Transcription
This is the single most important video of your life. And at the end, I'll go over how to enter the giveaway, which includes a flipper zero, a rubber ducky, a Raspberry Pi, the full set of Mad Hat gear, and some free 1-year subscriptions related to my big announcement.
The advice you're hearing about how to get into cyber security is officially outdated. I'm calling it. It's 2026. And if you're still watching those videos where they just changed the title from last year to this year, you're in for a rude awakening. And if you're still trying to break into the industry by just collecting alphabet soup certifications mindlessly like they're Pokémon and praying that the HR algorithm and ATS filters picks your resume, you've already lost.
Now the TLDDR version, learn the basics, pick a niche, grab some searchs in that niche, build some home labs, polish your resume, network as much as you can with people who work in that industry, and eventually you'll land a job. That's a lot to figure out. And I've been asked the same questions by people interested in getting started in the cyber security field but don't know how to start.
If I woke up tomorrow, zero experience, no degree, and had to land a job in a year, I would approach things completely differently than I did back when I first enrolled in college over 10 years ago. My ass struggled to figure out for over a decade of my life after high school. I wouldn't study general cyber security in college. I would specialize. And knowing what I know now, I probably would become a cloud security specialist even with all the outages that we've been seeing. Not necessarily what you would have to pick. But point being, specialize early.
Now, some of you may have seen the date for my big announcement. Well, the soft release of Mad Hat Labs, a platform I'm building to make sure that you actually have hands-on skills in the fundamentals you need to get started in cyber security, which we shall then build off of to become cloud gurus or whatever you want to call yourself. Cloud Jedi, I don't know. If you're not interested in the lab part, there's also gear if you're so inclined. a Mad Hat Stacker game that features the full version of Firewall Hearts. Yes, I did write the song. Yes, that is me singing. Yes, I am being sarcastic.
You're seriously interested in beginning a journey in cyber security. My go-to recommendation has always been to figure out if you're cut out for cyber security or it. And if you can't master the basics or can't stand learning them, you're in for a tough time. This is a career, not just another job. I've recommended tons of learning platforms in the many years that I've ran this channel, but I wanted to be able to point people to a single source of truth that is free. That's right, the operative fundamentals, which will be fully released by the end of the first quarter in 2026, March 31st. I'm hoping I'm a oneman team, but I'm setting myself a goal.
This aims to effectively dip your toes in the cyber security waters, so to speak, and something that focuses on hands-on lab work. At the end of nearly every chapter, there is a lab. Everything in this learning module will be things that I had to learn with me excluding all the crap that isn't relevant anymore or not super helpful in getting started. Do you know absolutely nothing about computers? This is for you. This will be my MadHat Magnum Opus. Feel free to skim the curriculum on what is to come.
In the first 3 months of learning, your only job is to see if you actually like this. Most people quit because they dive into the deep end without knowing how to swim. Metaphorically drowning their chances of a career in cyber. This would be your start. People could stop asking me how do they get started. By the end, you should know how a network talks and how a hacker thinks. You can explain what a three-way handshake is to your grandmother. You're ready for the real technical deep dive.
And if you are interested in cloud security specifically, this is where Madhat Labs will help you. Most courses tell you what cloud is. I want to show you how to secure it. My background, if you don't already know, if this is your first time seeing me, seeing my eye and mouth holes, I've worked several years in IT, worked in an enterprise Fortune 500 company, and now I effectively work with over 10,000 end users across over a dozen clients as a cloud security engineer, primarily living in Azure land.
Right now, for quarter 2, I'll be dropping the Azure fundamentals module. You aren't just reading about firewalls. You're going into the labs and actually configuring Azure key vaults and managing identity access. This is what you could call the leap phase. You pick a field cloud in this case and you dominate the fundamentals of that specific ecosystem. Silo yourself and once you understand Azure, the logic transfers over to the other cloud providers. But the tools change. To be the top 1% candidate, you need to be multicloud. So, in quarter 3, my site is releasing AWS fundamentals. And in quarter 4, I'm hitting GCP.
