"Week 1 in My Cybersecurity Journey – Understanding Computer & OS Fundamentals"

This week marks the start of my exciting journey into cybersecurity.
Before diving into ethical hacking, SOC operations, or malware analysis, it’s crucial to build a strong foundation. Cybersecurity doesn’t exist in isolation — it’s rooted in computer science and operating system fundamentals.

In my first week, I explored the core building blocks of computing: how computers think, how the operating system manages resources, and how processes communicate.
Here’s my day-by-day learning recap, along with cybersecurity connections that show why these basics matter in real-world security.

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Day 1 – Computer Basics

We began with the fundamentals:

• Why Computers Use Binary – Transistors can only be ON (1) or OFF (0).

• CPU Components:

  • Control Unit (CU) – Directs data flow

  • ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) – Performs arithmetic & logic

  • Registers – Ultra-fast temporary storage

• Integrated Circuits (ICs) – Millions of transistors in a chip

• Logic Gates – AND, OR, NOT – the building blocks of all digital circuits

💡 Cybersecurity Relevance:
Understanding the CPU’s working is key in reverse engineering malware and assembly-level debugging.

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Day 2 – Operating System Overview

The OS is the bridge between users and hardware, managing:

1. Memory

2. Processes

3. Devices

4. Files

5. Security

6. Error Detection

7. Application Execution

💡 Cybersecurity Relevance:
Features like process isolation and access permissions form the first layer of defense against attacks.

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Day 3 – Memory Management

Memory handling is crucial for both performance and security:

• Primary Memory – RAM (Code, Data, Stack, Heap)

• Secondary Memory – HDD/SSD

• Virtual Memory – Uses disk space to extend RAM

• Registers & Cache – Fast storage layers close to CPU

• MMU (Memory Management Unit) – Maps virtual to physical memory

• Paging:

  • Page In / Page Out

  • Page Tables

  • Page Faults

💡 Cybersecurity Relevance:
Memory knowledge helps detect and prevent buffer overflow attacks and memory corruption exploits.

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Day 4 – Process Management & IPC

Processes are at the heart of OS operations:

• Process Control Block (PCB) stores:

  • PID, Status, Program Counter

  • CPU Registers, I/O Status, Memory Info, Scheduling Info

• Process Life Cycle:

  • New → Ready → Running → Waiting/Suspended → Terminated

• Data Structures in OS:

  • Array, Stack (LIFO), Queue (FIFO), Linked List, Tree

• Encoding:

  • ASCII – 7-bit, 0–127

  • UTF – Supports all world characters (UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32)

• AI Basics:

  • AI Agent: Perceive → Decide → Act → Learn

  • AI Application: Software using AI models for tasks

• Inter-Process Communication (IPC):

  • Pipes & Named Pipes

  • Semaphores

  • Message Queues

  • Shared Memory

  • Sockets

  • Signals

💡 Cybersecurity Relevance:
Process and IPC understanding helps in malware detection, privilege escalation prevention, and incident response.

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Final Thoughts

Cybersecurity is not just about hacking tools — it’s about understanding how the underlying systems work.
This first week was all about building that base: from CPU internals to process life cycles and IPC mechanisms.

With these fundamentals in place, I’ll be ready for deeper topics in the coming weeks — from Linux & networking to web application security and SOC operations.

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💬 I’d love to hear from you — which OS or computer science topic do you think is most important for a cybersecurity beginner to master?

📌 Follow my journey here and on LinkedIn- for Week 2 updates.
📂 If you’d like my Week 1 PDF cheat sheet, drop a comment and I’ll share it with you.