Field notes on staying safe
No fear-marketing, no jargon walls. Just the handful of things that actually keep you safe — whether you're locking down your email or building your first lab.
A comprehensive guide to ethical hacking and penetration testing with BlackArch Linux.
practitionerA practical guide to staying safe online - simple protection that actually gets done.
everydayYour guide to becoming a competitor - capture-the-flag from first challenge to team captain.
practitionerAs an Amazon Associate, Charles earns from qualifying purchases — the links above and on each book's page go to Amazon and carry that affiliate tag. See the privacy policy for the full picture.
Scammers imitate your bank to rush you onto a fake link. Learn the three tells of a bank text scam and the one move that beats them.
Security you can actually do.
Charles Montago is a hacker first — active in the security community, not an observer of it. His published bio: a cybersecurity expert and author with over 15 years of experience, including service in the U.S. Army.
He's the author of three books — Cybersecurity for Normal People, Mastering Online CTFs, and The Ultimate BlackArch Linux Book — attends DEF CON, plays CTFs, runs a homelab, and lives day to day in Linux, RHEL, and STIG/compliance tooling.
The mission is translation, not gatekeeping: take what the hacker community already knows and hand it to people who don't live in it — plain-English protection for the everyday reader, hands-on technique for the practitioner going deeper. No fear, just what actually works. The longer version →
