Interview with Cybersecurity Talent: Kaung Htet Aung
1) A little bit about yourself
I am Kaung Htet Aung. I explore weirdness in systems to surface security bugs for living.
2) What made you become obsessed with Cyber Security?
I regard hacking as an art and this is generally how it's portrayed by many others as well if you reminisce about the past. As such my curiosity has always been onto exploring the process to be well versed in said art and addiction follows suit. Also, I genuinely love the adrenaline rush that occurs afterwards once a complexity has been broken into digestible pieces and allow me to break assumptions.
3) Please share how you achieved certain achievements?
I am afraid this could become a long and dull post if I were to write "how" part in detail. Nonetheless, here is an abstract. To be frank, dedication and passion have been a strong driving force behind all my achievements thus far, be it in CTF competitions or Bug Bounty.
I burned all my free time on CTF challenges and that resulted few sponsored trips to Black Hat USA and DEF CON.
I wasn't afraid to ask questions when I first started in bug bounty. My mentor, Ko Kyaw Min Thant, was my main source of guidance and the only friend that I know of in the scene at that time. With his help, I was able to learn the ropes quickly and here I am joining a number of live hacking events organised by HackerOne in various parts of the world.
4) How do you foresee yourself in the next couple of years?
Who knows! One thing for sure though, I will still be doing technical stuff and seeking more knowledge.
5) What do you like to tell about anyone pursuing Cybersecurity?
There are plenty of talented young people interested in hacking. What may be lacking is the scene spirits and so, learn the history, learn what makes us tick, don't be a damn skid and ask yourself is this where you belong?
6) What advice would you like to give for those who are planning to learn Cybersecurity through CTF?
Learning through gamification turns out to be fun, entertaining and yet different topics are well covered with the help of objectively measurable challenges. Naturally, CTF landscape is changing as well but still, don't get intimidated by the difficulty levels and treat the challenges as learning tools to better understand the specific context and vulns. Failure is not a bad thing, in fact, it demonstrates where you need to spend more effort towards studying. I only used to participate in the competitions and therefore, I am not the best person to point to a particular medium to begin the journey. Nevertheless, [tryhackme.com](https://tryhackme.com/) has recently been gaining much attractions and praises and perhaps, worth a visit of yours I reckon.
7) What advice would you like to give for those who are planning to learn Cybersecurity through Bug Bounty?
Unlike a few years ago, there are tons of resources out there that can help one to get started fairly easily. Though (personally) I wouldn't recommend someone to start with Bug Bounty for the sake of learning cyber security given that solid foundation on different topics and professionalism need to be adhered to while approaching bug bounty programs. Best to start with learning fundamentals in prior and apply gradually onto programs with a positive attitude. Be professional and never practise #BegBounty !
8) Please share how we can follow you in social networks.
You may find me on twitter :)
https://twitter.com/0xkha