I would advise anyone who wants to learn to use Splunk to actually use Splunk. They offer a really thorough fundamentals class for free and you fan set up a Splunk environment fairly easy.
There’s also hands-on by completing the ‘Boss of the SOC’ challenges.
Furthermore I recommend:
I highly recommend the above book to supplement study and test prep.
I’m. A very big advocate of first using the free stuff. If there are free offerings when learning by all means access them. When I first started to explore my interests in information technology I started with web page design. One of the biggest contributors to my learning was definitely FreeCodeCamp.
FreeCideCamp assisted in me teaching myself HTML, CSS, and Javascript. I also began to code Python with the community’s assistance. I did 100 days of code twice with some influence from their curriculum.
This is also where I first found out about BlackGirlsCode, but I digress…
Once my career in infosec and graduate school really started rolling I really strayed away from FreeCodeCamp–though I still kept and eye on the community/site. I still advise people to check them out when they’re starting to learn coding, especially since their offering have really grown.
So, now years and two degrees later I find myself back on FreeCodeCamp working through their Data curriculum because data is fun. To be in infotech and infosec is to commit yourself to lifelong learning and discovering things that interest you and maybe how those interests might inform your work. That’s really what made me stroll on back to freecodecamp, because like I said use the free resources before you open your wallet so you can discern between what might be a mild interesting topic or an avenue for career pivot.
The Cloud+ guide is very short in comparison to other study guides, but Linux+ has a section on cloud so this will feed off of that (hopefully).
Studying for this includes just 3 things:
The 4th edition study guide is super accessible and easy to understand
All-In-One is a more technical, dense book
Flashcards always and forever in deck, I like the spiral-bound to keep them altogether and easy “flippability”…
Also, not picture Cybrary Linux class and ITU CompTIA Linux class
Easy2Boot on a 64gb usb loaded with several different linux distros
I know that there is no point in which in this field you will have learned everything. There is no end point in Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Programming. There are constant innovations and learning is pretty much lifelong.
That being said sometimes it can be a little overwhelming when you think about all of the things that interest you. I know that there are numerous things that I want to get some hands on experience with and sometimes I get anxiety about not doing enough towards learning these things. This is probably one of the reasons that I have a plethora books on all the subjects that interest me so that I can get to them when I have the time.
I think maybe the most important two things is to keep track of the items that interest you and also not stress the timeline so much, try to make a general goal/outline of steps to take in order to accomplish learning the things that interest you.
“Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own.”
-Bruce Lee
Build A Security Ninja 