I encountered a youtube video of a smart 11 year old by the name of Jake Sethi Reiner, that explains in very simple terms the methodical way a security researcher should think. Don’t be fooled by his age, i have spent time trying to teach people this exact way of thinking:
- Identify the problem
- Gather evidence
- Hypothesize and analyze solutions
- Carry out experiments, analyze the results
The problem he encounters at his home are no different than those encountered by professional security researchers - and his solutions are the exact steps one should follow through (learning to overcome different issues and concepts along the way).