~/education / LEARNING RECORD

Education &
certifications.

From cybersecurity and cloud foundations to formal study, practical labs and a focused offensive-security roadmap.

Certification earned: 01
Course in progress: 01
Certifications planned: 07
Direction: Offensive security

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATION

01 / FOUNDATION

Completed

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Foundational knowledge of AWS services, cloud concepts, security, identity, networking, pricing and the Shared Responsibility Model.

Completed / CertifiedCloud knowledge for the security work ahead.

Completed100%

100%

What I learned & how I apply it

What I learned

AWS services
Cloud architecture concepts
IAM & access control
Cloud networking
Shared responsibility
Pricing & billing

Why this foundation matters

Cloud services are part of the infrastructure I want to understand and secure. This certification gives me a foundation for reasoning about service boundaries and who is responsible for each control.

How this applies to cybersecurity

Apply cloud and IAM fundamentals when reviewing access, exposure and misconfiguration risks. Build toward cloud security and offensive testing while keeping foundational knowledge distinct from hands-on specialist experience.

Official certification overview

~/education

Formal education.

A completed foundation, followed by my current studies at Edinburgh College.

Edinburgh CollegeCompleted

NPA Cyber Security, Forensics & Networking

My completed foundation in cybersecurity, networking and digital forensics.

Completed100%

100%

Explore course

Skills covered

Cybersecurity fundamentals
Networking
Digital forensics
Infrastructure
Security concepts

Learning focus

Build a grounding in how networks and systems operate, how security failures happen, and how digital evidence supports an investigation.

Application

Use those foundations when documenting the homelab, explaining network boundaries and investigating the behaviour of real services.

Edinburgh CollegeIn Progress

Cyber Security & Forensics

My current college-level cybersecurity education, developing the foundation established through the NPA.

In Progress

Explore course

Skills covered

Cybersecurity
Digital forensics
Networking
Systems & infrastructure

Learning focus

Develop a deeper understanding of security and investigation through formal study, alongside independent practice.

Application

Connect coursework to network troubleshooting, Linux administration, evidence-led investigation and the security decisions documented in my projects.

~/roadmap

The next stages.

Qualifications within a stage can overlap. Year labels describe my development plan, with progress recorded individually.

CompletedIn ProgressPlannedFuture

FOUNDATION → CONTINUING STUDY

Cloud knowledge. Formal cybersecurity education.

AWS Cloud Practitioner Completed Edinburgh College In Progress

YEAR 1

Core offensive security

Security foundations, a systematic testing methodology and an introduction to AI attack surfaces.

CompTIAPlanned

CompTIA Security+Security+

Consolidate the security fundamentals behind practical offensive work.

Not started0%

Explore certification

Skills covered

Threats & vulnerabilities
Security architecture
Identity & access management
Risk
Incident response

Why this is in my plan

Give practical testing a broader grounding in security controls, organisational risk and incident handling.

Application

Explain why a finding matters, connect it to a control and communicate a useful remediation path.

Official certification overview

Hack The BoxPlanned

HTB Certified Penetration Testing SpecialistCPTS

Build a repeatable penetration-testing methodology from enumeration to reporting.

Not started0%

Explore certification

Skills covered

Enumeration
Active Directory
Web exploitation
Privilege escalation
Pivoting
Reporting

Why this is in my plan

Develop the habit of working systematically through a scoped assessment and documenting the evidence behind each finding.

Application

Practise in authorised labs, connect network and host findings, and produce reports that make the technical result understandable.

Official certification overview

Hack The BoxPlanned

HTB Certified Offensive AI ExpertCOAE

Extend the offensive-security learning plan to AI and LLM systems.

Not started0%

Explore certification

Skills covered

AI / LLM security
AI attack surfaces
Adversarial machine learning
AI system testing
Assessment reporting

Why this is in my plan

Understand how AI applications introduce different trust boundaries and failure modes, beyond traditional web and infrastructure testing.

Application

Review how models, tools and application data interact, then investigate those boundaries in controlled AI security labs.

Official certification overview

YEAR 2

Networks, detection & deeper testing

Combine networking and investigation with practical network and web assessment skills.

CiscoPlanned

Cisco Certified Network AssociateCCNA

Strengthen the network knowledge that supports both operations and security testing.

Not started0%

Explore certification

Skills covered

Routing
Switching
VLANs
TCP/IP
Network troubleshooting
Infrastructure

Why this is in my plan

Understand the intended network path before diagnosing an unexpected one.

Application

Develop better segmentation, routing and troubleshooting practice for the homelab and future network assessments.

