1–2) Introductory Course: CyberSecurity Research

8 min readApr 6, 2022

This chapter / module focuses on the importance of CyberSecurity Research. Searching the web, advanced google searching, and websites to know.
There are 3 sections in this chapter, they are Requirements for Success, The Internet as a Source of Information, and Staying One Step Ahead.
We will also do a few labs
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Section 1: Requirements for Success

This section points out why research skills are so crucial in cybersecurity. We will cover Expectations, What are Research Skills?, Why is Research Necessary?, and What to Expect.

Expectations
To excel in cybersecurity, learners must master the art of searching for information that they need through many variable sources. There is always more information to be discovered. There is always room for additional independent research and study.

The Correct Approach:

Striving to know
Self-Motivation to invest time and effort
Enthusiastic independent learning
Thinking outside the box

In real-world scenarios, thinking outside the box is essential to security implementation and hacking. Although the objectives are often identical, the process is seldom the same.

What are Research Skill?
Research skills is: The ability to leverage accessible content for learning.
Information is readily available on the internet. But knowing how to identify the relevant information is a skill.
Knowing how to apply trial and error to find a solution.
A researcher may find that the information they need is not available anywhere. In these cases, trial an error is necessary through experimentation and monitoring.

Why is Research Necessary?
Research help professionals deal with new and existing challenges. It also helps to advance your career. The cybersecurity field is constantly evolving and requires nonstop study to remain up to date with all new technologies.

What to Expect
Dedication and Problem Solving skills, and Trial and Error.
It is important to invest time in gathering information and studying it. Especially in the early stages of your career.

This bootcamp covers a variety of technologies and teaches advanced topics associated with computers and networks. As you progress, what may have seemed unfamiliar and daunting at first will eventually become clear. Your confidence will increase over time. And you may find yourself experimenting on your own.

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Section 2: The Internet as a Source of Information

This section presents the internet: the largest source of immediately available information today. Here you we will cover Searching Online, Google, Google Advanced Search, Documentation, Searching Documentation, and Forums.

Searching Online
Google is a simple and fast way of obtaining answers to a massive variety of topics. Information on the internet is instant, free, and vast. However, not every source is correct, reliable, or even well-intentioned. Data should be verified through checking multiple sources.

This bootcamp encourages searching for information online. In many cases, searching the internet for answers makes progress faster and easier.

Google
Google is the most popular search engine in existence.

Google is a search engine that offers a straightforward and easy to use program. But Google also offers an advanced platform with additional search options. This utility enables improved filtration for a more accurate search.

Other popular search engines include yahoo.com duckduckgo.com and bing.com

Yahoo is owned by yahoo. and offers a fully customizable home page to keep up to date for your preferences like news, mail, politics, technology, games and more.

DuckDuckGo is a privacy search engine that claims to not track your data.

Bing is owned by Microsoft. It is the default search engine that is used if you use Microsoft Edge as a web browser.

Google Advanced Search
Google Advanced Search improves your ability to pinpoint the information you are looking for. Using filters can provide you with more accurate information. Filter examples can be, specific websites, specific regions, specific numeric ranges, and / or words.

To access the advanced search option, navigate to http://google.com and click on settings on the bottom right. Then click on advanced settings.

You will be redirected to another screen that shows a wide variety of specific options that you can use to narrow down your search.

Some examples of why you may want to use this is because you only want to find videos from the website http://YouTube.com, or because you only want to find results with the keywords “malware analysis”.
Whatever your reason for using the advanced search may be, it narrows down the bulk of information to a more specific and accurate search.

A very important piece of information to remember though is that you can also be misled by such amounts of information as well.
A clear example of this is this example:
Go to google.com and search up, “Can coffee make you blind?”
You will find a clear answer at the top that states that coffee in excess can cause blindness.
Now go to google.com and search “Is coffee good for your eyesight?”
You will also find that coffee can help prevent deteriorating of your eyesight.
If you read the full answer then you will also see that the difference between the searches is that one says 1 cup of coffee is good for you vs 3 cups or more is bad for you. So now you know that information can be good or bad, depending on how you and your mind process the information and fully grasp the information presented to you.
Me

If you practice enough with google advanced searching, you will find that your searches look different than a regular search. Once you remember the syntax: or the language that the software understands, then you can just type that out instead of going to the google settings and advanced search.
For example, instead of going to settings and advanced settings, you can just type on on the search bar, “malware analysis” site: youtube.com and that will instantly take you all the results for malware analysis on the website youtube.com.

Documentation
A useful source of information is the original documentation that is produced for a tool or technology. The documentation typically includes the product’s official information that explains how to work with a given technology or technological component. It includes the most reliable information about a product. In some cases though, the documentation may prove too hard to read or understand.

Searching Documentation
Searching for information in digital documents may take a lot of time and effort. However, finding the specific keywords that you are looking for can be made simpler by using the “FIND” feature. The quickest way to use this feature is to type “ctrl” + “F” on your keyboard. you will find a small search bar on the top right of most pages.

This allows you to quickly search through any website or documents if you use very specific words.

Forums
Many forums are free information-sharing platforms that allow users to post questions and answers related to various topics. A common way to identify the best answer in a forum is to search for the highest-rated answer. Since forums are not very reliable though, you should always double AND triple check the information you obtain, from any source.

A popular forum for technical topics is called Stack Overflow. https://stackoverflow.com/
This forum focuses on DEVELOPMENT but is also used for discussion about cybersecurity and other topics.

Short Exercise

If you want to do a short practice on Google’s advanced search, the find function, stack overflow, or all, then the instructions are this.

Google:
Search google.com for the answers to the following questions on the site Wikipedia.com
Use ‘ctrl’ + ‘F’
When was Google’s 3D logo replaced?
What change was made in the 3.0 interface?
How are release versions identified?

Stack Overflow:
Go to https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3213068/why-encrypt-user-passwords and chose what you believe the best answer to be for why user password should be encrypted.

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Section 3: Staying One Step Ahead

This section focuses on the need to stay up to date with news regarding new technologies, vulnerabilities, exploits, and methods that are constantly being developed. We will cover Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures, and Reading the News.

Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE’s)
The website https://cve.mitre.org/ is a website that helps you search for vulnerabilities. It catalogs many CVE’s with in-depth details of each and contains list of vulnerabilities that you can query. The descriptions are comprehensive.

Short Exercise

Search for and analyze CVE-2017–0148 via Google AND cve.mitre.org
What year did the CVE originate?
Which Operating System’s were exposed to it?
Which service was exploited?
What is the exploit name?

Reading the News
The cyber-world moves fast and goes through rapid changes. Older technologies are often no longer supported, and new technologies take their place. Making sure you stay up to date with all the relevant news is crucial to your survival as a cybersecurity professional.

The following websites are recommended for cybersecurity news:

It Security Guru: https://itsecurityguru.org
The Hacker News: https://thehackernews.com
Cyware: https://cyware.com/cyber-security-news-articles
Threat Post: https://threatpost.com
Krebs on Security: https://krebsonsecurity.com
Schneier on Security: https://schneier.com