TryHackMe: cyber and gamification

(To Alessandro Rugolo)
22/02/21

Some time ago I told you about the project Ares, an online platform developed according to the concept of gamification, today we resume the discussion by presenting the platform TryHackMe.

TryHackMe was born in 2018 thanks to two cybersecurity experts, Ashu Savani and Ben Spring. In 2019 Jonathan Peters also joins them and starts developing the current platform. 

Most of the products available on the platform are free. And if you want to use all the services the cost is 8 pounds per month.

TryHackMe is based on the fact that if you are curious and guided, approaching cybersecurity is not too complicated. To ensure that the student does not get lost, some tools are provided that allow even beginners to get immediately those results that will push him to go on along an otherwise very complex and often discouraging path. In fact, the platform allows you to "play" with specially built virtual machines to learn the basic concepts.

Right from the start, the student will be able to create and start his own "attack box" or a "kali linux machine" through which to make his own experiences in complete safety and with the study materials at hand.

The platform currently has around 358.000 users and is constantly growing. 

Those who register can freely explore the available "rooms" by being guided by their own curiosity or they can choose a learning path from the five available:

- Cyber ​​Defense;

- Complete Beginners;

- Offensive pentesting;

- COMPTIA Pentest +;

-Web Fundamentals.

Of course, nothing prevents you from doing both, that is to sign up for a course and then be guided by curiosity, which I did myself.

Each path consists of a certain number of "rooms" to be completed. For each "room" there is a score that allows the student to compare himself with the community in a world (or national) ranking. The score is attributed according to well-established rules that make it possible to climb in the ranking only if real progress is made.

As in all things, to see progress you have to be constant. 

I have signed up for 74 days now and I am in 9533th place in the world ranking out of 358.000, maybe it will not be a splendid result but at least I managed to pick up many concepts that for reasons of time I had no longer had the opportunity to deepen including the use of the command line and various tools available on Kali Linux.

Currently it is possible to choose the "room" to follow among 330 available, of different subject and difficulty. Each room is a mixture of theory and practice and it is possible to find all the references necessary to deepen the subject or the link to other rooms if necessary. 

If you then made the mistake of subscribing to a room that is too difficult, which can happen, no problem, you leave it alone to resume it maybe after a few weeks and check if you have made progress. 

There are still many things to say, for example that if you are able to do it you can collaborate on the development of the site, but I think it is preferable to invite you to visit TryHackMe.com and try it yourself!

Good fun...