As a Greybeard with 25+ years in IT and InfoSec I'd give the following advice to early-career InfoSec folks in a defender role:
Make it a priority to understand, like REALLY understand, the core technologies being used in the environments you are defending. If your environment is primarily Windows then, however distasteful you find it, learn it inside and out. Install it, run it, configure networking, break all of it, and learn how to fix it. The same goes for any OS and for cloud environments, hardware, networking, etc. You can't learn it all instantly but pick a domain with the most impact and start working on it.
There are many situations where this will help you.
1/6
#InfoSec #Security
Tom Sellers
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2026-01-28 14:28:14 UTC
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2026-01-28 14:28:14 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "As a Greybeard with 25+ years in IT and InfoSec I'd give the following advice to early-career InfoSec folks in a defender role:\n\nMake it a priority to understand, like REALLY understand, the core technologies being used in the environments you are defending. If your environment is primarily Windows then, however distasteful you find it, learn it inside and out. Install it, run it, configure networking, break all of it, and learn how to fix it. The same goes for any OS and for cloud environments, hardware, networking, etc. You can't learn it all instantly but pick a domain with the most impact and start working on it.\n\nThere are many situations where this will help you.\n\n1/6\n\n#InfoSec #Security",
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