So this week marked my first proper dive into the CREST Practitioner Security Analyst (CPSA) training and after missing last week’s Study Buddy session due to work training, I was eager to get stuck in and back on track.
What surprised me (in a good way) was how much of the first day focused on topics I’d already covered in CompTIA Security+, things like networking and basic security principles. But this time, we took it deeper. And for once, I wasn’t completely lost.
It actually felt like the Security+ stuff had finally started to sink in. Concepts that once felt like trying to read Klingon now made sense. It was a small but very welcome win, like my brain finally acknowledged the key exchange and let some of that stored knowledge through the firewall.
The deep dive into networking wasn’t just for fun (though let’s be honest, Nmap is pretty fun). It laid the groundwork for learning about Nmap commands, how they interact with networks, and what kind of juicy information they can uncover. Seeing it in action gave me that “ohhh, now I get it” feeling and that’s a rare and magical thing when learning something as vast as cyber.
So overall, CPSA is off to a strong start, and more importantly, it’s shown me that the Security+ foundation is starting to pay off. Maybe, just maybe, the old dog is beginning to learn some new tricks… though there’s still the occasional crash and memory dump along the way.
