As with most professions, nothing can replace experience. Senior engineers, laborers, scientists, doctors, etc. all become seniors through years of learning, and arguably more importantly, failing.

Rookies will try “method A” until it fails, then learn “method B”, then try A and B until a C is needed. Rinse and repeat. Being self-critical and observant will help.

In the short term, “in 6 months”: Practice. Every. Single. Day. If you need to break for day, make sure you come back the next. There are thousands of educational tools out there: Online lectures, free tests, public forums, problem sets (i.e. leetcode) etc. Don’t skip the fundamentals, even if it seems boring. It will mean less memorization, and you’ll understand more complex topics easier.

If you plan and commit to it, you still won’t be a “pro”, but you’ll likely have a chance in an interview, where you might land a job. There, over years, you can hone your skills.

Even if it was relevant, there’s still no story here. NSA employee/contractor brought home classified files to an uncontrolled laptop lol. That’s the security leak, not some random consumer software stealing files. If you work for any security oriented company you should just assume that is going happen.

That’s a tough oversight, but how does that get by QA?