2018 - Erich Ficker - Intro to Pentesting: How you can get the career you want (and break 3

### Overview In this talk, Erich Ficker outlines a practical blueprint for launching and advancing a career in penetration testing and information security. Drawing on personal experiences and industry realities, he discusses essential baseline technical knowledge, self-guided lab practices, certifications, and the realities of interviewing and career navigation across different organizational environments.

### Key Topics - **Foundational IT and Networking Skills**: A solid background in IT infrastructure—such as understanding web servers, database communications, DMZs, and networking fundamentals—is essential. Security professionals should know basic IT well enough to step into an IT role temporarily if needed. - **Essential Tools and Scripting**: Practical mastery of everyday tools including Nmap, Burp Suite, Nessus, Netcat, and SQLMap, alongside practical scripting languages like Python or Ruby to automate tasks or parse target lists. - **Hands-on Labs and Exploit Analysis**: Setting up virtual machines to experiment with newly announced vulnerabilities, researching public proofs of concept from repositories like Exploit Database, and understanding why specific exploits work (e.g., MS17-010 / SMBv1 or MS08-067). - **Certifications and Industry Best Practices**: Using entry certs such as Security+ or networking certifications to bridge background gaps, and familiarizing oneself with standard compliance and best-practice frameworks such as ISO 27001 and PCI. - **Navigating the Job Market and Career Growth**: Handling interviews to build resilience, delivering value in an initial analyst role, and understanding the trade-offs between smaller companies and large organizations (such as the Big Four).

### Technical Details - **Reconnaissance and Scanning**: Heavy emphasis on Nmap for targeted scanning using command-line switches and Lua-based Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) scripts rather than relying solely on Zenmap or heavy vulnerability scanners. - **Application and Vulnerability Testing**: Burp Suite is highlighted as the premier application security testing tool, with the free tier covering the majority of necessary manual testing capabilities. Vulnerability scanning tools like Nessus provide complementary assessment capability. - **Exploitation Concepts**: Hands-on dissection of proof-of-concept exploits to adjust parameters like IP addresses and understand vulnerabilities such as SMBv1 issues (MS17-010) or remote code execution flaws (MS08-067 via Metasploit).

### Takeaways Early in a cybersecurity career, dedicating significant personal time to hands-on experimentation, home labs, and reading threat intelligence blogs or disclosures accelerates progression out of entry-level analyst roles. Professionals should focus on solving problems for their teams, cross-training across disciplines (such as physical penetration testing or lock picking), maintaining professional humility, and remaining willing to change employers if opportunities for growth and upward mobility become stagnant.