At some point, I will also be releasing the certified MadHat certification. Oh, another one of those, huh? The prerequisite for this exam will be the operative fundamentals, which effectively proves that you know what is needed to start digging in the weeds of cyber security. You've proven yourself worthy of this challenging but worthy career. And let's face it, it's a lifestyle.
So, by purchasing the certified bundle, you'll be granted lifetime access to the site. Yes, I'm not joking. You also get the official swag bag, which includes a Mad Hat mask, plus other gear, and one lifetime exam attempt. Yes, you heard me right. You will only get one attempt to pass this exam, and never again in your life. At least not on that account that you've completed the operative fundamentals on. Why am I doing this? Because I'm not trying to rack up a bunch of money with retake fees. I want to create a challenge that is unique to the Mad Hat channel.
In addition to all that, you get me as a mentor in the MadHat Discord where I can help you with resume advice, templates, general advice. I will help as best I can. You also get the exclusive certified Madhat role in the Discord and I will work towards getting it as a credly badge at some point in the near future so you can properly display your certified Mad Hatness on LinkedIn or wherever else you want to.
Think about this. You sit down for an interview and the hiring manager asks, "Why should we hire you over this guy with a computer science degree?" You pull out your portfolio and say, "I've spent the last year of my life doing hands-on. I've secured Amazon VPCs. I've mitigated S3 bucket leaks and I've configured cross-site identity management and I'm a certified Madhat." That beats a degree every single time. Am I biased? Of course I am.
And once you've spent 6 months to a year digging into the weeds of what you want to specialize in, you need to stop treating your resume like it's never going to be good enough to put out into the ether. Start applying for jobs, thousands of jobs. Even if you don't feel ready, you are playing a numbers game. Took me a thousand job applications to land my first security role. It might take you more to even land a basic IT role. Use LinkedIn, Indeed, Zip Recruiter, but most importantly, use the projects you built as your proof of work. Don't just list skills on your resume and hope they believe you. point out those skills by pointing to the labs and showing what things you've built and what vulnerabilities you've fixed.
Since this is a soft launch for the website and obviously other than a sneak peek, chapter 1, lesson one, nothing is really available. However, if you do decide to subscribe to the site and support this channel, you'll be locked in as an operative founder, which includes a founder badge on the official Mad Hat Discord at a reduced price of $9 a month for as long as you want to stay subscribed. Cancel anytime. price will go up once I've built everything out.
I do plan to eventually build out Azure tenants that you can spin up as your personal playground where you can deploy policies, build apps, etc. as part of Azure Labs, a separate section that will eventually be on the site. For now, it is in the pipeline. I've never been so sure about wanting to build something like this in my life. Maybe that's why I like cloud security. You get to build things. And yes, there's tons of platforms out there to learn cloud security and the fundamentals. I'm not saying I somehow reinvented the wheel. I'm just making my own wheel because maybe it will actually help.
As far as the giveaway goes, in order to be eligible to win, all you have to do is head on over to the site, create a free account, link your Discord, also free, and join the Mad Hat Discord. That's it. If you want to like and comment on the video, that's great, too. For every like, comment, and person that signs up, that is $1 that I will put in the Mini Mad Hats Pokémon card fund. [screaming]
Cyber security in 2026 isn't about being the smartest person in the room. It's about being the most practical person who knows how to actually do. You don't need a 4-year degree head start. You just need a dedicated year of your life and the right labs. If you're ready to stop watching YouTube videos and start doing something, head on over to the site, create a free account, and you'll soon have access to the operative fundamentals.
The most important thing I want out of everybody who visits the site is to provide any amount of feedback in the Discord that you can. Everything is appreciated. I want this to be backed by the community where I take everyone's complaints and considerations and fix them. I'll see you in the labs, folks. What [music] does it feel if you treat me like you do when you play [music]