Cybertalents Scholarship

Introduction

CyberTalents Scholarship is one of those really well known scholarships that is well sought after by many young aspiring cybersecurity individuals. This scholarship is formed and established by two well known entities, CyberTalents platform and TREND MICRO who’s specialized in cloud and cybersecurity solutions. The scholarship application consisted of two parts. First part was to fill a general form asking about some personal information, experience, track you want to pursue. Second part is the tough one an assessment part made up of topics along with appropriately selected challenges to dive deep and solve. These challenges are in the form of CTF (Capture The Flag) style.

Flash back

First of all a small flashback to a funny story. If you read the previous post about IELTS Academic exam you will know that I didn’t have the time to complete or even start the assessment part the application which consists of 29 challenges. The IELTS exam was on 29th a day before the end of registration for CT scholarship. These challenges tackle a wide range of cybersecurity topics from OSINT, web security, to reverse engineering and much more. Luckily, CT moderators decided to extend the scholarship time frame 15 days more until the 15th of May. This was like a god sent moment. Although I’m still working a full time job, I dedicated all my time out side of job hours to this part of the scholarship in hopes to get accepted. I really felt like this scholarship will turn the tides of my life and career, because I will get to meet tons of like minded people and professionals in the field with years of experience.

Thrill of reversing

As the deadline almost caught up to me, 14th of May midnight I was still stuck in one particular challenge concerning the topic of RE (reverse engineering). I felt that I have to finish the rest of the remaining challenges first before giving my fully undivided attention to RE challenge. To be honest, I haven’t really took a deep dive into RE until this moment so that was really tough. But some coffee and dedication can do wonders, lets not forget some YT videos lol. Finally, manages to solve the challenge and notified the CT team. When you spend lots of time doing something that challenges you, but never get tired, bored or quit and keep persevering towards your goals, thats when you know you have found your passion. Fast forward to 19th of May 2021, almost midnight after a crappy day got an email you have been accepted into the DFIR (Digital Forensics Incident Response) track also known with another name as blue teaming. That moment couldn’t contain my excitement, as I was still shocked considering how small the pool of the scholarship when compared to applying individuals from different Arabic and African nations.

Close call

Getting accepted in this scholarship is a dream come true you might say, getting to know may people and interact with professionals in this sexy field is something that can’t be bought or exchanged for. I hope to learn from them and benefit each and everyone of them, in addition hope to help, benefit and contribute tremendously to the cybersecurity field. More to come stay tuned, everything related to Reverse Engineering untli then see ya👋