Review of Udemy course – Python for Ethical Hacking: Develop Pentesting tools by hackersploit academy

Overview

If anyone starting out with either learning Python or cyber security there is a fantastic course on Udemy you should put serious consideration into buying. The Python for Ethical hacking course takes you step by step through coding your own tools for carrying out various security related tasks such as scanning for open ports and active IP addresses, transferring files between machines and even setting up a botnet which includes coding both the client and server side code.

Pros

• The course covers a lot of different tools so if you are into security there is very likely going to be something relevant to you.
• The instructor speaks very clearly and explains everything as he goes along.
• Both Python 2 and 3 are used with discussion of some of the differences.
• Each tool is coded live which also involves the debugging phase at the end, seeing a skilled coder going through the debugging process is invaluable knowledge which often gets skipped in other courses.
• While the course is aimed at people with a little bit of experience in Python and coding I feel that anyone with general tech saviness should be able to jump in and follow.
• The majority of the tools are left open to allow you to add features in the future if it’s something you start using for real world work.

Cons

• The only con I could think of was that most of the tools weren’t demonstrated in a real world scenario. Watching some of these tools in action might have helped learners remember what they do on a deeper level.

Verdict

This is one of the best courses I have done so far. The experience I’ve gained from watching someone coding these tools and following along in real time far outweighs the learning I’ve gained from other basic python courses which teach things on a more conceptual level.

Some of these tools you create on this course are almost clones of popular tools from Kali Linux which allows you to carry on learning different penetration testing techniques but with a bigger sense of achievement at the end as you know you coded some of the tools yourself by hand.

I’m so impressed by this course that whatever the instructor releases next will likely go onto my wishlist to learn, regardless of the topic.

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Review of Udemy course –AZ-300 Azure Architecture Technologies Certification Exam

Overview

I recently passed the AZ-300 and wanted to review some of the material I used to pass it in case anyone else is thinking of taking it and wants some advice on how to prepare.

This AZ-300 course from Scott Duffy is aimed at people wishing to take the Azure technologies exam from Microsoft, the exam itself covers a lot of high level concepts within the Azure system and aims to certify that you understand a wide variety of concepts within Azure at an architect level.

The syllabus is very broad and covers topics from networking, scaling up and out automatically, Security, Migration, Web apps and anything else you’d  expect a consultant to be able to advise on if you were planning on moving to Azure.

Pros

• The course consists of lots of videos split into neat sections covering the entire AZ-300 syllabus
• The videos are high quality, clearly explaining what Scott is talking about
• The audio quality is very high
• Scott has clearly been using Azure for years and you get the impression he is talking about a lot of the topics from experience and not just documentation.

Cons

• This course is nowhere near enough by itself to pass the AZ-300, the exam is very in depth and asks some awkward questions which this course does not prepare you for
• The video course is only 10.5 hours, I suspect most people will be putting in 50+ hours of prep in order to pass the exam
• There is a lack of practical lesson which would help put the course topics into practise.

Verdict

Nobody is going to be passing the exam using just this study guide by itself. As you will need to buy other materials I can’t justify recommending this video series. Instead you should take a look and find a larger and more in depth course which provides lessons/labs to go alongside the theory. It is too easy to halfheartedly nod along to these video lessons without any of the knowledge sinking in.

The course content itself is well made, there just isn’t enough of it to make it worth while. The scenarios that would justify getting this course would be if you already have bought and used a larger 30-40 hour course and want to go over the topics again from a different perspective or if you are not interested in sitting the exam but just want to see what Azure has to offer as an alternative to AWS or on premise solutions.

Buy a larger course first, then some practise labs, then one or two sets of practise exam questions, and if you still need something extra to study after that then this course is the right thing to get.