Posts

I wanted a small Windows domain I could practise on: something to build, break and fix, and later use for security monitoring. The catch was my laptop. It’s an M1 MacBook Pro, which uses an ARM processor, and I wanted to run the standard x86 versions of Windows Server and Windows 11. I used UTM, which can emulate an x86 machine on Apple Silicon. Emulation is slow compared with running natively, but it works well enough for a small lab. This post covers how I planned it, the two main problems I ran into, and what I’d do differently next time. ...

I recently passed the ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) exam. I have a Master of Networking (Cybersecurity), but I’ve been working in aged care since 2023, so I wanted to refresh the fundamentals and have a current, recognised certification as I move back towards IT. CC is an entry-level certification. It covers the basics across security rather than any one area in depth, and it doesn’t make anyone job-ready by itself. But it gave me a structured review of the core ideas, and a few of them changed how I think about security. ...

I’ve worked in aged care since 2023. Before that, I studied IT and worked in software project management, and in 2024 I finished a Master of Networking (Cybersecurity). Now I’m working towards my first IT role in Australia. On paper, moving from aged care to IT looks like a big change, and in many ways it is. Aged care hasn’t taught me how to configure a router or read a firewall log. I’ve had to learn those through study and my home labs. But it has taught me some things that I think matter a lot in IT support, and that are hard to learn from a course. ...