I am entirely grateful for the positive effect this time had on me. Okay, I think I should leave the other part for the next topic!

Stand tall, reach high and dream big!