Hey all!
Reaching out with a few questions, and a warning about me: I’m very new to this field. In my 40s, quietly getting a bachelor’s in cybersecurity and information assurance in preparation for a hard career change.
Anything I ask is pure ignorance, with the idea that a) I’m willing to eat some shit right now and, b) any helpful information is appreciated.
To be clear, I’m interested in ethical hacking and educating myself through accessing or manipulating my own various devices to understand what can be done and how.
Realizing how green I am, I trust no on and nothing. Online or in person. Or via mail.
That said, I have to start somewhere, and this community seems like a (relatively) safe place. My goal is to not only be able to do, but understand things. I’m not even clear on what my career goals are yet, in part because I don’t understand my options and places where I might excel. That said, some sort of pen testing seems to make sense, based on my background.
I bought a new Alienware laptop for school and beyond, based on a few suggestions. Happy to share the machine’s details if helpful. I’m also a longtime Mac user, so overcoming that. (I only do schoolwork on the PC.) It’s both fun and helpful of school to play around on the side.
With that all in mind, here is my question: I just purchased the following off of eBay and I’m not clear about what to do and/or not to do to keep this as a clean and secure, from set-up to use.
- New LG Nexus 5X - H790 - 32GB - (Unlocked) 4G LTE GSM Android Smartphone
- 3 Months Service, Mint Mobile Prepaid SIM Card with Unlimited DATA, Talk, Text
- Silicon Power 1TB Superior Micro SDXC UHS-I (U3), V30 4K A2

My first thought since I am buying them secondhand from eBay is to not assume they are clean and wipe them. Is that close? What else? I’m also curious if/how I might use the VPN I already use might further help with security.
Other tools I’m curious in learning more about: FlipperZero, Chameleon Ultra, Rubber Ducky, ESP32 kit, Hacker RF1, Alfa adapter, Stingbox
Open to any thoughts, experience, or suggestions around those.
Happy to answer any questions, and I’m grateful in advance for any help!