The Infosec Industry is a joke right now because of the absolute mountain of garbage we are tolerating inside our own house.
Take one look online and it is enough to make you sick. The industry is crawling with "experts" dragging around an eternal list of acronyms attached to their names. We are dealing with people who have collected more badges than hours at a terminal. They hold 15 certs that all "teach" knowledge that was old 15 years ago.
We have lowered the barrier to entry straight into the dirt. You do not need to actually build things, understand protocols, or get your hands dirty anymore. You just pay the toll to the local certification farm and memorize the brain dumps. Hell, you do not even need to study most of the time. Here is my favourite cheat for these trash exams: just select the longest answer and it is usually right. Pass the test, get your digital badge, and boom, you are a "Cyber Security Specialist." We are packing SOCs and IT departments with people who could not mitigate an attack if the threat actor emailed them the payload instructions.
The old saying "those who can't do, teach" has never been more accurate. The scene is polluted by self proclaimed gurus, LinkedIn infosec influencers, and clowns who have never actually handled a real 3 AM incident during a weekend or ever popped a shell. They lack raw skillz, so they did the only thing left: they started selling maps to a minefield they have never stepped foot in.
The ultimate hypocrisy? The platforms these grifters use to sell you this trash. They push learning platforms that are just slop vomited by free AI models or Lovable: low effort garbage designed just to pad out the syllabus and trap your money. Probably the most you can get out of them is the experience you can gain by hacking them. They are charlatans teaching security on infrastructure they do not even know how to secure.
If you have been in the game for more than a minute, you know exactly what I am talking about. It is time to stop feeding this parasite.
Stop paying for certifications that are not worth the PDF they are printed on.