Cyber security training can quickly becoming overwhelming. Mentors and students alike are often presented with a staggering amount of training options and paths that can quickly result in confusion as to where to begin. To make things easier for both mentors and students the following learning path can be adopted. However, mentors are free to guide participants outside of the following path.
Week 1
Mentors should conduct an initial team meeting and discuss expectations, timelines, and provide a walk through of the SoCal Cyber Cup Mentorship website. The mentor should assist participants with creating any necessary user accounts for learning resources as well as answer any questions.
Tasks to be completed outside of the team meeting:
Complete the Udemy: Introduction to networking for complete beginners.
Complete the Alison Diploma in Computer Networking: Introduction to Local Area Networks
Complete the Alison Diploma in Computer Networking: Defining Network with OSI Model
Read and review the SoCal Cyber Cup Mentorship Ethics and Legal
Week 2
During the second week of the program mentors should take time to answer questions from the previous weeks tasks as well as ensure that participants fully understand and review the Ethics and Legal pages. Next, mentors should give a brief overview of capture the flag competitions and provide a walk through of the picoCTF website.
Tasks to be completed outside of the team meeting:
Complete the Alison Diploma in Computer Networking: Understanding Wired and Wireless Networks
Complete the Alison Diploma in Computer Networking: Understanding Internet Protocol
Complete the Alison Diploma in Computer Networking: Implementing TCP/IP in the Command
Review the CTF Overview webpage on the SoCal Cyber Cup Mentorship website
Sign up for picoCTF and review the “Learn” tab at http://www.picoctf.org.
Week 3
During week three mentors should answer any questions regarding previous material and begin to discuss careers in cyber security. Mentors should walk participants through the “Career” page on the SoCal Cyber Cup Mentorship website.
Tasks to be completed outside of the team meeting:
Complete the Alison Diploma in Computer Networking: Working with Networking Services
Complete the Alison Diploma in Computer Networking: Understanding Wide Area Networks
Complete the Alison Diploma in Computer Networking: Defining Network Infrastructure & Network Security
Week 4
During week four mentors should answer any questions regrading previous material and introduce the concept of operating systems.
Tasks to be completed outside of the team meeting:
Completed GeeksforGeeks: Intro to Operating Systems
Complete GCFGlobal Windows 10 Introduction
Complete Skill Share: Windows 10 for Beginners
Start the CISCO Networking Academy: NDG Linux Essentials Course (This course has 70 hours of instruction and participants are encouraged to complete this course at an appropriate pace for them)
Week 5
During week four mentors should answer any questions regarding previous material.
Tasks to be completed outside of the team meeting:
Continue working on CISCO Networking Academy: NDG Linux Essentials Course
Being working on CISCO Networking Academy: An Intro to Cybersecurity
Week 6
During week four mentors should answer any questions regarding previous material and provide an overview of the “Vulnerabilities” webpage located on the SoCal Cyber Cup Mentorship website.
Tasks to be completed outside of the team meeting:
Continue working on CISCO Networking Academy: NDG Linux Essentials Course
Continue working on CISCO Networking Academy: An Intro to Cybersecurity
Review the “Vulnerabilities” webpage located on the SoCal Cyber Cup Mentorship website and the associated links to OWASP, MITRE, NIST NVD, US CERT, and Threatpost.
Week 7 and beyond:
Once all the previously assigned tasks are completed the mentor is encouraged to walk the participants through the “Domains” webpage located at the SoCal Cyber Cup Mentorship website. Mentors should meet with each participant individually to discuss the different Domain as well as gauge the participants interests. Mentors should then advise participants on additional paths such as one or more of the nine Domains.
SoCal Cyber Cup Mentorship 