Spending weeks doing research, setting up hardware, configuring network(s), setting up routing, security and then building a website with multiple systems running behind it for support was a pretty cool achievement. It took me being able to combine all my past education, current technologies, and currently what had been being taught on my path to a degree. It was an awesome achievement, feeling like I could have been on top of it all! “YES!” as I was able to push the last submit button to push my creation into the public view for many others to review and enjoy. It was a great feeling of success.
That was ripped away 3 days later by a hacker and malware.
This class taught me about current technologies and “best practice” methods of pen testing a system and network. Having a friend help out from across the US, multiple instances of vulnerabilities had been discovered and patched to the best of our abilities. Knowing there is more to do and learning that there will always be more to do, the next step is to migrate to the cloud which is currently in work now. This class has helped me establish practices with tools to utilize that will better secure my website and its content from being brutally assaulted again. Believe me, it isn’t fun rebuilding all these posts, line by line from a *.csv file converted to Excel, UGH!