When you love your website, you want to secure it against hackers. Web designers need this implement this mindset into their workflow…
I love my job, I really do!!
I have been a web designer for 20 years. Being a web designer allows me to explore my creativity and apply my rational thinking to website structure and coding.
My Passion for Cyber Security
For a while now, I have been passionate about cybersecurity. Working with WordPress, I have found hackers fascinating. The idea of transforming something to do something different (that it probably isn’t supposed to do) is appealing. In programming, for example, WordPress themes, there are limitations. So, we try to find a solution, a workaround for the theme, or a solution the programmers didn’t think of. That’s what I find most interesting. I love to play around with themes and make them do things they are not intended to do.
Why Learn Something New?
Cyber Security is gaining momentum, and there is more talk about the safety of websites and web applications. But, at least where I live, most people don’t think about security at all when it comes to their websites. I think that is going to change in the future. Building more secure and safe websites is going to be the standard, and this is what I want to be able to do. I want to really understand what is possible and what vulnerabilities we as web designers are dealing with in our development process. To build secure websites, I need to see things from the other perspective, the hacker’s side.
Getting started wasn’t easy
Getting started with Cyber Security was not easy for me. I felt overwhelmed with all the information that is out there and didn’t know where to start or what topics to look into. I have no background in computer science and although I love everything tech, many concepts and techniques were just new to me. All I knew about networks was what half-knowledge I needed to get my websites running. Frustrating as it is, I knew there was a lot of knowledge I was missing and that I needed to learn before being able to really get a handle on the security stuff.
It took me a while (and tons of reading) to write down a to-do list for all the different concepts, languages, and topics I wanted to cover. The first step was to acknowledge that Cyber Security is a very huge field nowadays, so I don’t have to know everything (well, at least not now ;-)). I already knew my field of interest: web app security.
After my first steps into Web App Security..
One of the hardest things for me was to stay focused on one topic at a time (and it still is a huge struggle sometimes). While reading about one thing you are bound to come across so many other things you don’t know and it makes you feel small and sometimes even stupid.
Especially as a beginner you come across things you don’t know every 5 seconds and I often ended the night with 132 open browser tabs about all the things “I really should look into”.
Thankfully I discovered TryHackMe at this time where I not only learned a ton but also found more structure than studying alone by myself.
Now after “playing around” for some time, I want to make a mindful career decision and take the Cyber Security path more seriously. That’s why I started working on my first certificate, the CompTIA Security+.
I think, that more and more of the knowledge I get from the course is finding its way into my blog.
Where do I want to go with this
As you already know, I really enjoy building websites. Working with WordPress for nearly 10 years now I want to connect my expertise in the framework with the newly acquired knowledge and help make WordPress installations safer and less vulnerable to bad actors.
One of my motivations for this blog is to get to know more people interested in the same topics. And seeing how overwhelmed I was at first, I hope to help others to have an easier start without the struggle.
So if you are interested in the same things I would love to hear from you. I would love to chit-chat and exchange cool stories.
Love, Frida
