My Impact on the World
These are what I believe to be my most significant creations and contributions that I have learned from and have helped others. None of these accomplishments would've been possible without God, great mentors, friends, family and the Internet. I'm actively trying to do what I am called to do which I believe is to engage, enlighten and empower others to be all that they are called to be.
Built my first custom GPT: TechProfGPT (version 1 launched in November 2023)
🤖 Introducing TechProfGPT (version 1), my first AI (made with OpenAI's custom GPTs feature). This is a tech-savy professor that can teach IT, Cybersecurity and AI to learners of all skill levels. TechProf attempts to be mindful of students understanding, ask challenge questions, tell stories and explain practical application. This process of training TechProf has been a great learning opportunity for me and has made me realize that I have not written down nearly enough of what I have learned over the years and am actively learning.
Built a Cybersecurity degree program from scratch at Mitchell Community College
This involved doing research, visiting other colleges, convincing higher education leaders to invest time and resources into making it happen. I lead the initiative on hiring high quality educators to manage the program.
Becoming a college instructor, educator and author at a young age (early 20s to now)
Conquering the false misconception that I couldn't do it effectively. God told me I could do it but I really didn't believe it at first. The only human being at the time that believed I could was my mentor. I've gone on to empower thousands of people through my college classes, YouTube videos, conference talks and content done through partnership with companies like HackTheBox. Here are some nice things some of my students have shared over the years. Each of these recommendations were given via Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertftheisen/)
Played an essential role in the development of the Penetration Tester job role path on Hack The Box Academy
Lead Author on Shells & Payloads Module
In the process of authoring, coauthoring, quality reviewing modules (interactive courses) I developed a keen attention to detail and heightened awareness of learner's perspectives as they read and learn.
Coauthored and Built challenges for Pivoting, Tunneling and Port Forwarding
This is widely regarded as one of the best learning materials on pivoting in the security industry. Lots of blood sweat and tears went into designing and testing the challenges. Lots of focus went into writing the content to adequately prepare the learner for the challenges while not giving away the answers.
Planned, coauthored and Built challenges for Password Attacks Module
People can learn a lot through suffering. This module is a challenge that requires a lot of persistence, patience and repetition. Pentesting and a lot of Cybersecurity roles require a certain degree of accepting suffering. I say this with a hint of humor but I am serious. Certainly targets, problems, breaches and more that you will come across in the real world will make you want to pull your hair out as you work towards finding a solution. This module does a great job teaching that.
Coauthored and built challenges for Active Directory Enumeration & Attacks
Widely regarded as the best learning resource on AD Enumeration & Attacks. Learners that complete this module should put it on their resume. It takes lots of knowledge and skill to complete it and we built it that way on purpose. It feels real and Im glad to have been part of the development.
Coauthored Attack Common Applications module
Coauthored, Built and Extensively tested challenges for Attacking Enterprise Networks
Blog Posts I've Written for Hack The Box
I also wrote several blog posts for Hack The Box's blog
Brought learners to Hack Space Con 2024
I raised money and brought several learners to a conference at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They assisted me in delivering my free training called Practical Network Fundamentals.
Here is the recap video:
Here is the website promoting my free training: https://www.hackspacecon.com/workshops24 (click Robert "LTNBob" Theisen and it will take you to the talk description)
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