Official certification overview

CyberDefendersPlanned

Certified CyberDefender Level 2CCDL2

Complement offensive work with investigation, detection and forensic understanding.

Not started0%

Explore certification

Skills covered

Incident investigation
Digital forensics
Threat detection
Threat hunting
Blue-team practice

Why this is in my plan

Learn how attacks are detected and reconstructed, so offensive findings can be understood from the defender’s perspective too.

Application

Connect system and network observations to an investigation, and understand what useful detection evidence looks like.

Official certification overview

TCM SecurityPlanned

Practical Network Penetration TesterPNPT

Develop practical assessment skills with professional reporting at the centre.

Not started0%

Explore certification

Skills covered

OSINT
Active Directory
Exploitation
Pentesting methodology
Professional reporting

Why this is in my plan

Develop the full assessment workflow, including scope, investigation, technical evidence and communicating the outcome.

Application

Practise connecting individual weaknesses into a coherent assessment and explaining impact without overstating the evidence.

Official certification overview

PortSwiggerPlanned

Burp Suite Certified PractitionerBSCP

Deepen web-application testing through Burp Suite and practical vulnerability research.

Not started0%

Explore certification

Skills covered

Burp Suite
Authentication
Access control
Server-side vulnerabilities
Client-side vulnerabilities
Advanced web exploitation

Why this is in my plan

Develop a more detailed understanding of web application behaviour and the ways trust assumptions fail.

Application

Use controlled web labs to practise tracing requests, testing access boundaries and documenting reproducible findings.

Official certification overview

FURTHER AHEADFuture specialisation

~/labs

Labs & continuous learning.

Practical learning resources and planned study pathways. Their progress is tracked separately from qualifications.

Hack The BoxPlanned

Hack The Box Academy

Structured technical modules and hands-on security labs.

Not started0%

Explore pathway

Skills covered

Penetration testing
Enumeration
Linux
Windows
Active Directory
Networking
Web security

Why this is in my plan

Build practical depth alongside formal education and the certification roadmap.

Application

Use scoped exercises to connect operating-system, network and application concepts.

Explore the learning resource

PortSwiggerPlanned

PortSwigger Web Security Academy

Focused web-security lessons with interactive vulnerability labs.

Not started0%

Explore pathway

Skills covered

Burp Suite
Authentication
Access control
SQL injection
XSS
SSRF
Advanced web exploitation

Why this is in my plan

Build a practical understanding of the vulnerabilities behind web-security terminology.

Application

Trace application behaviour, test a hypothesis and explain the resulting security boundary.

Explore the learning resource

pwn.collegePlanned

pwn.college

Hands-on systems-security challenges that build low-level understanding.

Not started0%

Explore pathway

Skills covered

Linux
Low-level security
Binary exploitation
Systems security

Why this is in my plan

Understand what happens underneath higher-level tools and application abstractions.

Application

Connect processes, memory and binary behaviour to a broader security model.

Explore the learning resource

OverTheWirePlanned

OverTheWire

Wargames for Linux, command-line fluency and security fundamentals.

Not started0%

Explore pathway

Skills covered

Linux
Command line
Security fundamentals
Practical challenges

Why this is in my plan

Strengthen the core shell and investigation skills that support everyday system work.

Application

Practise careful inspection, interpreting output and combining small command-line tools.

Explore the learning resource

Broader self-study

Independent studyPlanned

C / C++ & low-level programming

Develop the programming foundations needed to understand systems and memory.

Not started0%

Explore pathway

Skills covered

C
C++
Memory
Low-level programming

Why this is in my plan

Read and reason about how software operates below its user interface.

Application

Prepare for binary analysis, debugging and later exploit-development study.

Independent studyPlanned

Python, PowerShell & Bash

A structured next phase of scripting study, building on existing automation projects.

Not started0%

Explore pathway

Skills covered

Python
PowerShell
Bash
API integration

Why this is in my plan

Develop maintainable tools with clear inputs, boundaries and failure behaviour.

Application

Extend the scripting and API work demonstrated by the homelab and media-server tooling.

Independent studyPlanned

Reverse engineering & assembly

Planned study of x86/x86-64, program behaviour and vulnerability research.

Not started0%

Explore pathway

Skills covered

x86 / x86-64
Reverse engineering
Debugging
Vulnerability research

Why this is in my plan

Understand how compiled programs behave and how to investigate unexpected behaviour.

Application

Build toward controlled reversing challenges and low-level security analysis.

~/future

Infrastructure, automation and the decisions behind the work.

Explore my projects ↗