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154

Looking for advice on where to start.

In my 30's and been Mac person since like 2010.

I looked up some courses to learn Linux and downloaded Ubuntu to my Virtual Box VM.

Looking at free beginner and intro level cybersecurity programs to familiarize myself with the foundational stuff.

Downloaded Tor and have Express VPN on my phone (yes, an iPhone) and have yet to really explore Tor until I am better acclimated with the risks.

My questions are mostly around how to best and most efficiently get up to speed on what I would need to best secure my own systems as well as learn blackhat and whitehat "hacking" techniques -- both for my own defense and also for a possible career change.

Any advice from people with experience would be greatly appreciated:

Course recommended and to avoid Tools recommend and to avoid Any other tips and tricks I should know starting out.

Looking for advice on where to start. In my 30's and been Mac person since like 2010. I looked up some courses to learn Linux and downloaded Ubuntu to my Virtual Box VM. Looking at free beginner and intro level cybersecurity programs to familiarize myself with the foundational stuff. Downloaded Tor and have Express VPN on my phone (yes, an iPhone) and have yet to really explore Tor until I am better acclimated with the risks. My questions are mostly around how to best and most efficiently get up to speed on what I would need to best secure my own systems as well as learn blackhat and whitehat "hacking" techniques -- both for my own defense and also for a possible career change. Any advice from people with experience would be greatly appreciated: Course recommended and to avoid Tools recommend and to avoid Any other tips and tricks I should know starting out.

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[–] 0 pt (edited )

Try Kali Linux aka backtrack and just self-teach/YouTube tut each program that comes prepackaged

[–] 0 pt

Cool thank you. Any advice on machines?

I can’t afford a new set up so I’m using my MacBook Pro 2016 with only 8gb ram and a virtual machine. It’s so slow when I use the VM.

[–] 0 pt

Not really, it's a pretty lightweight operating system. I never did virtualization for mine. Not sure I even had a computer that could handle it. I partition my hard drive into 2 different operating systems. One for windows and one for Linux.