The Must-Have Technical & Soft Skills Required For A Cyber Security Career.Posted by Deepika on December 30th, 2020 “The cyber threat to critical infrastructure continues to grow and represents one of the most serious national security challenges we must confront. The national and economic security of the United States depends on the reliable functioning of the nation’s critical infrastructure in the face of such threats.” — Presidential Executive Order, 2013 Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Cybersecurity is a term often tossed around as if it means something specific. But, it is not as specific as you might think. Cybersecurity is any aspect of any position in an organization that somehow relates to computer technology and asset protection and how they intersect. Roles & Responsibilities of Cyber Security Professional Cybersecurity is a mindset of understanding the value of assets, perceiving the vulnerabilities, comprehending the potential exploits and attacks, and implementing the proper response to minimize or eliminate compromise. This is a set of skills that many people already have and that many more can easily obtain. A job as a cybersecurity expert is not just limited to big computer companies either. Every organization has to deal with computers in one way or another, whether it’s using smartphones to run the entire operation or using a massive network of systems to support mind-bogglingly huge amounts of data. Cybersecurity personnel is needed from small start-ups and businesses that are run out of a home to large corporations as well. Cyber Security Soft Skills 1.Adaptability You will be expected to keep up to date with the existence of new threats and adapt quickly. In order to do this, you need to be resourceful and continually focused on the pursuit of new knowledge. Within any cybersecurity position, you can focus on many unique facets. Some roles are essential in crafting and updating security policies, while others are tasked with training and educating users on the security rules and how to accomplish their job responsibilities in a manner consistent with and in compliance with the organizational security policy. Every organization needs security personnel to evaluate new products and updates to existing products before they are allowed to be implemented into the production IT systems. Once approved, a cybersecurity expert needs to be involved in the actual product installation of software in order to ensure the proper configuration and integration with the existing infrastructure. 2.Self Starter To work as a cybersecurity career specialist, the opportunities are endless. Because versatility is such a prominent feature in this profession, you essentially can draft your own job description. Often the job of an IT security expert is to do whatever needs to be done. You will be part of a team, but will often be required to work on your own, so you’ll need to have the ability to stay motivated and solve problems while working on your own. Technology has produced many new jobs. You can craft your own job title, customize your position within the organization, and fine-tune the focus of your day-to-day activities based on ideas, concepts, and opportunities that don’t even exist today. 3.Sourcing New Cyber Skills If you want to pursue a career in cybersecurity but feel that you are lacking some of the skills needed, then you can attempt to gain new skills by completing further training and certifications, as well as through on-the-job experience. You’ll find that your communication and troubleshooting skills will progress naturally, the more you have the opportunity to use them. Plus, the voluntary work you’re involved in now will prove to future employers that you’re a self-starter! Cyber Security Technical Skills 1. Coding skills—C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby, Perl, PHP This is the technical knowledge that supports your practical hands-on experience and includes things like knowing the port numbers of various protocols, or the layers of the OSI model, or the ability to subnet. This is the knowledge that helps you do your job but would bore just about anyone you tried to explain it to. It's dry, boring, but the very important base of knowledge that we rely on when we are working in the field. The best way to learn this conceptual, technical knowledge is to spend time every day reading or learning something related to your area of cybersecurity. These little pieces of conceptual knowledge almost always come from our educational efforts, whether that be self-study and reading or information we pick up in a class. Coding skills are mandatory for all types of cybersecurity job roles as they are technical. For example, an application security engineer, security analyst, ethical hacker, penetration tester, etc. would require these skills. 2. Understanding architecture, administration, and operating systems The ability to detect a problem and solve it through your troubleshooting ability is probably the technical skill employers covet the most and the one that is the hardest to find because it takes a lot of time and experience to develop. These are the required skills for every cybersecurity professional. Possessing strong knowledge of systems and network architecture will help plan and execute security policies. 3.Database knowledge A single data breach can have serious financial consequences for a company, sometimes costing millions of dollars, so cybersecurity experts need to stay up to date with technological advances. Intrusion detection software needs to be strong enough to detect powerful trojans and backdoor codes that threaten to penetrate security walls. Hence technical skills as such can help avoid intrusion detection that will also ensure you possess a thorough understanding of the tech security domain. 4.Risk Analysis, Revering, and Cloud Security Having a proactive approach towards security will help you stay ahead of the game. Being skilled in penetration testing, or ethical hacking is a great way in which you can anticipate attacks and prepare contingency measures. Security pros are expected to develop their skills in digital threat management as malware intrusion is a serious issue. In the event of an attack, keeping the business running and disaster recovery planning are essential skills to help a company make a speedy recovery. Cloud security is now becoming a highly coveted skill as the number of cloud attacks increases. The cloud is susceptible to data breaches, malicious insiders, hijacked accounts, and more. Cyber Security training programmes teach you how to protect computer operating systems, networks, and data from cyber attacks. You will also learn how to monitor systems and mitigate threats when occurred.Cyber Security Certification can help make your day-to-day job duties more efficient by helping you to understand how to implement comprehensive, valuable, and repeatable processes, saving you time by not having to reinvent the wheel each time new technology needs to be implemented or new threats or regulations are released. It will also help keep you up-to-date on the newest technologies in banking, as well as the threats and risk-mitigating controls that come with them.
Benefits Of Cyber Security Certification Being certified in Cyber Security here are some of the key benefits that a CyberSecurity certification entails:
Landing any job in any field can be challenging. But having the right qualifications will go a long way to getting you hired. It's time to “Be qualified”. “Be available” and most importantly “Be an asset that cannot be passed up.” Like it? Share it! |