Alexander
North

CompTIA — active

Linux Professional Institute (LPI) — active

ISC2 — active

It’s been a busy semester, but it’s finally wrapped up. This semester, I earned my ITIL 4 Foundation certification and wrapped up courses in Digital Forensics and Cryptography. My biggest challenge, though, came from the two Database Management courses. At first, MySQL felt like my nemesis, but once everything started to click, I realized how powerful and even enjoyable it could be....

My name is Alex, and I am a current student at Western Governors University, working on my Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity. I’ve been on this journey for a little over a year now. One thing I’ve learned about the industry is that cybersecurity and certifications seem to be synonymous with one another. Certifications are a great way to evaluate and demonstrate your level of knowledge on a specific topic. It provides a rewarding feeling and allows you to display your hard work for others to see....

Cybersecurity is a massive field — tons of niches, each with its own tools and skills. I’m a student working toward my Cybersecurity and Information Assurance degree at Western Governors University, picking up certs like A+, Net+, and Sec+ along the way (and aiming for more!). The theory’s great, but I needed a way to get hands-on experience to really lock it in. That’s where a homelab comes in — a scalable setup that mimics a small enterprise network. After some research, I went with EVE-NG Community Edition: it’s free, flexible, and has a solid community behind it. Everything used in the guide is free and just requires your time to set up. Let’s get building!...